Cooper Mills Lawyers, one of Australia’s leading IP, and domain law expert legal practices, today launched version 1.0 of its online brand protection service portal TM.com.au, giving both local and international clients online trademark registration services, and trademark monitoring and management services.

Cooper Mills Lawyers Director Erhan Karabardak said:

In order to meet the demands of both our local and international clients we have launched our online brand protection service, which will enable our clients to effectively monitor their intellectual property all in one convenient place. This service now brings online brand protection within the reach of all local and international businesses.

Cooper Mills expects to expand the product offering and functionality of TM.com.au over the coming months.

In the first round, Optus was successful in securing licences for 972 sites.

The ACMA received applications in response to an invitation for interested parties to apply for radiocommunications licences in the 2 Ghz band during May 2010. The 2 GHz band is used by mobile carriers to provide 3G mobile services.

In announcing the award of licences ACMA Chairman, Chris Chapman said:

I am delighted by the high level of demand from industry for additional spectrum in the 2 GHz band in regional and remote Australia.

It is expected that a second round of licensing will take place following an assessment of Telstra’s application for multiple sites.

The ACMA expect that this process will lead to a significant increase in the availability of 3G mobile phone services in regional and remote Australia, based on the number of sites applied for by Optus and Telstra.

Google has given the following undertakings:

-          That it will publish an apology to Australians for its collection of unsecured WiFi data in its official Australian Blog

-          That it will provide a privacy impact assessment (PIA) on any new Street View data collection activities its undertakes in Australia

-          This is will provide a copy of these PIAs to the Commoners Office

-          That it will regularly consult with the Privacy Commissioner about personal data collection activities arising from significant product launches in Australia.

The undertakings come after the Commissioner was satisfied that the information collected by Google breached the Privacy Act 1988.

The Commissioner was unable to impose a sanction on Google due to having already initiated an investigation. This has prompted the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) to make an inquiry into Australian privacy laws. This may prompt the government into taking action to strengthen the enforcement regime.