Hands pressing a brass seal onto a certificate on a wooden desk, with red and brown ribbons beside it – trade mark registration.

Once your trade mark is registered, how safe is it? For its first twelve months, less safe than most brand owners assume – the Registrar of Trade Marks holds a power...

Brass chess knight on a dark reflective surface over a faint glowing world-map grid, shallow focus.

Over the past two decades, US firm value flipped from mostly tangible to over 90% intangible — and the rulebook for defending those intangibles quietly rewrote itself underneath everyone. A recent...

Clear unlabelled spirit bottle on terracotta earth with a sunlit coastal vineyard blurred behind it.

If your product’s value lives in where it comes from — a region, a method, a 450-year tradition — the hardest question in your IP strategy is whether the law will...

Two wrestlers grappling on a boardroom table as shocked businesspeople in suits look on

A McKinsey study found that 44% of directors said their boards simply reviewed and approved management’s proposed strategies—and only 10% felt they fully understood the industry dynamics they were governing. For...

A registered design buys you a finite head start, not a permanent moat. When it lapses, competitors are free — and, the law says, encouraged — to copy. The Federal Court’s...

Timeline showing years from 1850 to 2024 with the word ZIP emerging prominently

A catchy name and a fast start built a billion-dollar lending business — but neither could rescue the trade mark when it mattered most. Australia’s High Court has now confirmed that...

Person interacting with a holographic AI data interface displaying growth charts and security icons in a high-tech control room

The recent McKinsey article “Using AI to boost productivity is unlikely to create a sustainable advantage” (read it here) offers a timely reminder for business owners with valuable IP portfolios: AI-driven...

European Patents – do applicants have to amend the description to match the allowed claims? Finally there is a referral to the Enlarged Board of Appeal (G1/25) to sort out this...