Intellectual Property Lawyers

Intellectual Property

We provide strategic intellectual property (IP) services to small, medium, and large businesses to help you realise and maximise your reward for effort.

Make an enquiry or call us on 03 5273 5273

Protecting your Intellectual Property gives you control

The term Intellectual Property relates to many different forms of assets, including copyright, trade marks, confidentiality and trade secrets (IP). IP exists in every industry, from clothing and computer software to restaurants and real estate. Whatever type of legal guidance you need, you can be sure that we have the experience and knowledge to help.

Comprehensive Intellectual Property Services 

At Coulter Legal, we understand the crucial role IP plays in your business success. Our dedicated team has extensive experience across all facets of IP law, from trademarks and copyright to trade secrets. We partner with you to secure your assets and navigate the intricacies of IP protection.

Trademarks

We offer comprehensive trade mark guidance encompassing everything from registrations to oppositions, infringement resolution under the Trade Marks Act and international registration. Whether you are protecting a product, service, or logo, our experienced lawyers guide you through the entire process, ensuring your brand receives the legal protection it deserves.

IP Audits and advice

Set your business up for success by undergoing an IP audit. This review process identifies, analyses, and manages your company’s IP portfolio. Our comprehensive assessment helps you:

  • Gain clarity by understanding the full scope of your IP assets, including registered and unregistered forms.
  • Identify valuable IP that can be protected, licensed, or commercialised.
  • Mitigate risks by addressing potential vulnerabilities and ensuring proper ownership of your IP.
  • Leverage insights from the audit to guide your business strategy and maximise the value of your IP assets.

Partner with our experienced team of professionals, to conduct a thorough IP audit and unlock the full potential of your IP.

Branding reviews and clearance

A large part of IP law for businesses is branding clearance, which aims to ensure that your brand does not infringe on any existing brand’s assets. Our comprehensive branding reviews and clearance services help you ensure the integrity and legality of your brand identity.

We run a wide range of checks, including:

  1. Checking the proposed name for proposed brands and products against any existing registrations.
  2. Checking that all proposed domain names are available
  3. Ensuring that all proposed marketing and advertising comply with advertising standards

By undertaking one of our branding reviews, you will be notified of any immediate issues, as well as any potential challenges that may arise in the future.

Design Advice

Design registration is perfect for protecting the appearance of your products or artworks based on their design features and characteristics. We provide advice on all design-related issues in IP law, assisting you in

  • Identifying potential registerable designs, based on new and distinctive visual features
  • Establishing your rights as the registered owner of the design
  • Assigning and Licensing rights for your design

With a focus on protecting your creative innovations, we help you navigate the complexities of design law.

Copyright Infringement

If you are looking to protect your copyright or need to ensure that your ideas do not infringe on another person’s copyright, trust us to guide you through the world of Copyright infringement law. We help you:

  • Assess the validity of your copyright,
  • Identify instances of infringement,
  • Determine the best course of action to address any infringement.
  • If an infringement is identified, we then handle all negotiations,
  • Cease-and-desist letters, injunctions, or any further legal action, if necessary.

We can also assist you in preventing future infringements, ensuring the continued protection of your intellectual property.

Deceptive Conduct Claims

We have expertise in addressing every part of the deceptive conduct claims process. Our team can assist you with legal guidance and problem-solving around Consumer Law, as well as how to appropriately respond to false or misleading claims made against your business. You can also trust us to follow up with businesses to back up a claim they have made against you, and then take full legal recourse, on your behalf, against any misleading claims.

Non-Disclosure/Confidentiality Agreements

Protecting your business’ sensitive information is crucial to its success. Trust us to help you safeguard what you have worked so hard to build with expert Non-Disclosure/Confidentiality Agreements (NDAs) advice. Our expertise includes:

  • Outlining and establishing the scope of the confidentiality required
  • Custom agreement drafting based on your business’ specific needs
  • Establishing any permitted uses of your information
  • Outlining the obligations of any third parties involved

We also offer businesses best practices for implementing and enforcing NDAs, including strategies for safeguarding your confidential information, handling breaches, and resolving disputes.

Moral Rights

Trust us to assist you in protecting the integrity and attribution of your creative works. Our services include:

  • Guidance on understanding and asserting your moral rights
  • Understanding and detailing your right to attribution
  • Guidance on Moral Rights Legislation
  • Potential violation assessment
  • Legal representation in any negotiations, dispute resolution or legal proceedings that may arise from a moral rights issue.

Our focus is always to ensure that your moral rights are upheld and respected in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.

Registration of Business Names

If you are looking to register your business name, partner with us to help you navigate the complex world of registration law. Our process involves:

  • Conducting thorough searches to ensure its availability and uniqueness.
  • Handling the preparation and submission of all necessary paperwork
  • Ensuring your business registration is compliant with all legal requirements

Our expert team will streamline the registration process, and ensure that your business name is properly registered, protected, and positioned for success.

Commercialisation of IP

We offer legal assistance and representation for the commercialisation of your intellectual property. Our team have years of experience overseeing:

  • Licensing, Franchising, Distribution agreements, Assignments
  • Negotiating and drafting contracts that govern the use and exploitation of your IP assets
  • IP portfolio management, helping you develop licensing strategies and assess market opportunities
  • Managing dispute resolution, and enforcing actions related to IP commercialization

We will ensure that your IP assets are effectively monetised and positioned to achieve your business objectives, while minimising risks and legal exposure.

