{"id":45116,"date":"2023-10-20T15:41:13","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/letter-boxing-australia-post-hunts-down-sendle-over-post-without-the-office-slogan-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:41:13","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:41:13","slug":"letter-boxing-australia-post-hunts-down-sendle-over-post-without-the-office-slogan-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/letter-boxing-australia-post-hunts-down-sendle-over-post-without-the-office-slogan-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter boxing: Australia Post hunts down Sendle over \u201cpost without the office\u201d slogan – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

This is just big business tactics to stop us using a great slogan.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n


<\/em><\/p>\n

Australia Post is embroiled in a trademark stoush with courier business Sendle over its \u201cpost without the office\u201d slogan.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s national mail service has opposed Sendle\u2019s attempt to trademark the slogan.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Co-founder and chief executive of Sendle, James Chin Moody, was surprised to receive a letter from Ashurst lawyers, on behalf of Australia Post, opposing the application on the grounds it is \u201csubstantially identical\u201d and \u201cdeceptively similar\u201d to a cluster of Australia Post trademarks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just big business tactics to stop us using a great slogan,\u201d Moody told SmartCompany<\/em> this morning.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Moody says Sendle came up with the slogan when thinking about how to encapsulate the service it offers which is to offer door to door delivery at \u201ccheaper than post office prices\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe phrase that stood out for us was \u2018post without the office\u2019 and we trademarked that a while ago,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s very clear that we are not the post office and the trademark is trying to say you don\u2019t have to line up at the post office anymore.  This is real monopoly behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is not the first time Australia Post has moved to defend its intellectual property with the national mail provider unsuccessfully claiming a company called Digital Post Australia infringed its trademarks in 2012.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThat tied them up all the way to the Federal Court,\u201d Moody says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to go on that journey if we can help it.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Moody says Sendle is fortunate as the trademark in question is just a slogan and not the name of his company.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia Post is making huge losses at the moment is this how they should be spending taxpayers moneys trying to stop a small startup?\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sendle has stopped using the slogan and is seeking legal advice but Moody says the word post is a generic term and he is not intimidated by Australia Post\u2019s opposition.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cGetting a letter from Ashurst, is always a moment to step back and say \u2018wow\u2019\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIt does give you pause. But at least it shows they see us a serious competitor now.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sendle closed a $1.8 million funding round in April this year and while Moody will not reveal the startup\u2019s turnover he says it is growing at about 60% a month.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to get on with business and create an alternative for consumers,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jane Owen, partner at law firm Bird & Bird, told SmartCompany<\/em> slogans can be used as trademarks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue is whether the mark is deceptively similar,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Owen says as Australia Post has only filed a trademark opposition rather than an infringement notice it would appear the carrier does not regard any infringement as significant.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes companies use trademark oppositions to prevent dilution of their rights on the register,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Owen says it\u2019s a good strategy for small businesses to register a trademark for any slogans but the question is whether it is worth defending against any opposition.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are thinking about filing trademarks you want to take a view of the risks of not getting your trademark through as otherwise you do your dough,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cAt every point in time you have to decide where to invest your money. It might cost $15,000 or $20,000 to defend the opposition and you might decide as a small business it\u2019s not worth your time.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Australia Post confirmed to SmartCompany<\/em> the national provider has opposed an application for the trademark.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cAs the matter is before the Trademarks Office and the process is ongoing, we have no official comment at this stage,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This article was originally published by SmartCompany.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is just big business tactics to stop us using a great slogan.\u201d Australia Post is embroiled in a trademark<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,20,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45116"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}