Australia Post trademark appeal a “tempest in a teapot”

Australia Post’s appeal last month over the Federal Court’s decision that competitor Digital Post Australia has infringed on its trademark is a “tempest in a teapot”, said Digital Post’s CEO Randy Dean.

The trademark suit brought by Australia Post against Digital Post Australia, alleging its name was too similar, has been dismissed by Federal court judges who said the suit was without merit.

Australia Post CEO Ahmed Fahour told the Senate Estimates hearing in Canberra yesterday that the Federal Court’s decision was a “huge injustice” and the company would fight the decision.

Speaking to CIO Australia, Dean said regardless of the name, Digital Post Australia will be in business.

“The name has no bearing on our ability to deliver a digital postal service and we are well on track to deliver that service,” he said. “We are live and testing, we have consumers and we have businesses sending data through and we will launch later this year.

“The issue around the name is for the courts to decide, what we are focusing on providing the best service for customers and businesses. We will operate a digital postal system in this marketplace whatever the outcome but we feel pretty good that the outcome will allow us to continue to use our name.”

Digital Post Australia – a joint venture between Computershare and Salmat – and Australia Post are launching competing digital postbox services, which enable people to send and receive mail through secure online portals.

Dean said business will soon be able to choose an organisation that has a ‘laser focus’ on the digital postbox and is focused on partnering with them to build this new channel.

Australia Post is under pressure from online competition and will next month switch on the Australia Post Digital MailBox, a cloud-based service that will enable consumers to securely receive and pay bills and store documents online.

The company recently reported an overall group profit of $281 million in 2012, despite a loss of $148 million for its regulated mail business for the year, a 20 per cent increase over 2011.