Latest news with #LoganCityCouncil
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Olympic organisers win 2032 trademark battle with local council
Brisbane's Olympic Games organising committee faced an unexpected challenge in their bid to protect Games branding when a local council beat them to the trademark for 'Logan 2032' by just 13 days, before ultimately pulling out of the race. The Brisbane 2032 Organising Committee and Logan City Council both applied to IP Australia to claim variations of 'Logan 2032' as a trademark earlier this year. Logan 2032 is one of 14 location-based trademarks the organising committee is trying to protect, along with others such as Cairns 2032, Toowoomba 2032 and Rockhampton 2032 – all locations where Olympic and Paralympic competition is to be held. Brisbane 2032 was granted protection in January 2023. The council, meanwhile, sought to trademark a nondescript 'LOGAN2032' logo, in the same font as its main corporate branding. The council's application was made on April 29, with the organising committee's application 13 days later on May 12 – an application IP Australia examiner Lucy Raftery cited in her initial rejection of the organising committee's request. 'I have considered the differences between the trade marks, this being the lack of space between Logan and 2032 in the earlier trade mark. These differences, however, in the context of the goods and services claimed, are not sufficient to prevent confusion in the marketplace,' Raftery wrote in IP Australia's June 17 letter to Allens Patent & Trade Mark Attorneys, who were representing Brisbane 2032. 'As such, consumers are likely to assume that the goods and services provided under your trade mark and the earlier trade marks come from the same, or related, trade source.' Losing that administrative race had the potential to derail the organising committee's plans, but a Logan City Council spokeswoman confirmed the municipality would withdraw its bid. 'Council initially lodged an application earlier this year to safeguard the term for potential future promotional use, and to help position the city's interests in the lead-up to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games,' she said.
The Age
2 days ago
- Business
- The Age
Olympic organisers win 2032 trademark battle with local council
Brisbane's Olympic Games organising committee faced an unexpected challenge in their bid to protect Games branding when a local council beat them to the trademark for 'Logan 2032' by just 13 days, before ultimately pulling out of the race. The Brisbane 2032 Organising Committee and Logan City Council both applied to IP Australia to claim variations of 'Logan 2032' as a trademark earlier this year. Logan 2032 is one of 14 location-based trademarks the organising committee is trying to protect, along with others such as Cairns 2032, Toowoomba 2032 and Rockhampton 2032 – all locations where Olympic and Paralympic competition is to be held. Brisbane 2032 was granted protection in January 2023. The council, meanwhile, sought to trademark a nondescript 'LOGAN2032' logo, in the same font as its main corporate branding. The council's application was made on April 29, with the organising committee's application 13 days later on May 12 – an application IP Australia examiner Lucy Raftery cited in her initial rejection of the organising committee's request. 'I have considered the differences between the trade marks, this being the lack of space between Logan and 2032 in the earlier trade mark. These differences, however, in the context of the goods and services claimed, are not sufficient to prevent confusion in the marketplace,' Raftery wrote in IP Australia's June 17 letter to Allens Patent & Trade Mark Attorneys, who were representing Brisbane 2032. 'As such, consumers are likely to assume that the goods and services provided under your trade mark and the earlier trade marks come from the same, or related, trade source.' Losing that administrative race had the potential to derail the organising committee's plans, but a Logan City Council spokeswoman confirmed the municipality would withdraw its bid. 'Council initially lodged an application earlier this year to safeguard the term for potential future promotional use, and to help position the city's interests in the lead-up to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games,' she said.
