Hi. I have started a podcast as a hobby. I have no intention of monetizing it. It is just a hobby under my individual name with a catchy name for the podcast.
I have been reading about the legal side associated with a podcast, drafting guest release forms etc. In particular one legal firm here in Australia, highly recommends getting your podcast name trademarked through IP Australia Trade Marks - just in case the podcast following gets really large and someone wants to purchase the show or offer advertisements etc plus protect my podcast brand
I thought this was a good idea and looked into it. IP Australia charges a lot for a Trade Mark and it can take almost 8 months to be approved and then becomes an asset.
So as I said, I am just an individual with a hobby not making any income from this at all. I worry if I apply for the Trade Mark that the ATO will say you obviously intended for this to be a business at a later point in time when that isn't the case. I will just be hopefully getting a Trade Mark approved to ensure know one steals my podcast name and perhaps I may need it in the future should the program get really big.
So question is how will ATO perceive this and do I need to do anything with the ATO prior to applying for the Trade Mark? Also if I sell the proposed Trade Mark in the future, how will it be treated for CGT when clearly I just made the Trade Mark as protection for my hobby.
I don't want to do anything until I get some ATO clarity. Thanks for your help.
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