IP Lawyers Melbourne
Your Dedicated IP Lawyers in Melbourne
Working with our Actuate IP Lawyers based in Melbourne ensures you have our extensive local experience and strategic approach to achieve the right outcomes for your IP (Intellectual Property), Trade Mark and Copyright matters.
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- Extensive Industry Experience
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Specialist IP Lawyers in Melbourne
As Intellectual Property specialists, our work focuses solely on getting the best results for our clients, whether providing initial registrability advice, preparing and filing trade mark or patent applications, resolving disputes or addressing copyright infringement.
Our highly qualified IP litigation team can provide detailed advice on intellectual property matters, ensuring the protection of your intellectual property assets.
What can an Intellectual Property Lawyer help me with?
An Intellectual Property Lawyer can help you protect, and defend against infringement, any intellectual property assets you own. This covers a range of ideas, technology, medical devices, scientific discoveries, literary works, art, designs, branding and many other concepts.
Intellectual property laws ensure that the creator’s rights can be legally enforced if anyone else tries to claim ownership or rights to the concept or item.
Protecting Your Intellectual Property Assets
Trade Mark Law
Trade Mark Law involves registering a trademark that protects your brand. This may apply to a business name, product name, logo, slogan, other branding elements essential to your business. Trade marks can be formally registered with the relevant IP authorities. We can assist with:
- Trade Mark Search & Registration Advice
- Trade Mark Registration
- International Trade Mark Portfolio
- Management
- Trade Mark Disputes
- Trade Mark Infringement
- Trade Mark Oppositions
Design Law
A registered design protects the visual appearance of a product. As a requirement for registering a design is that the design is novel (new) at the time of filing the design application, it is essential that the design application be filed before your design is publicly disclosed. As your IP lawyer, we can assist with:
- Design registration
- Design infringement
- Registered design disputes
Patent Law
A patent is similar to a trademark, in that it must be formally applied for. Patents apply to inventions, whether a substance, process, device or methodology. As your patent attorney, we can assist with:
- Patent registration
- Patent infringement
- Patent disputes
Confidential Information
This applies to any confidential, or secret information, that is essential to your business. We can assist with:
- Confidential information such as trade secrets, or other confidential information that is distinct to your business
- Confidentiality agreements and non-disclosure agreements (NDA’s)
Copyright Law
Copyright covers artists, musicians, creators, writers and designers for work they create, across traditional and digital formats. A work does not need to be registered like a patent for copyright laws to apply. As highly experienced and strategic copyright lawyers, Actuate IP can help with:
- General and specific licensing and copyright advice
- Copyright protection
- Copyright disputes
- Copyright infringement
How do I know if IP laws apply to my work?
If you are the original creator, inventor or designer of an idea, expressive work, concept, branding or design, intellectual property laws may apply to your work. Understanding the different types of IP Australia laws and how they apply to your work is essential.
Many creators of intellectual property may not understand what a valuable asset they have until it is too late, which is why working with an IP Lawyer can ensure that you have the protections in place before you need them.
IP Dispute Resolution
If you feel as if your intellectual property rights have been breached or infringed upon, we can assist you to resolve any IP disputes or breaches of contracts. We have substantial experience managing complex contentious matters and are able to provide strategic advice to ensure the protection of your intellectual property. If litigation is necessary, we will first ensure that we have thoroughly explored available strategies to resolve disputes prior to commencing action.
As a highly respected specialist IP Law Firm in Melbourne, and Australia-wide, you can feel assured that the protection of your intellectual property is in excellent hands.
Our Melbourne IP Lawyers
A selection of the clients we have worked with
Work with Actuate IP, highly distinguished Intellectual Property Lawyers Melbourne
If you need to find out more about where you stand in terms of your Intellectual Property rights, Actuate IP can help. As one of the leading Intellectual Property Law Firms, Melbourne, we are highly capable of managing all IP related matters. We work closely with our clients to identify the best strategies to successfully navigate the protection of your intellectual property.
Get in touch with our Melbourne team of dedicated IP Lawyers, to further discuss how we can help you with trademarks, patents, licensing, copyright, or the protection of confidential information.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Intellectual Property Lawyers Melbourne
What is intellectual property, and how do I protect my ideas and creations?
Intellectual property refers to something that has been created with someone’s intellectual or creative capacity. This can be a painting, a design, an idea, a book or a piece of music. When you create something in this way, in Australia, you automatically have copyright on that piece of work, for the duration of your life and 70 years after.
