Melbourne Law School - Theses

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    A history of trade mark law in Australia: the colonial trade mark regime
    SCARDAMAGLIA, AMANDA ( 2011)
    This thesis provides for the first time, a history of trade mark law in Australia. Its focus is on the latter to middle part of the 19th century and early into the 20th century, predating the Commonwealth Trade Marks Act. This is because it was during this period when the legislative framework for trade mark protection was first established under the colonial trade mark regime and the most important, characteristic features of modern trade mark law developed. With a specific focus on this critical period, the legal narrative and this thesis considers the inception of the colonial trade mark regime, contextualising its genesis. It also examines the architecture of the colonial trade mark regime. The final part of the narrative focuses on the operation of the colonial trade mark regime. The key reason for this particular doctrinal focus is twofold. The primary reason relates to the lack of consideration given to the historical development of trade mark law in Australia to date, and in particular, the colonial trade mark regime. The second ancillary reason relates to the potential importance of this thesis to modern debates about trade mark law, which often refer back to and rely upon the assumed traditional principles of trade mark law, without any inquiry or deep understanding as to what those traditional foundations actually are, at least from an Australian perspective. In taking a doctrinal and empirical approach, this thesis draws on the relevant legal archive, containing the limited primary and secondary sources available relating to the colonial trade mark regime. Here, particular attention is paid to the colonial trade mark registers, which have been examined in detail. However, the relevant legal archive also includes the colonial trade mark statutes, the related Hansard reports, colonial newspapers and the case law reported as arising out of the colonial trade mark regime. This thesis further draws on the body of 19th century British (and to a lesser extent American) trade mark and other treatises as the authoritative legal texts of the time, as well as the statutory protection afforded to trade marks in the United Kingdom and the extrinsic material concerning early British trade mark law, so far as it relates to the colonial trade mark regime.