Intellectual
Property
Intellectual Property (IP) substantially adds to the value of a business. When properly secured and protected, intellectual property can be exploited to create massive value for a business.
Our experienced, qualified legal practitioners will provide you with the very best advice, support, and representation to deal with all of your Intellectual Property requirements.
Trade Marks
Your trade mark helps your customers distinguish your goods and services from those these offered by competitors.
Registering your trade mark means that you will gain the exclusive right to use your trade mark in test test connection with the goods and services that your offer (now and in the future) in the marketplace.
In Australia, a registered trade mark gives you a 10 year term of protection. At the end of each 10 year term, trade mark protection can be renewed for a further 10 year term, theoretically giving the trade mark owner the ability to protect that trade mark indefinitely.
We can help:
- Search the trade mark registers
- Advise you on a trade mark application’s likelihood of success
- Apply for your trade mark (Australia and internationally)
- Oppose trade marks
- Negotiate and prepare agreements, including assignments, licenses and consents
- Advise you on trade mark law, common law ‘passing off’, and the Australian Consumer Law
- Represent and litigate to defend or enforce your rights
Patents
A patent is an exclusive legal monopoly, granted on a temporary basis, to the patent holder.
A patent holder owns the exclusive right to exploit the invention for the term of the patent.
To gain a patent, the invention must be novel, innovative, and non-obvious. Once granted, a patents protect the manner, method or process used in the invention for the term of the patent.
The trade-off for the patent holder’s temporary monopoly over the invention is that the invention’s “inner working” must carefully documented and published. The documentation must be specific enough such that anyone who has the requisite skill could replicate the invention after the patent expires.
After the patent’s expiry, anyone is free to make use of the invention. In Australia, patents are valid for 20 years for most inventions, save for pharmaceutical patents which could be valid for up to 25 years.
We can help:
- Search ‘prior art’ of existing patents
- Advise you on a patent application’s prospects of success
- Prepare and file a patent application
- Negotiate and prepare confidentiality agreements, licensing agreements, cross-licensing agreements, assignment agreements
- Advise you on on patent protection law
- Represent and litigate to defend or enforce your rights
Design Rights
The visual features and presentation of a products can be one of its most distinctive features, creating a unique appearance that consumers can readily use to identify that particular product.
To prevent competitors and imitators from copying the visual design of a product, a business can apply for a registered design right.
To gain a registered a design right, the design itself must be new, distinctive, and dissimilar to any ‘prior art’ (existing registered design).
In Australia, design rights can last up to 10 years (5 years initially, with a single 5 year extension possible). After 10 years, the design right expires.
We can help:
- Search ‘prior art’ of existing design rights
- Advise you on a design right application’s prospects of success
- Prepare and file a design right application
- Negotiate and prepare licensing agreements, cross-licensing agreements, assignment agreements
- Advise you on design protection law, common law ‘passing off’, and the Australian Consumer Law
- Represent and litigate to defend or enforce your rights
Copyright
Copyright in Australia is an automatic, unregistered right given to an author who has used their labour and creative skill to produce a new, original form of creative expression. Copyright automatically comes into being as soon as the expression is reduced to a fixed, or physical form.
Examples of ‘creative expressions’ are magazines, books, artworks, software, photographs, films and sound recordings.
However, it’s important to understand that copyright law protects only the author’s particular expression of the idea, not the underlying idea itself.
In Australia, works made public after 1 January 2019 are generally given copyright protection for the life of the author plus 70 years. For television and sound broadcasts, copyright protection lasts for 50 years from the broadcast first being made.
We can help:
- Negotiate and prepare copyright licensing agreements, royalty agreements and assignment agreements.
- Advise you on copyright law in Australia as well as global copyright protection through international treaties and conventions
- Represent and litigate to defend or enforce your rights
Trade Secrets
Sometimes, businesses choose to keep important information, such as methods, formulas, and manufacturing processes a ‘trade secret’, in order to maintain their competitive advantage for as long as possible.
Trade secrets are not registrable and do not have statutory legal protection as ‘Intellectual Property’.
However, Trade Secrets can be protected by confidentiality agreements, specifically drafted for this purpose.
We can help:
- Negotiate, review and prepare confidentiality agreements
- Prepare employment and contractor agreements to protect valuable trade secrets
- Advise you on relevant law, including common law and statutory confidentiality
- Represent and litigate to defend or enforce your rights
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