Amazon has registered Australian trademarks for the on-demand healthcare service it plans to launch across the US this year, as the retail behemoth looks to expand its reach to the booming telehealth sector.

The trillion-dollar retail giant has announced this week that it will launch Amazon Care, an employee-focused healthcare services, to companies across the United States from the middle of this year. The platform, which began as a pilot offer for Amazon employees, connects workers with doctors via phone or internet chat, as well as providing at-home care.

“Amazon Care gives instant access to a range of urgent and primary care services, including COVID-19 and flu testing, vaccinations, treatment of illnesses and injuries, preventive care, sexual health, prescription requests, refills, and delivery, and much more,” the company explained in a blog post this week.

While the launch will be confined to the United States, IP Australia records show the e-commerce giant has also registered the trademark for the words and logo of ‘Amazon Care’ locally.

The protections were entered on the intellectual property register in August 2020 and apply for use of the phrase for a range of goods and services including “medical care, healthcare, telehealth, telemedicine, remote care, and virtual health care services”, according to the filing.

However, the company denies that owning the trademarks for the brand means it will launch the services locally.

A spokesperson for Amazon said the company regularly files trademark applications across the globe to reinforce its brand, but the registration “does not indicate an intent to expand Amazon Care to Australia”.

Amazon already owns a number of other health-related phrases in Australia, however, including the marks for ‘Amazon Pharmacy’ and ‘Amazon Basic Care’.