Clive Palmer seeks trademark on raft of terms relating to ‘teal’ for political and advertising usage

Clive Palmer is seeking to trademark a raft of terms relating to “teal” and “The Teal Party” for political and advertising usages.

The billionaire has also lodged a trademark application for “Clive and Pauline Party” in an apparent reference to One Nation leader and fellow Queenslander Pauline Hanson.

IP Australia records show he lodged applications on December 2 to protect the words “The Teal Party”, “AusTeal”, “Teal” and “Teals” from being used by anyone else in the context of advertising, market research, polling, consumer advocacy, political-related events, political information services, and policy or demographic research.

The body is expected to make an initial report about the application March 3, after which objections can be lodged. It typically takes at least seven months to register a trademark.

Mr Palmer has been asked for comment about the applications, which were first reported by the Nine newspapers.

The “teal” tag was given to the community independents who won heartland Liberal seats, starting with Zali Steggall in 2019 and followed by six others, including Curtin MP Kate Chaney, at the 2022 election.

It was inspired by the colour Ms Steggall used on her posters.

She has previously said she picked it as a colour that was not quite blue and not quite green to represent her politics and environmental focus.

Not all of the so-called teals used the colour in their campaign material; Member for North Sydney Kylea Tink was more associated with bright pink.

Pioneering community independent Cathy McGowan and her successor in the seat of Indi Helen Haines both associate with the colour orange.

Mr Palmer already holds registered trademarks for nine variations on the name and logo of the United Australia Party under which he has run candidates at multiple elections.

The party’s candidate Ralph Babet won a Senate seat in Victoria in 2022.

However, the party was voluntarily deregistered in September that year.

Electoral laws prevent the party name being used again in the election after its deregistration.

Mr Palmer and Senator Babet have launched a High Court challenge to this law, saying it was undemocratic that a party with a sitting senator would be banned from contesting an election.

At a Christmas Eve hearing, Chief Justice Stephen Gageler said that case could be heard on February 7, if the paperwork was filed by January 13.

The AEC says it takes a minimum of three months to register a political party which has sitting members, and legally no registrations can be done once the writs have been issued for an election.

The next federal election must be held by May 17.