Competition and Consumer Law

Trust us to help you navigate any competition and consumer law issues. Our expert team ensures businesses comply with relevant regulations, providing guidance on competition law issues, including:

  • Antitrust regulations
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Anti-competitive practices

With a focus on compliance and risk management, we also offer assistance with consumer protection laws, including

  • Product liability,
  • Advertising standards,
  • Unfair trade practices,

Contact us to help your business maintain ethical standards, while protecting your reputation, and ensuring your business remains competitive

Confidentiality and Trade Secrets

Trust Coulter Legal to safeguard your intellectual property and trade secrets. We assist you in tailoring confidentiality agreements and trade secret protection strategies that protect you from unauthorised disclosure and misuse of your valuable trade secrets.

Safeguarding confidentiality and trade secrets is key to maintaining your business’ edge. Let us assist in safeguarding your sensitive business information through:

  • Drafting tailored confidentiality agreements
  • Establishing the obligations of parties involved
  • Providing appropriate responses to confidentiality or trade secret breaches

You can also rely on us to assist with best practices for protecting your trade secrets, including security measures, restricting access to information, and employee training.

IP Maintenance and Registration Renewals

Keeping your business’ IP registration up to date is incredibly important when it comes to safeguarding your intellectual assets. Our dedicated team maintains your IP portfolio, including monitoring the deadlines, assessing renewal requirements, and managing your registration records. We also prepare and submit your renewal application for you, ensuring compliance with legal requirements and maintaining the validity of your IP rights.

Terms and Conditions

Fine print is crucial to the integrity of Intellectual Property law. Our team are experts in drafting and reviewing terms and conditions to effectively protect your IP rights, covering:

  • Ownership
  • Licensing
  • Permitted use of intellectual property assets.
  • Incorporation of any IP clauses into agreements

If you experience a dispute or breach related to IP in the area of terms and conditions, we offer representation in all legal proceedings, ensuring your business is protected from every legal angle.

Privacy Policies

By partnering with us, you can ensure that your business’ privacy policies are legally sound, transparent, and effective in protecting both your business and the privacy rights of your staff members. We draft comprehensive privacy policies and offer ongoing support by updating and maintaining your privacy policy to ensure continued compliance. Trust our team to ensure that your privacy policy aligns with all regulatory requirements, while effectively safeguarding your business and its most valuable asset – its people.

Our Process

Before you begin the journey of starting a business or building your current one, we help you ensure your intellectual assets remain yours. Our team is ready to guide you on anything you might need to protect your business from the inside out.

With an expert team of IP law professionals, we work with you to identify your potential intellectual property and then place you with an expert in that specific area of IP law.  We then assist you in protecting your IP into the future, through IP management, commercialisation and enforcement.

Frequently Asked Questions

Your trade mark is your identity. It shows your customers who you are.

A trade mark is more than a logo, a trade mark is a way of identifying your unique business product or service.

Once a trade mark is registered, you are provided with the exclusive right to use your brand.  This means if you see someone using a brand identical or deceptively similar to your trade mark, you will have grounds to ask them to stop using that brand.  Likewise, a trade mark provides you with the protection against third parties asserting trade mark infringement against you.

Business Names and Company Names are not trade marks and do not provide you with the protection you need.  Whilst you can register a company name or business name, this does not provide trade mark protection.  If someone is using a similar business name to you, you do not have any legal grounds to stop their conduct.

The quickest a trade mark can become registered is 7 ½ months from the date the application is filed, so it’s best to plan ahead.

The process of a trade mark application involves:

(a) An application to IP Australia stating the details of trade mark, the owner and classes and specification in which to register.

(b) An examination by IP Australia to ensure the trade mark complies with the Trade Marks Act 1995 (Cth).  This includes but is not limited to:

(i) whether your trade mark is distinctive enough to be registered; and

(ii)  whether there are any trade marks already registered which are similar to yours;

IP Australia may object to your trade mark being registered, and any of IP Australia’s objections must be overcome before the application will progress to the next stage.

(c) Once your trade mark has been accepted by IP Australia, it will be advertised in the Trade Marks Journal for two (2) months to allow third parties who may have a claim to your trade mark to lodge an opposition.

(d) Provided no opposition is received, the trade mark will proceed to registration, whereby your rights to exclusive use will back date to the filing date and remain in place for ten (10) years, at which point you may renew the registration.

Commonly, a trade mark might be a word, a logo, a catch phrase or even your business name as you have displayed on any signage or packaging.  However trade mark registrations are not limited to these, they may also be:

  • A word in fancy font;
  • letter;
  • number;
  •  picture;
  •  aspect of packaging;
  • a colour;
  • a jingle; or
  •  combination of the above.

Get in touch with us today

We provide strategic intellectual property (IP) services to small, medium, and large businesses to help you realise and maximise your reward for effort.

Contact form
or call us on 03 5292 4044

Get in touch with us today

We provide strategic intellectual property (IP) services to small, medium, and large businesses to help you realise and maximise your reward for effort.

Contact form
or call us on 03 5292 4044