TERMS AND CONDITIONS
- Introduction
- This website is a created and controlled by Vault Law Pty Limited (ACN 625 303 540) trading as Trade Mark Direct (Trade Mark Direct, we or us).
- These terms and conditions of use (Terms of Use), together with our Privacy Policy, apply to your use of our information, materials, trade mark services and related products and services (collectively, Services) and our website trademarkdirect.com.au (Site). The term you or your refers to the person or organisation accessing, using or relying upon our Site and the Services offered, on or via, the Site.
- Please read these Terms of Use carefully before accessing or using the services available through the Site. Whenever you access or use this Services and/or Site you indicate that you have read, understood and accept these Terms of Use, together with our Privacy Policy, and that you agree to be bound by them. Please contact us at hello@trademarkdirect.com.au if you have any particular questions in relation to the use of the Site. If you do not wish to comply with the Terms of Use, you should not access or use the Site and the Services offered, on or via, the Site.
- Information provided on this Site
- This Site is made available by Trade Mark Direct for educational purposes only as well as to give you general information and a general understanding of Australian trade mark law and our Services. The information and material contained on this Site does not take into account your individual needs, objectives or circumstances, and it is does not constitute legal, financial, taxation or other advice. Any reliance on, and use of, the information and material contained on this Site is at your own risk.
- Trade Mark Direct does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of the information and material provided on, or via, the Site and Trade Mark Direct is under no obligation to update this information or material nor notify you of any changes unless required by law. Trade Mark Direct assumes no responsibility or liability for any such inaccuracies, errors or omissions, and Trade Mark Direct is not liable to you or anyone else for any use or reliance upon any information or material contained on, or via, the Site.
- Trade Mark Direct does not recommend or endorse any third party goods, services or content appearing on, or via, this Site, or any user generated content appearing on or via social media pages or other sites which are linked to this Site, nor imply any association with their owners or operators. Such third party references or links are provided for your information and convenience only. Your linking to or from these websites, or use of, or reliance on, such websites, products or services is at your own risk. Trade Mark Direct have no control over the contents, quality, integrity of those third party sites, products or services, and Trade Mark Direct accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your access to, and use of, them (notwithstanding anything else contained herein or otherwise).
- Not legal advice
- Trade Mark Direct and its registered trade mark attorneys and consultants provide trade mark registration and related services only. Trade Mark Direct does not provide legal advice and services. If you require or are seeking legal advice and services, we can refer you to our related entity, Vault Legal Pty Ltd (Vault Legal). Vault Legal has a team of experienced trade mark lawyers and intellectual property lawyers who can provide you with a range of intellectual property services, including trade mark enforcement services.
- Prior to engaging Vault Legal to provide you with legal advice and services, Trade Mark Direct recommends that you refer to Vault Legal’s website terms and conditions, privacy policy and engagement letter that would apply to your relationship with Vault Legal.
- Access and use of this Site
- Trade Mark Direct will not be liable to you or anyone else if for any reason the Site is unavailable (wholly or partly) at any time or for any period.
- Access to the Site is permitted on a temporary basis, and Trade Mark Direct reserve the right to withdraw or amend the Services, information and content we provide on, or via, the Site at any time without notice. From time to time, we may restrict access to some parts of the Site (wholly or partly).
- You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to the Site. You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access the Site through your internet connection or mobile telephone are aware of these Terms of Use, and that they comply with them.
- When accessing and using the Site, you must not misuse, disrupt, impair or undermine the, security or integrity, of the Site or Trade Mark Direct’s computing systems or networks, or any computing systems or networks involved in maintaining this Site, or gain unauthorised access to any systems or materials other than those you have been given express permission to access.
- You must not use this Site to post, distribute or transmit any files that may damage any other person’s computing devices or software (including any virus, worm, trojan, or other harmful software or component), content or material that may be offensive, or material or data in violation of any law.
- Liability and disclaimer
- The Internet is not a secure medium and communications to and from this Site may be intercepted or altered in transit. Trade Mark Direct does not warrant and is not liable to you or any third person for any loss or damage arising out of, or in connection with, any virus, system failure or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, systems, or data due to your access to, or use of, this Site or any links to third party sites, and for the downloading of any material posted on this Site or any third party site.