9 News
2 days ago
- Automotive
- 9 News
Koala hit by car and trapped for 30km drive
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here Bear Grylls is one of the world's most famous survivalists and a plucky marsupial who survived a major ordeal has been named after him. He became caught in the grill of a car in Logan, south of Brisbane, at the end of May. "Sadly he was caught in the grill of a car," Vet Dr Stephanie Shaw said Bear Grylls became caught in the grill of a car in Logan, south of Brisbane, at the end of May. (Nine) The four-year-old is faring better than expected. Despite travelling about 30 kilometres, he only suffered a broken leg. "Bear Grylls is definitely a fighter and a survivor. Logan City Council senior environment officer Samantha Colbran said. "He was hit in Logan on Mundolin Road but travelled up to Tambourine Mountain, so quite a distance for him to be holding on for life." He had surgery the next day. "He's got a plate, and quite a few screws in his leg," Shaw said. He'll remain at the Moggill Koala Rehabilitation Centre for the final stages of his care until he's released, hopefully in the coming weeks. With koala breeding season now in full swing, it's a timely reminder the cuddly creatures are on the move. "One of the major things people can do to help koalas is to slow down on our roads, especially where you see roadside vegetation and koala warning signs," Colbran said. Logan City Council is launching its annual awareness campaign including installing more flashing road signs. queensland wildlife Koala national road safety Australia CONTACT US
ABC News
17-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Logan City Council to pull out of federal government Climate Active program due to financial pressure, transparency concerns
Queensland's only certified carbon neutral council is set lose that title, blaming the rising cost of delivering services and successive natural disasters for its inability to fund the process. Logan City Council, south of Brisbane, said it also had concerns around transparency and where the funds it was paying to be certified were going. The council is one of 14 local governments around Australia registered with the federal government's Climate Active program. To achieve carbon neutrality through the Climate Active program, businesses or organisations calculate their emissions from their operations and then seek to reduce them through technological or operational changes. The remainder is offset by buying carbon credits. Logan Mayor Jon Raven said leaving the program would save the council about $1.5 million, which it is spending on overseas carbon credits each year. Mr Raven said the council did a lot of carbon offsetting itself, through running rooftop solar on its building, generating natural gas from landfill and hydrogen from wastewater treatment. "[But] no one's been able to confirm where that money goes or show us any concrete evidence it is actually being spent to improve the environment. "I don't believe we were carbon neutral when we were just sending money overseas to projects no one could confirm existed. Carbon credits are a way for organisations like governments or businesses to pay for emissions-reducing projects, both in Australia or overseas, and use credits generated by these projects to offset their own emissions. Climate Active does not trade carbon credits. Instead, organisations go through online marketplaces and third parties to purchase eligible offsets. But the certification scheme has seen an exodus of companies leaving it in recent years. More than 100 companies, including Telstra, NRMA, Australia Post and major super funds have left Climate Active in the last 19 months. There have been calls to shut down the program over concerns about the efficacy of offset schemes. Australian National University regulatory and environmental markets expert Professor Andrew Macintosh said there was a lack of integrity when it came to both national and international carbon credits. Professor Macintosh is a non-executive director of Paraway Pastoral Company, which operates a number of carbon offset projects. "People have got carbon credits for making changes or reductions in emissions that would've occurred anyway," he said. He said there has been concern over some types of carbon credits being used on projects like wind farms in India that were already fully viable, while in Australia there were concerns another type of credit was being bought for natural forest regeneration in areas where there were no trees. "Talking to clients, talking to friends, I recommend they don't be certified under Climate Active because of the concerns about carbon offsets, because of transparency," he said. "This is one of the real tragedies, there are good projects out there and they're being tarred by the fact that both our government and other schemes around the world have allowed bad projects and rotten credits to be issued," Professor Macintosh said. "Logan City Council was certainly trying to do the right thing, but they probably can't tell the difference between good and bad credits." A spokesperson from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water — which oversees Climate Active — said the government was "actively considering the future direction of the Climate Active program". "We recognise that Climate Active needs reform and that work is under way as a priority that will involve proper consultation," they said. "The Climate Active program continues to operate, certifying entities that have met the program requirements." The spokesperson said the federal government continues to work to ensure the integrity of the Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) Scheme following recent reviews by the Climate Change Authority, independent experts and the Australian National Audit Office. "These reviews have found the ACCU Scheme is well designed, well administered, and contributing to Australia's transition to net zero by 2050," they said. The ABC understands six local governments have voluntarily withdrawn from the program in the past five years. Professor David Karoly from the Climate Council said the only way to slow climate change was by reducing both greenhouse gas emissions and the concentration of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. "If we want to offset, we have to get it out of the atmosphere and store it away permanently," he said. He said for a carbon offset to make a difference it had to be "long-term in terms of storage, high-quality… and defensible and demonstrable in terms of reductions in emissions". "All of those issues for many of the international offsets are very hard to determine," Professor Karoly said. He said there needed to be stricter international quality assurance controls of offsets. Professor Karoly said there were a range of initiatives local governments could undertake to reduce emissions, including installing solar powers, upgrading their fleets to electric vehicles and planting more vegetation and trees. Mr Raven said the Logan council would use the money saved from funding carbon credits to buy degraded land for revegetation, purchasing high-quality habitat to protect it, as well as other local carbon offset projects. "It will mean we aren't carbon neutral certified, but it will mean we can say your ratepayer dollars are being spent in our city to the benefit of the environment," he said. "We've got no confidence that was happening with this program."