Copyright alone isn’t always enough to protect an idea or piece of work though, which is where an IP lawyer can help. A patent attorney can help you apply for a wide range of protections for your intellectual property, including registered trademarks and patents. An IP lawyer can also help you search existing IP databases, register international trademarks and litigate possible infringements.
What are the different types of intellectual property rights available in Australia?
In Australia, the main types of IP protection include: Patents – A patent protects new ideas and inventions, and offers the patent holder exclusive rights to the use of their idea. Trade Marks – Trade marks are linked to a registered brand, and protect assets that are related to the brand.
This may include branding aspects, logos, phrases or anything else that sets your brand apart from others. Registered Designs – Registered designs apply to any new and unique design and gives the registration holder exclusive rights to usage. This may be a car, food packaging or sporting uniforms, but it must be able to be shown that it is different from anything on the market, new and has not been made public anywhere in the world.
Copyright – Copyright is automatically applied to intellectual and creative work in Australia, extending to written works, designs music and ideas. Circuit Rights – Circuit rights relate to electronic and technological designs, such as computer chips and TVs. Plant Breeding Rights – PBRs are designed to protect the rights of breeders of new varieties of plants. If you have questions about how to get an application started in any of these areas, an IP lawyer is the best person to speak to.
How can I enforce my intellectual property rights in Australia?
If you believe that your intellectual property has been infringed upon, you can start legal proceedings against the party that has infringed upon your rights. Likewise, if someone believes that you have infringed upon their intellectual property, they may deal with the matter legally. If a case is successful, through the courts or a mediated process, compensation may be payable to cover any losses that have resulted due to the infringement. An IP lawyer can help you to build a case, and talk to you about the best approaches for a successful outcome.
How do I protect my intellectual property when working with third parties?
If you are working with others on a project, it’s wise to have a non-disclosure policy in place. This is a confidentiality agreement outlining that sensitive details are not shared with others, and that information shared is not to be disclosed to others. This may be drawn up with employees, contractors, consultants working on a project, and third parties such as accountants.
You can also seek to register a patent if the idea is new, or a trade mark if it relates to business assets. Working with an IP lawyer to draw up your contract is best practice to ensure that any documents cover all necessary elements if an infringement claim, dispute or legal matter later arises.
How long does intellectual property protection last?
Different types of intellectual property laws have different time limits attached. Copyright protection in Australia generally lasts for the duration of the creator’s life, and extends 70 years after the creator’s death. If something is released after an artist or creator has already passed away, there is generally a 70 year protection in place after the date of public release.
Trade marks allow the person who has registered it a period of 10 years, and can be renewed ongoingly. Patents in Australia lasts between 20 and 25 years, the latter being applicable to pharmaceutical recipes. It’s also important to consider the international laws when looking to protect your intellectual property, which an IP lawyer can advise you on.
Can I license or sell my intellectual property?
Intellectual property is treated like any item, and can be sold. You can transfer copyright by sale, licencing or transfer. There are lots of ways that you can do this, and may choose to give another exclusive, or limited usage rights as part of the conditions. Licensing allows another to use your intellectual property, which may be for a set amount of time, for a particular purpose or in a particular area.
There are many nuances to selling and licensing your intellectual property that should be examined carefully with the help of an IP lawyer prior to making any decisions that may affect your rights to your intellectual property.
Do I really need to protect my Intellectual Property?
While this is a completely personal decision, failing to do so can leave you open to incurring losses that may have been prevented with the right IP protection in place. If you are unsure and would like to find out more about your options, please speak to us so you can make an informed decision.
How much do IP lawyers charge?
IP lawyers have different fees, depending on the matter’s complexity and nature. Actuate IP offer fixed fee certainty, which we are able to provide due to our extensive experience in handling IP matters. We can provide an accurate quote for any matter you may be considering, just get in touch.
What is meant by Confidential Information in Intellectual Property Law?
The term ‘Confidential Information’ in IP Law refers to any private information that requires protection to ensure it is not used by another for financial gain. It can cover many areas of your business, including procedures, methods, recipes and specific information or ideas. Information of this nature can be protected by ensuring that correct confidentiality agreements or Non Disclosure Agreements (NDA’s) are in place.
How do I protect my work internationally?
Intellectual Property laws vary from country to country and from one type of IP Law to another. Protections relevant under Australian Law generally are not sufficient to protect you overseas. There are different processes that need to be followed to achieve international safeguarding of your Intellectual Property, which we can assist you with.
We work with many clients to ensure that they have the right measures in place to protect their intellectual property internationally. We have excellent global partnerships to ensure that your IP rights can be extended to any country required. Please speak to us about how we can ensure that your intellectual property has the best protection in place, both in Australia and overseas.
