Intellectual Property

Intellectual property is a vital asset for many businesses. It encapsulates the ideas, designs, brand names, know-how, images, creations and technologies of that business; and how those assets are protected, exploited and managed at each stage of their life cycle can have a significant impact on the value of the underlying business.

Teacher Stern’s commercial lawyers are experts in all areas of intellectual property registration and protection. We advise on:

trademarks (registered and unregistered)
patents
copyright
image rights
brand management
trade secrets
false advertising and related unfair competition issues

We work closely with our clients to develop IP protection policies to ensure that their intellectual property assets are not inadvertently diluted and are properly protected. We advise on licensing intellectual property rights and making the most of our clients’ ideas – without prejudicing their protectability. In recent years we have represented and advised both public and private companies in IP licensing and exploitation transactions, many involving highly complex issues, cutting edge technologies or well-known trademarks, brands and copyrighted works.

Our intellectual property team also advises a large number of clients on the registration and acquisition of domain names and how best to protect those names. We represent clients in relation to internet specific intellectual property issues including domain name privacy, meta tags and deep linking infringements.

Where necessary, the lawyers in our intellectual property team work closely with other lawyers in our dispute resolution team to ensure that our clients’ rights are protected in the robust manner they sometimes need to be.

Representative Intellectual Property Work

Examples of our team’s intellectual property work include:

Advised numerous hospitality clients in relation to intellectual property matters and brand protection strategies including Goodman Restaurants, Burger and Lobster, Galvin Restaurants and Ed’s Easy Diner.
Advised numerous clients on trade mark registrations and trade mark disputes.
Advised clients on, and created, “white label” documentation for use by large corporate clients wishing to take a third party’s goods and/or services and package them as their own.
Advised clients on the transfer, acquisition, licencing and disposal of brand names.
Advised on domain name disputes and resolution strategies.
Advised on the establishment of international IP licensing and licence fee structures.