ABC News
11-05-2025
- Science
- ABC News
Logan council drone survey maps out koala habitat tohelp protect endangered species
A buzzing sound fills the usually calm evening air on the edge of a forest in Logan, south of Brisbane. The sun sinks fast, taking the warmth with it and bringing an autumn chill. Locals begin gathering near a group of people clustered around monitors. They wonder: 'What's going on? What is that noise?'. Then they see it — a drone about the size of a bedside table, hovering in the dark. A powerful spotlight beams from beneath it, scanning the surrounding bushland. Operators are using thermal cameras, mounted to the drone, to detect heat signatures in their search for koalas and other endangered animals that call the area home. It's part of a large count of the marsupials underway to try and better protect their habitat. "What we see from the sensors is like a light bulb inside a tree," operator Jason Young said. "We go and take a closer look, and we have a very, very bright light that we turn on and then a high-definition camera that we can zoom in … while maintaining that distance away from the animal. He's searching for the koalas on behalf of the Logan City Council, who are undertaking a census of their population to better understand the local numbers. Mayor Jon Raven said this $25,000 project was the first time the council had undertaken an extensive, detailed and accurate study of the region's koala population. "So that means it's really important we get out there and find these koalas and understand how they're moving through our city." The data, Mr Raven said, would also be used to help determine future planning needs for the city. "The data that we collect through this will inform our new planning scheme and help us to make sure that the wildlife corridors we already have strategically mapped out across the city are fit for purpose — now and into the future." While new for Logan, it's not the first time drones have been used to count koala populations. Other searches have taken place on the Gold Coast and in across north Queensland. Queensland's Environment Department also has their own similar technology. "It hasn't been around for very long … it's pretty new." But conservationists believe — while studying population numbers is a good start — more needs to be done to protect koala habitat. "It's good that we're looking to see how many koalas they are, because south-east Queensland is critical for koala," Dave Copeman from the Queensland Conservation Council said. "The koala is endangered, and we are seeing numbers dropping. "We don't have a current census, and so this counting is really important, because we need to know if the precipitous decline in koala numbers has stabilised or not." An update to the Queensland government's koala conservation strategy is expected this year, as are several other counts of populations around the state. But Mr Copeman said he was concerned by large Priority Development Areas (PDAs) earmarked across south-east Queensland — including large housing developments in Logan, Ipswich and Moreton — that were planned for land on, or near, koala habitat. "If you're putting roads through koala habitat, you see more car strikes. If you're building houses in there, you get more dog attacks, and ultimately also the more koalas are compressed, you see higher stress in the population, and that results in less resilience and greater disease," he said. "So, the most important thing councils can do is protect the habitat that's there and be involved in restoring areas. "The science is clear. We need to [be building] up, not out." He suggested this could involve more "gentle density" in areas that already had stronger population bases. "If we keep doing these giant new PDA developments in the last vestiges of remnant forest in south-east Queensland, we are signing a death warrant for the koala," he said. It would also benefit the community and economy, according to Mr Copeman. "It means that you're not sprawling out and then requiring more expensive developments of schools and services," he said. "That's the best result for south-east Queensland nature.