- The Site and the Services are provided to you ‘as is’ and ‘as available’ without warranty conditions or guarantees as to their accuracy, completeness, timeliness, reliability, currency or fitness for purpose. It is your sole responsibility to determine that the Site and the Services meets your personal needs and is suitable for the purposes for which it is used.
- To the maximum extent permitted by law, Trade Mark Direct exclude all express or implied representations, conditions, statutory guarantees, warranties and provisions (whether based on statute, common law or otherwise), in connection with access to, and use of, the Site or the Services, or any information or material displayed on or via the Site, any social medial pages and third party websites linked to it.
- Nothing contained in these Terms of Use excludes, restricts or modifies the application of any condition, warranty or other obligation, the exercise of any right or remedy, or the imposition of any liability under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) or any other national, State or Territory legislation where to do so is unlawful.
- Without limitation to the foregoing, you agree that in no event will Trade Mark Direct’s maximum aggregate liability exceed AUD $1,000. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Trade Mark Direct, its directors, employees, contractors and agents will not be liable to any you or anyone else for any for any labilities, claims, suits, demands, costs and expenses (including legal costs), damage or injury (including personal injury), or any special, direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or contracts, loss of anticipated or actual profits, loss arising from business interruption, loss of anticipated or actual revenue, economic loss, loss of anticipated savings, loss of data, loss of use, loss or privacy, loss of goodwill, wasted management or office time and for any other loss or damage of any kind, arising out of, or in connect with, the Site, any social medial pages and third party websites linked to it, the use or inability to use, or reliance on, the Site, the Services or these Terms of Use.
- Intellectual Property
- All information, text, materials, graphics, logos, button icons, video and audio clips, trademarks (whether registered or not), layout, control features, advertisements, arrangement, graphical user interface, look and feel, databases, images, links, and software published or otherwise contained on this Site (Trade Mark Direct Content) are the exclusive property of Trade Mark Direct. This Site and the Trade Mark Direct Content is protected by copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws.
- You may download and print Trade Mark Direct Content from this Site for your own personal or internal business purposes only. You are not allowed to modify, adapt, copy, distribute, transmit, display, reproduce, publish, license, incorporate in other works (whether electronic or not), transfer, or sell any Trade Mark Direct Content found on or obtained from our Site, or our social media sites, without Trade Mark Direct’s written consent.
- Links to or from other websites
- Links to other websites from the pages on this Site are for your information and convenience In providing a link Trade Mark Direct does not endorse, and accept no responsibility for any material on, any website that is linked from, or that links to this Site. Such websites may be controlled or produced by third parties. You must make your own decision to use such websites and to accept their terms of use and privacy and other policies.
- You must not create or maintain any link from another website to this Site without our written consent. To request Trade Mark Direct’s written consent, please contact us via email at hello@trademarkdirect.com.au.
- Amendments
Trade Mark Direct reserve the right to change, update, or correct the Terms of Use or any information contained on the Site at any time without notice by posting amended Terms of Use to the Site. Your continued use of the Site means that you accept and agree to the revised Terms of Use. If you do not accept these Terms of Use (as amended from time to time), you should stop accessing and using the Site immediately.
- General
- Failure or delay by Trade Mark Direct in enforcing any provision in these Terms of Use will not be construed as a waiver of any of our rights hereunder. No waiver is effective unless it is expressly stated by Trade Mark Direct to be a waiver and is communicated to you in writing.
- No agency, partnership, joint venture, employee-employer or franchisor-franchisee relationship is intended or created between you and Trade Mark Direct by these Terms of Use.
- If any court decides that any of the provisions of these Terms of Use are invalid, unlawful or unenforceable to any extent, that term will, to that extent only, be severed from the remaining terms. The rest of these Terms of Use will continue to be valid.
- These Terms of Use are governed by the laws of the state of Victoria, Australia and each party submits to the jurisdiction of the courts of the state of Victoria, Australia.
- Further information
If you have any queries or would like further information about these Terms of Use and our Services, please contact us at hello@trademarkdirect.com.au.
PRIVACY POLICY
- Introduction
- Trade Mark Direct is committed to ensuring your personal information is protected. We manage your personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act).
- By accessing and using our Site and Services you agree to this Privacy Policy.
- This Privacy Policy applies to the collection, storage, use and disclosure by Trade Mark Direct of your Personal Information, and to how you may access your Personal Information (as defined in the Privacy Act) kept by us or how you may make a privacy complaint.
