Trade marks, trade dress, patents, designs, copyright and confidential information are critical assets of many organisations.  It is vital that these assets are carefully identified, preserved and protected. Our experienced, focussed team works with our clients in the key areas of identification, protection, management, commercialisation and enforcement of their intellectual property.

Making the most of intellectual property requires careful identification and management of ownership and exploitation opportunities.  It also requires robust procedures for enforcing and defending intellectual property claims.  Our intellectual property management services include maintaining a detailed database of our clients' trade marks, designs and other intellectual property and policing key deadlines. 

We advise our clients on securing, maintaining and enforcing their intellectual property rights in Australia and overseas.  We negotiate and document agreements on all aspects of the use, commercialisation and transfer of intellectual property rights.  We understand the importance of integrating commercial and dispute resolution skills to provide a holistic approach to managing our clients' intellectual property and have extensive experience advising clients on commercialisation strategies. 

When the need arises to vigorously defend our clients' rights, our Intellectual Property team works closely with our litigation and dispute resolution practice to offer our clients both litigious and commercial solutions to intellectual property issues.

We represent clients in contentious and non-contentious matters involving trade marks, trade dress, copyright, designs, patents and the related areas of confidential information, passing off and misleading or deceptive conduct.

We have an international network of experienced intellectual property agents to assist us in providing our clients with excellent intellectual property services throughout the world.

Key Services

Our Intellectual Property team offers the following key legal services:

• Worldwide trade mark, patent and design searches and watches
• Worldwide trade mark and design registration services
• Advice on all forms of intellectual property protection and allied rights
• Representation in trade mark opppositions, removal actions and other proceedings before the Registrar of Trade Marks
• Drafting and negotiating licence agreements, assignments and other agreements involving all forms of intellectual property
• Drafting and advising on confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements
• Conducting due diligence and intellectual property audits
• Conducting litigation relating to all forms of intellectual property and allied rights
• Advice on competition and trade practices issues relating to intellectual property
• Conducting intellectual property and trade practices training and creating training DVDs
• Advice on confidential information, trade secrets, copyright ownership and enforcement and moral rights issues
• Advice on tax effective restructuring of intellectual property assets