Colin Cheung

Experience

Colin has over 20 years of experience assisting business owners and companies across a broad range of industries to identify, protect, defend and enforce their intellectual property rights. He regularly works with in-house counsel teams of large national and multinational companies, and works with sophisticated small to medium-sized businesses.

He collaborates with local commercial law firms, accounting firms and business advisers to assist them with the identification and protection of their clients’ intellectual property assets. He also works with an established network of overseas IP law firms & attorney firms, assisting them with their clients’ Australian intellectual property requirements. Access to this network also means Colin can work with his Australian clients to develop and implement a global intellectual property strategy.

Colin has extensive experience and expertise in IP (patent, trade mark, registered designs) dispute resolution and litigation. He is also regularly involved in a broad range of other types of intellectual property disputes – copyright, misleading & deceptive conduct cases, confidential information and IP contractual-related matters. He has represented clients in the Federal Circuit Court of Australia, the Federal Court of Australia and the Hearings Office at IP Australia.

Approach

Colin is known for his straight-talking approach, clear advice, and commercially pragmatic recommendations. He is a lateral thinker, skilled negotiator, and strong litigator. He is also a good communicator and goes out of his way to ensure his client is kept up to date on their project, steps taken and outcomes achieved.

His ability to think strategically and outside the square has helped his clients, on many occasions, achieve commercially favourable outcomes in intellectual property disputes, minimising the cost and distraction of a full-blown litigation.

Recognition

Track Record

He has particular expertise in patent, registered designs, misleading or deceptive conduct and trade mark disputes, dispute resolution and litigation. Examples of Colin’s track record include:

• Acting for a leading international manufacturer of solar panel components as the patent owner and applicant in Federal Court patent infringement proceedings against two Chinese-based manufacturers
• Acting for a major Australian financial institution on a range of intellectual property licensing matters
• Acting for a specialist manufacturer of shipping container insulation materials in Federal Court patent infringement and patent inventor/entitlement claims
• Acting for a leading portable shipping container pool manufacturer in Federal Court patent infringement proceedings and developing and implementing an Australia-wide patent enforcement program against infringers
• Acting for a manufacturer of specialist fruit punnet containers in Federal Court patent and design infringement proceedings
• Acting for the trade mark and patent owner of a TGA-approved product in a complex contractual and intellectual property dispute
• Acting for a multinational clothing manufacturer against an Australian-based counterfeiter in the Federal Court
• Acting for a US-based manufacturer of internationally distributed tea as the trade mark holder in Federal Court trade mark infringement and misleading and deceptive conduct proceedings. Achieving one of the highest monetary awards for additional damages for trade mark infringement against both respondents
• Acting for a multinational manufacturer of beauty care products in Federal Court trade mark infringement proceedings against a wholesaler of counterfeit products
• Acting for a leading manufacturer of specialist high-end cycling clothing in a pre-litigation dispute against a number of counterfeiters
• Acting in a domain name dispute for a prominent Australian charity organisation to recover a domain name from a cybersquatter
• Acting for an Australian winery as the trade mark holder in Federal Court trade mark infringement proceedings
• Acting for an Australian mattress manufacturer as the applicant in registered design infringement proceedings in the Federal Full Court
• Acting in numerous trade mark opposition proceedings for both the trade mark applicant and the opponent at the Trade Marks Hearings Office of IP Australia.
• Acting for a UK manufacturer of children-specific luggage in pre-litigation against knock-off product designs in Australia.