IP ownership
A contractor creates the software. A founder develops the brand before the company is formed. A key agreement is missing when a buyer starts due diligence. The commercial value can depend on understanding who owns what and what rights the business can actually use.
We look at the portfolio and the agreements around it, connecting legal ownership with the way the business operates.
Trade marks and registration
A trade mark is the one piece of intellectual property most businesses genuinely need and most leave until something goes wrong. We search before you commit to a name, file at IP Australia in the classes that match what you actually sell and answer examination reports rather than forwarding them to you.
- Availability searches before a launch or a rebrand
- Filing, specifications and classification
- Examination responses and adverse reports
- Oppositions, and defending your own registration
- Overseas filing through the Madrid Protocol
Portfolio management and renewals
A portfolio is a set of deadlines and a set of records and both drift. Renewals get missed after a change of address, ownership records still name a company that was restructured two years ago and nobody notices until a deal or a dispute forces someone to look.
- Renewal diary held here rather than in your inbox
- Recordals after a name change, restructure or acquisition
- Ownership and chain of title kept current
- An annual look at what is worth keeping and what is not
IP strategy and advisory
Before anything gets filed there is a commercial question: what is the innovation, who owns it and is registration even the right way to hold it. Some things are better kept confidential. Some are worth protecting in two countries and nowhere else. The answer sets your budget for years, so it is worth an hour at the start.
- What to register, what to keep confidential and why
- Which countries, on what timing, at what cost
- Portfolio review against what the business actually sells
- Board level advice on where the value sits
IP before a business sale
IP in good order is not just a risk you avoid. It is value a buyer will actually pay for: registered trade marks, a clean chain of title and documented ownership tend to lift what a business is worth, not just protect it. Due diligence is where the difference shows up. A buyer will ask for the assignment from the contractor, the licence that lets you use the font, the document proving the founder transferred what they built before incorporation. Gaps do not usually kill a deal, but they move the price or they end up in an indemnity you carry for years.
- Chain of title established and gaps closed
- Assignments from founders, employees and contractors
- Inbound and outbound licences reviewed
- Preparing the IP schedule and answering the buyer's questions
- Warranties and indemnities on the IP side of the agreement
IP in employment and sponsorship
The people who make the innovation are the same people the immigration practice sponsors and the two questions are usually asked in the same month. An employment agreement that does not deal with ownership, moral rights and confidentiality creates a problem that surfaces years later and it is worse when the employee is overseas or moving between jurisdictions.
- IP, moral rights and confidentiality clauses that hold
- Contractor and consultant assignments
- Ownership across borders, where the work was done elsewhere
- Handled alongside the sponsorship rather than after it
Technical and professional experience
Our intellectual property advice draws on more than thirty years of experience, supported by a background in physics and UK and European patent attorney qualifications.
Where a matter requires an Australian patent attorney or a professional authorised in another jurisdiction, the appropriate professional involvement needs to be arranged.
Official information
Read the current government guidance alongside advice for your circumstances.