Your business brand is important as it creates the business’s identity and distinguishes you from your competitors. Protecting your brand at a fundamental level includes registering a trade mark of your unique name and registering a business name with ASIC. If setting up a health business, you must take additional steps to protect your trademarks and business name. This article explores how you can protect your brand as a health business and ensure you meet all compliance requirements.
Knowing What Your Brand Offers
To protect your brand, it is essential to clearly understand the services or goods you will offer under your brand. This is crucial when registering your trade mark with IP Australia. You want to ensure that the goods or services you offer are classified correctly.
Complying With the Therapeutic Goods Administration
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is part of the Australian Government Department of Health and regulates therapeutic and health care goods. Therapeutic goods are products used to prevent, diagnose, heal or relieve diseases or injuries. For example, this includes COVID-19 rapid antigen tests, pregnancy tests and even sunscreen.
Compliance with Supplying Goods
If you are setting up a health business and intend to sell health goods under it, you must be confident whether it is a therapeutic good or not. If you decide to supply therapeutic goods, the TGA considers you a potential sponsor. You will also need to make an application to the TGA to register your product. Furthermore, you must consider how you package the goods as this contributes to your brand. Like supplying, packaging is subject to rules regarding the information you must disclose to the consumer.
Advertising Compliance
How you advertise your goods can impact your health business brand. The TGA has issued infringement notices to companies for unlawfully advertising goods. For example, the TGA fined Khazanah Nasional Pty Ltd, a New South Wales-based company, for unlawful advertising of disposal liquid nicotine vaping products (NVPs).
Similarly, engaging social media influencers to promote your brand is also considered a form of advertising. Therefore, you must comply with the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code. You will be responsible for content on any social media page as the business owner. Furthermore, this extends to user-generated content, including third-party comments posted on these social media platforms.
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Key Takeaways
Protecting your brand is essential if you are an entrepreneur or health professional intending to start a health business. This is especially so for small businesses. Additionally, apart from registering your business name with ASIC and your trademark with IP Australia, it will be necessary to consider the requirements under the TGA. Furthermore, you must consider how you advertise your brand and ensure you meet all advertising compliance requirements.
If you need help with protecting your health brand or complying with TGA regulations, our experienced commercial lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents. Call us today on 1300 544 755 or visit our membership page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Protecting your health business brand is essential to limit the chance of damaging your reputation or ruining your brand.
Registering it as a trademark is one step toward protecting your health business brand. In particular, if you are supplying a good, it is essential to consider if the goods you are supplying classify as therapeutic goods under the TGA.
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