Singer John Williamson has expressed outrage at an attempt by film company WM Productions to extend its trademark rights to the phrase ‘Waltzing Matilda’, the name of a popular Australian ballad.

"True Blue" is "a song for all Australians and should not be hijacked by any group that seeks to use the song to sow division," he writes. By Lars Brandle John Williamson, the Australian “bush music” ...

Though the title of the song sounds like it’s about a dance with someone named Matilda, it’s actually born of an Australian style of poetry called a “bush ballad”—slang in the country for traveling on ...