We are delighted to announce the promotion of Alexia Mayer to Partner.Read more

We recently highlighted that the decision of Beach J of the Federal Court of Australia in Ono Pharmaceutical Co, Ltd v Commissioner of Patents had raised as many questions as it had answered in relation to Patent Term Extensions (PTEs).Read more

James & Wells are delighted to announce that Hazell Fernandez has qualified as a Patent Attorney.Read more

Where an Australian patent claims a pharmaceutical substance per se and regulatory approval is first given after the patent grants, its term may be extended by up to 5 years. While the statute satisfactorily deals with routine inquiries as to eligibility, its application has always been unclear at its edges.Read more

Stigler’s law of eponymy says that no scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer. This is an interesting phenomenon, but what really grabbed my attention about Stigler’s law is that it is self-referential, and deliberately so. Stephen Stigler, the statistics professor after whom the law is named, intentionally appropriated the idea from sociologist Robert Merton so that the law itself follows its own principle. Very neat.Read more

On appeal, the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia (Middleton, Nicholas, and Burley JJ) has re-confirmed that diagnostic methods are patentable in Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc v Sequenom, Inc.Read more

Launching a new brand is a massive task, involving a lot of people, a lot of teamwork, and a lot of decisions. From an intellectually property perspective, those decisions start the moment you consider creating your new brand. Here are five key IP rules when launching a new brand.Read more

This follows on from a Tier 1 ranking for ‘Patent Contentious’ in Managing IP’s Global IP survey and six Associates being recognised in its IP Stars Awards.Read more

Last year, my acquisition of one of the last “old” Defenders spawned an article on JLR’s attempt to stop manufacture of the “same-same but different” Ineos Grenadier. A year later, the Grenadier is in the testing and development stage having completed extreme cold testing in...Read more

Managing the day to day running of a sizeable IP portfolio can be time consuming. However, streamlining the process, will save you time and money. Here are some key tips to manage your IP portfolio more efficiently.Read more

JLR's rare C-type Jaguar has spawned an entire industry of replicas, for those with a love of the car but without the funds to own an original. Up until recently, JLR had a track record of supporting the replica industry, but its recent case against a Swedish pensioner suggests a change of approach.Read more

In-house counsel deal with a broad range of legal issues that must be addressed within limited budget, time and resource constraints. Knowing how and when to escalate is essential to getting the result you need as efficiently as possible – from business-to-business ‘soft’ communications to formal cease and desist letters, sharp threats of litigation, or formally instituting legal proceedings – and when and how to use alternative dispute resolution procedures such as mediation.Read more