“The area of intellectual property protection has become a minefield as people discover that ideas are their most valuable asset and need legal protection.”
Katarina Klaric, Partner, Stephens.
Intellectual property litigation demands a high level of legal and technical expertise.
Working with leading technical experts, the firm conducts intellectual property litigation in the areas of copyright, trade mark, design and patent infringement, the unauthorised use of confidential information and the ownership of intellectual property.
Stephens Lawyers has been involved in leading cases in the intellectual property field. The firm represented Victoria University of Technology in Supreme Court proceedings involving the ownership of inventions, their patent applications and subsequent software development. In the High Court case Autodesk v. Dyason, Stephens Lawyers represented Autodesk, the successful appellants. This was the first case in Australia where the High Court had to consider whether amendments to the Copyright Act afforded protection to computer programs as literary works. Stephens Lawyers also represented Data Access Corporation in the High Court case of Data Access Corporation v. Powerflex in which the High Court had to consider whether copyright subsisted in computer programming languages.
In recent litigious work, Stephens Lawyers has successfully represented Jesse James and West Coast Choppers in a trade mark ownership and copyright dispute in the Federal Court of Australia. The firm has also assisted Jesse James and West Cost Choppers in obtaining trade mark registration in Australia, to protect their intellectual property assets.