- The information we collect about you
- Trade Mark Direct will only collect and hold Personal Information about you that is reasonably necessary to undertake our business activities and functions as trade mark attorneys and trade mark registration services providers, or as otherwise permitted by law.
- The type of Personal Information that we collect and use depends on the type of dealings that you have with us and includes the following:
- contact details (for example, full name, address, mobile and telephone numbers and email address);
- business details (for example, business name, business address, work mobile and office telephone numbers and work email address);
- information relating to your dealings, or enquiries you have made, with us, including information about the Services you have ordered (for example, types of trade mark clearance searches and trade mark applications you may request);
- payment and billing information;
- information regarding your access and use of our Site, including location information, IP address and any third party websites you access;
- other information that you provide to Trade Mark Direct or that we collect in the course of our relationship with you; and
- information provided by or on behalf of applicants for employment.
- Trade Mark Direct do not deliberately collect information about customers, users or visitors of our Site, which is Sensitive Information (as defined in the Privacy Act), such as information or opinions about the visitor’s health, political affiliations, sexual preferences, religious beliefs, racial or ethnic origin or other such private information.
- How we collect Personal Information
Trade Mark Direct will collect Personal Information about you in a number of different ways. Trade Mark Direct may collect Personal Information directly from you or in the course of our dealings with you, for example when you:
- contact and correspond with Trade Mark Direct (for example, trade mark and related products and services purchased or ordered by you, when you participate in a promotion, competition, or survey, or when you complete online forms requesting a fixed price or subscribing to our publications, alerts and newsletters, or information you provide to us when you send us an email);
- visit our Site (including via cookies), contact us online or via telephone with a query or request or make a comment on our social media sites;
- from third parties (including our related bodies corporate (for example, Vault Legal), business partners and service providers, credit reporting bodies, credit providers, government agencies, public registries, search agencies, regulatory and licensing bodies, parties to whom you refer us (for example, previous employers and referees), recruitment agencies and from publicly available sources of information (for example, social media));
- when apply for a position of employment with Trade Mark Direct; or
- when otherwise legally authorised or required to do so.
- How we use your Personal Information
Trade Mark Direct use and disclose your Personal Information for the purposes for which the information is collected, including (but not limited to):
- providing or delivering our Services to you, including, without limitation, to provide you with trade mark registration and related services;
- assisting with, or responding to, your queries;
- informing you about our Site, Services, offers, competitions, promotions, events, sweepstakes, surveys, questionnaires, or other matters which we believe are of interest to you (such as recruitment or job opportunities);
- share with our Trade Mark Direct Providers;
- administer, improve and manage our Services, Site (including customising the advertising and content on our Site) and relationship with you;
- charge and bill you for the use of our products and services;
- verifying your identity;
- for internal record keeping;
- for direct marketing purposes (see section 6 below); and
- complying with our legal and regulatory obligations.
- Disclosure to Trade Mark Direct Providers
- In order to provide or deliver our Services to you Trade Mark Direct may disclose your Personal Information to:
- our related bodies corporate, including Vault Legal Pty Limited, business partners, service providers, third party contractors, agents or suppliers, referral partners, translation service providers and network of international trade mark agents and attorneys;
- authorised external service providers who perform functions on our behalf, such as financial and credit card institutions in order to process any payments, internet and technology services providers, web developers, hosting companies, marketing, advertising and security service providers, fulfilment companies, credit reporting agents, debt collection agents, market research and recruitment provider;
- external business advisors, such as auditors, lawyers, insurers and financiers, (collectively, Trade Mark DirectProviders);
- to any other party with your consent and direction; and
- law enforcement bodies or regulatory authorities to assist with their functions, or as otherwise required or authorised by law.
- Prior to the disclosure of Personal Information to Trade Mark Direct Providers, Trade Mark Direct will take such steps as reasonable in the circumstances to ensure that the Trade Mark Direct Providers treat your Personal Information securely and otherwise complies with the relevant Australian Privacy Principles in relation to the Personal Information.
- Marketing communications
- Trade Mark Directmay use and disclose your Personal Information to send you information about the Services we offer, as well as other information that may be of interest to you. Trade Mark Directmay send this information in a variety of ways, such as by mail, email, SMS, telephone, social media or by customising online content and displaying advertising on our Site.
