Tobacco trade marks under attack in Australia

01 June 2010

Peter Ollier reports on the Australian government’s plans to introduce a hardline packaging regime for cigarettes, and how the tobacco industry plans to oppose it

From July 2012 smokers in Australia could be buying their favourite brand of cigarettes in packets marked with nothing more than a large health warning and the name of the trade mark owner in a small, standardised typeface.

"[We are] cracking down on one of the last frontiers for tobacco advertising," Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told a press conference at the end of April. "From 1 July 2012, cigarettes will have to be sold in plain packaging, the most hardline packaging regime anywhere in the world. And when we say hardline regime in terms of packaging for the future, that is what we mean."

But before this happens the government will need to overcome the legal arguments of the tobacco companies and trade marks lawyers. Some are insisting that the move may contravene the country's constitution and the TRIPs Agreement and lead to more counterfeit cigarettes being sold.

Rudd...

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