Intellectual Property

Aspect Legal can help you protect and enforce your intellectual property rights, otherwise known as your IP. Our team comprises experts in the field who deal with a wide range of laws which can protect the results of your creative and technological efforts. Our lawyers have a proven track record of expertise in the areas of:

• Protecting your Brand
• Copyright
• IP Licensing
• IP Audits
• Advertising
• Information Technology and Internet

Protecting your Brand

The branding of your business – what distinguishes your goods and services from those of your competitor – is critical in today’s highly competitive commercial environment. Trademarks identify your business and can be your most valuable asset.

Our team has extensive experience in acting for a range of national and international companies in protecting, managing and enforcing their brands. We also work with foreign firms in providing the most prompt and cost effective trade mark advice and protection overseas.

As specialists in this area, we are well-equipped to manage your trade mark portfolio – whether it consists of brands, words, logos, signs, shapes, colours, sounds and scents – in the following ways:

• advising generally on your legal rights associated with your trade marks or trade names
• conducting comprehensive trade mark searches to ensure the availability and registrability of your proposed trade mark
• preparing and filing trade mark applications in Australia and overseas
• responding to examination reports and prosecuting trade mark applications to registration
• renewals
• conducting opposition and non-use proceedings
• enforcing your registered trade mark in cases of infringement
• licensing, assignments and other commercial arrangements
• effecting the acquisition and disposal of trade marks in commercial transactions
• business and company name advice and registration
• providing domain name advice, registrations and transfers
• IP Audits
• Trademarks

We pride ourselves on our integrated approach to the proper management of your trade mark portfolio.

Copyright

Whether you are an author, an artist, a software designer or a teacher, the likelihood that someone will infringe your copyright, or that you will need to protect the copyright in your work, is very high.

The protection of copyright in Australia arises automatically upon the creation of an original work and does not depend upon a system of registration. As the copyright in your creative endeavour can be the life-blood of your business, it is essential that all appropriate measures are taken to ensure the adequate protection of your copyright work.

Our IP experts can:

• advise on copyright, moral rights, personality rights, performers’ rights and similar issues to ensure the best level of their protection for you and your business
• advise on acquiring the copyright in works created by third parties or in commissioned works
• advise on issues relating to the collection and management of creators’ royalties
• advise and act in dispute resolution and copyright litigation
• negotiate and draft copyright licensing and assignment agreements
• draft appropriate copyright consenting clearances

IP Licensing

One way of exploiting IP such as trademarks (or put more simply, making money out of it!) is by licensing.

By licensing your IP, you are giving the licensee the right to use your IP, while you still retain the ownership of it.

You can licence your IP exclusively (to one person in a territory) or non-exclusively (ie to as many people as you can find to licence it!).

A common form of licensing used by our clients, is their asset holding entities (that own the trademarks) licensing the use of that mark to other companies that our clients are involved in, in return for royalties or licence fees.

Other examples are photographers licensing the use of their photographs to a particular publications, or a software provider licensing the use of software. The variations are limited only by your imagination so contact us if you want to know more about how you could use licensing to your advantage, or if you are ready for us to draw up a licence agreement, to get you going!

IP Audits

Our team is able to advise you across the board in the management, protection and enforcement of the broad range of your intellectual property including trade marks, copyright, designs, and in issues arising from marketing and advertising, data protection and regulatory considerations. We can therefore offer our clients the full range of intellectual property services by providing strategic advice from the outset through to the successful exploitation of your IP rights.

As part of that process, we can undertake an IP audit of your business to ensure that the intellectual property of your business is properly protected and to identify other potential IP rights that may need further or future protection.

Our IP audit process includes ensuring that:

• the ownership of all copyright materials is clearly identified
• all trade marks and trade names are adequately registered
• any potential inventions or designs are earmarked for possible patenting or registration
• all confidential information is adequately protected
• all IP clearances have been obtained from third parties
• all potential acts of IP infringement by competitors is avoided by ensuring that all appropriate internal safeguard mechanisms and guidelines are put in place

Advertising

We understand the importance of an effective advertising and branding strategy to the success of your business. We can review your marketing campaigns to ensure you do not fall foul of the Trade Practices Act, Fair Trading Act, or any other applicable consumer laws or any industry codes of practice.

We have had wide experience in advising businesses, advertising agencies and media outlets on a range of marketing and advertising issues in all Australian jurisdictions, and can assist by:

• reviewing advertising copy prior to publication
• reviewing proposed arrangements and advertisements for lotteries, games of skill and trade promotions
• advising on the application of consumer laws to advertising
• assisting with compliance with labelling laws advising on copyright , trade mark and design issues in relation to product design, packaging and advertising copy ensuring that your advertising does not infringe any other trade marks
• advising on regulatory compliance issues in relation to the development and marketing of products
• drafting advertising, merchandising, sponsorship and endorsement agreements

Information Technology and Internet

We can provide advice in all areas of information technology and Internet law and in the negotiation and preparation of complex IT contracts, including:

• technology joint venture agreements
• collaborative research, development and licensing agreements
• software development agreements
• maintenance agreements
• reseller and distribution agreements
• e-commerce agreements
• outsourcing and facilities management agreements
• escrow agreements

Our lawyers can also advise on legal issues as they affect Internet website owners and developers, including:

• website development agreements
• e-commerce
• data protection issues
• privacy issues
• domain name issues