'Australian Made Shops' contract in China terminated

In September 2014, AMCL entered into a Trade Mark Licence Agreement with Australia Made Shop Pty Ltd (AM Shop) and Shanghai AMAG Trade Co Ltd (Shanghai AMAG) to enable the branding of retail stores in China using the Australian Made, Australian Grown (AMAG) logo in conjunction with the shop name ‘Australian Made shop’.

The stores were only entitled to sell goods registered with AMCL to carry the AMAG logo and AMCL saw this as a significant opportunity for the sale of these goods into China.

That licence agreement required certain obligations to be observed by both AM Shop and Shanghai AMAG in relation to ownership of the entity operating the stores in China (Shanghai AMAG) and the operations of the shops themselves.

Unfortunately these obligations were not observed and, after an extensive period of negotiation, it became necessary to terminate the contract. This was done with immediate effect on 2 December and final letters issued yesterday.

As a consequence of the Trade Mark Licence Agreement being terminated:

1. Neither Australia Made Shop Pty Ltd nor Shanghai AMAG Trade Co Ltd remain in any contractual arrangement with AMCL for any purpose, including the branding of stores in China;
2. Shanghai AMAG Trade Co Ltd is no longer a Campaign Partner of AMCL and cannot describe itself as such; and
3. The website established pursuant to the Trade Mark Agreement has been shut down.

AMCL regrets such an outcome for this China initiative but to protect the integrity of the AMAG logo, we had no option other than to terminate the Trade Mark Licence.