- If you do not wish to receive any of these marketing communications, you can opt out by following the unsubscribe instructions included in the relevant marketing communication, or by contacting us at hello@trademarkdirect.com.au.
- Overseas disclosures of Personal Information
- In the course of providing you with our Services, it may become necessary or desirable to disclose Personal Information to external service providers located overseas. The countries in which these overseas recipients may be located will depend upon the individual circumstances. However, in the course of our ordinary business operations we commonly disclose Personal Information to external service providers located in the following countries: United States of America and the European Economic Area.
- The laws where these overseas recipients may be located provide various levels of protection for Personal Information which are not always equivalent to the level of protection that may be provided for in Australia. Where we transfer your Personal Information overseas Trade Mark Direct will take reasonable steps to ensure that your Personal Information is treated securely and the means of transfer provides adequate safeguards.
- If you have any questions in relation to the transfer of your Personal Information please contact us at hello@trademarkdirect.com.au.
- Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme
In the event of any loss, or unauthorised access or disclosure of your Personal Information that is likely to result in serious harm to you, Trade Mark Direct will investigate and notify you and the Australian Information Commissioner as soon as practicable, in accordance with the Privacy Act.
- Security of your Personal Information
- Trade Mark Direct takes steps reasonable in the circumstances to ensure that the Personal Information it holds is protected from misuse, interference and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Trade Mark Direct holds Personal Information in both hard copy and electronic forms in secure databases on secure premises, accessible only by authorised staff.
- The transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. We cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our online services and any transmission is at your own risk.
- Trade Mark Direct will destroy or de-identify Personal Information in circumstances where it is no longer required, unless Trade Mark Direct is otherwise required or authorised by law to retain the information.
- Accessing and correcting your Personal Information
- Trade Mark Direct takes steps reasonable in the circumstances to ensure Personal Information it holds is accurate, up-to-date, complete, relevant and not misleading. Under the Privacy Act, you have a right to access and seek correction of your Personal Information that is collected and held by Trade Mark Direct.
- If at any time you would like to access or correct the Personal Information that Trade Mark Direct holds about you, or you would like more information Trade Mark Direct approach to privacy, please contact Trade Mark Direct via the contact details set out in section 12 below. Trade Mark Direct will grant access to the extent required or authorised by the Privacy Act or other law and take steps reasonable in the circumstances to correct Personal Information where necessary and appropriate.
- To obtain access to your Personal Information:
- you will have to provide proof of identity to ensure that Personal Information is provided only to the correct individuals and that the privacy of others is protected; and
- Trade Mark Direct may charge you a reasonable administration fee, which reflects the cost to Trade Mark Direct providing access in accordance with your request.
- If Trade Mark Direct refuses your request to access or correct your Personal Information, Trade Mark Direct will provide you with written reasons for the refusal and details of complaint mechanisms.
- Cookies
- Trade Mark Direct usse small text files placed on your computer called ‘cookies’ to collect standard log and visitor behaviour information in an anonymous form. We use this information to analyse how visitors use our Site and to compile statistical reports on website activity. You can set your computer to reject cookies, but this may affect your ability to use certain parts of our Site.
- Trade Mark Direct may also log your IP address. Your IP address is your computer’s electronic Internet address. We may collect your IP address to see trends, run the Site, track user movements, and gather broad demographic information.
- Privacy complaints
- If you have any complaints or issues you wish to raise with Trade Mark Direct regarding the way we have handled your Personal Information, or would like to discuss any issues about our Privacy Policy, please contact Trade Mark Direct directly by email to hello@trademarkdirect.com.au or by calling us on 1300 002 210. Please provide us with full details of your complaint and any supporting documentation.
- Trade Mark Direct will respond to you within a reasonable period of time to acknowledge your complaint and inform you of the next steps we will take in resolving your complaint. At all times, Trade Mark Direct will treat your privacy complaint seriously and in a confidential manner.
- If you are unhappy with a response that you have received from Trade Mark Direct, you may direct your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by visiting www.oaic.gov.au, calling 1300 363 992 or by emailing enquiries@oaic.gov.au.
- Changes to this Privacy Policy
From time to time it may be necessary for Trade Mark Direct to review and revise our Privacy Policy. Trade Mark Direct may notify you about changes to this Privacy Policy by posting an updated version on our Site. Trade Mark Direct encourage you to check our website from time to time to ensure you are familiar with our latest Privacy Policy.