As Registered Australian Trade Marks Attorneys, NovelIP are specialists in trade marking services in Australia, NovelIP work with our business and individual clients to protect their intellectual property starting with the initial trade mark registrations, trade mark oppositions, non use proceedings, IP investigations (copyright, trade marks, patents, designs and plant breeders rights) and all aspects of intellectual property evidence collection and preparation.
Trade mark and intellectual property protection are a crucial element of every brand.
Trade marks aren’t restricted to brand names and logos but comprise a range of elements that make up a brand including (but not limited to):
Our principal, Kristine van Ruiten is a Registered Trade Marks Attorney with more than 20 years’ experience in intellectual property and trade mark law. With a wealth of experience, NovelIP can help you register and manage your brand’s trade marks through every stage of your business.
Not all trade marks are registered! Are your clients looking to test the uniqueness of their trade marks? Or perhaps just make sure that no one else has any pre-existing use to undermine the strength of their trade mark? Searches of online databases, general internet literature, media and a variety of other sources can identify uses of the mark in contexts outside the usual channels.
NovelIP are experienced in conducting investigations and gathering evidence to establish the nature of the goods in question and whether there are any similarities; the respective uses of the goods as well as the trade channels through which the products are respectively bought and sold.
We will undertake a comprehensive review of market competitors to provide a landscape of counterfeit, infringing or closely resembling goods to ensure your trade marks are unique and protected.
Protecting your brand online is one of the greatest challenges for businesses in the internet age. Often it is very difficult to identify the identities of the counterfeiters. If your products or trade marks have been counterfeited we will investigate the myriad methods that can identify sellers in an online environment using avatar, social media profiles, etc.
We can conduct controlled purchases of counterfeit, infringing, or closely resembling goods from online and physical traders.
Our systems and processes ensure the chain of evidence is maintained and we are up to date with current decisions such as Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v Apple Pty Ltd (No 3) [2018] FCA 617 to ensure the admissibility of our evidence.a
Through expert searching and investigation methods we can identify online and physical retailers of counterfeit, infringing or closely resembling goods.
Through a network of business names and long-established contacts we have access to trade only exhibitions and shows which allow us access to wholesalers and importers.
We can attend these shows to identify counterfeit goods before they hit the public retail market or conduct investigations directly with companies that are usually difficult to contact.
NovelIP undertakes investigations into historic patent and design activities to establish possibilities for further inquiry/subpoena which may reveal commercial use prior to a priority date.
Bad faith evidence is becoming increasingly important, particularly in relation to domain name disputes. We have access to a variety of sources of information that can track a registrant's WHOIS history and establish a pattern of behaviour.
Surveillance of persons of interest, especially market stall proprietors, retailers or wholesalers.
We will conduct in-depth searches of free and commercial databases for a variety of purposes such as mining prior art documents, establishing technology landscapes, identifying trends, competitive intelligence and background information.
Investigations conducted by a Registered Australian Trade Marks Attorney and Licensed Private Investigator with over 17 years’ experience gathering and preparing evidence for Federal Court and IP Australia hearings.*
*A list of published decisions citing our work is available on request.
