FMCG

With over 40 years’ experience protecting innovation for some of Australasia’s biggest FMCG names, you can rely on our long-established expertise in FMCG IP.

FMCG Expertise

 

With over 40 years’ experience protecting innovation for some of Australasia’s biggest FMCG names, you can rely on our long-established expertise in FMCG IP.

We specialise in all areas of FMCG IP, including trade marks, exporting, design registration, advertising standards, health claims, dispute resolution, and IP strategy.

James & Wells has an experienced team of plain-speaking FMCG specialists, who can help you with everything from registering your trade marks, to exporting advice, to defending your rights in court. We have a long and established reputation in the sector – it’s why the big names in FMCG have trusted us for years.

With the team’s patent, trade mark, design, business strategy and commercialisation know-how, we have the expertise and credentials to leverage your place in the market.

Our FMCG team can help you:

Identify

Identify your intellectual property in order to leverage your reputation and brand.

Protect

Protect new concepts relating to your product or process.

Licensing

We can help you facilitate business opportunities with license agreements.

IP Strategy

Develop strategy and business models e.g. exporting your IP instead of exporting tangible goods.

Design Registration

Secure design registrations to protect the look of a product.

Advertising Standards Codes

Advise on legal compliance including Advertising Standards Codes – advising, pre-vetting advertisements and responding to complaints.

Packaging and Labelling

Packaging and Labelling compliance – e.g. Food Standards Codes, Fair Trading Act etc.

Health Claims Compliance

Review existing/new product health claims and advise if they comply with the new standards.

Health Claims Strategy

Provide strategic advice on how to maximise the value of health claims for current and future products

Meet our FMCG experts

Tim Walden

Managing Partner

Tim Walden

Tim is the Managing Partner of James & Wells and specialises in trade mark law. Managing large trade mark portfolios, completing clearance investigations for new brands, devising filing strategies, establishing brand ownership, and enforcing trade marks overseas, are all part…

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Carrick Robinson

Partner

Carrick Robinson

Carrick is a trade mark and branding specialist with over 23 years of intellectual property experience in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. He assists businesses with mitigating brand risk and with leveraging their IP and works with brand managers…

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Stephanie Hadley

Associate

Stephanie Hadley

Stephanie is a Solicitor and Brand Strategist based in our Christchurch office. As a member of our dedicated ‘Food and Beverage Innovation’ team and with a background in marketing and consumer law, Stephanie is one of our Food Standards advisory…

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Ceri Wells

Partner

Ceri Wells

Ceri is a founding partner of James & Wells, a past president of the New Zealand Institute of Patent Attorneys, an experienced patent and trade mark attorney, and an outspoken champion of innovation. As an experienced lawyer and patent attorney…

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Ben Cain

Senior Associate

Ben Cain

Having spent 14 years as a professional marketer and brand design manager before qualifying as a lawyer, Ben’s passion is resolving disputes concerning registered or common law trade mark rights, domain names, copyright rights, registered designs, fair trading issues and…

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Kate Wilson

Consultant

Kate Wilson

Kate, a former founding partner of James & Wells, is a registered patent attorney (in New Zealand and Australia), has degrees in physics and chemistry, and is internationally recognised as a leading IP strategist with particular experience in patent matters….

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Janelle Borham

Partner

Janelle Borham

Janelle joined James & Wells in 2024 as a partner based in our Melbourne office, after spending 20 years as a principal heading up a sizeable team of patent attorneys at a large Australia firm. Janelle is a registered Australian…

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Insights & Resources

Your Champions of Innovation®

Since 1979, James & Wells has been at the forefront of innovation in Australasia. We are here to help you grow, leverage and protect your IP. Our depth of experience ranges from managing large IP portfolios for international corporations, right through to protecting the ideas of start-ups, and everything in between. No matter the size of your organisation, James & Wells are here to be your dedicated Champions of Innovation®.

We are a full-service IP firm – that means you will find everything you need to protect your IP just by working with us. We will help you with patents, trade marks, litigation and IP strategy – our people are externally recognised as some of the best in the business, and they work together to bring you custom-built IP solutions that are tailored exactly to your needs. When you work with James & Wells, you know you’re in a safe pair of hands, with a highly experienced team supporting you.

Talk to us today about how we can work together.

Contact Us