Intellectual Property

Services and Expertise

Our Intellectual Property team provides practical, reliable and cost effective advice from conception through to commercialisation, protection and enforcement of IP rights. We have commercial, legal and industry-based expertise, and are well versed in IP practice across a range of industry sectors.

We advise on trade marks, designs, confidentiality and trade secrets, and parallel importing of products into Australia, as well as on copyright and breach of confidence.

Our clients include national retailers, digital publishers, national transport companies and public companies.

Areas of Legal Expertise

Our expertise covers:

• creation, ownership, protection, exploitation and transfer of intellectual property
• research and development arrangements
• trade mark registrability (in Australia and internationally)
• intellectual property infringements
• licensing and commercialisation of intellectual property
• information security
• secrecy and confidentiality
• trade mark and design searches, applications, opposition proceedings and licensing
• conducting intellectual property audits to identify intellectual property which should be protected and/or commercialised

• copyright, trade mark, confidential information and design advice and enforcement proceedings.

Additional Services

As well as legal services, we offer clients a range of complementary services including:

• conducting seminars
• providing regular legal updates
• facilitating introductions to other clients where synergies may evolve, particularly where commercialisation of some IP may result

• providing introductions to and working in conjunction with patent attorneys where a client's IP may be capable of patent protection.

Team Strength

As with all our teams, we draw on substantial resources from around the firm to manage large projects and tight timeframes.

Experience

Some recent matters we have worked on include:

• acting for a US based company in negotiating the assignment of trade marks to that company, following the improper registration of those trade marks by a licensee company in New Zealand, contrary to the applicable licence agreement
• managing the worldwide IP applications, registrations and database for a national retail group
• acting for a private Australian company that holds patents around the world for an innovative process by which wine is stored in a can, including advice in relation to licensing this IP to third parties who wish to manufacture and distribute the products in other countries
• acting for a large national transport company in a full Federal Court appeal. The appeal was against a Federal Court finding at first instance of breach of copyright and breach of confidence involving indirect access to drawings of a truck trailer.