Our experience in Australia

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Australia is one of the Asia Pacific region’s most active markets for innovation and IP plays a central role in how that innovation gets protected, commercialised and defended.

The businesses doing interesting things here tend to be building for markets well beyond Australian borders, and their IP strategy needs to reflect that ambition.

We advise clients across Australia’s diverse economy, from early-stage businesses working out what to protect first, to large organisations managing complex, multi-jurisdictional portfolios. Whatever stage you’re at, the goal is the same: IP that works as hard as the business behind it.

How IP protection works in Australia

Patents, trade marks, registered designs and plant breeder’s rights are all administered by IP Australia. Copyright is not registered here. It applies automatically once a work exists in material form, which makes evidence of creation and ownership more important than any filing step.

Australia is a member of the Paris Convention, the Patent Cooperation Treaty and the Madrid Protocol, so an Australian filing can be the foundation for protection overseas, or an overseas filing can be used to enter Australia. IP Australia also acts as an International Searching Authority under the PCT, which gives applicants an early read on how their invention is likely to fare before they commit to filing costs in other markets.

A few features of local practice matter commercially. Trade mark examination in Australia considers both distinctiveness and earlier conflicting marks, so a conflict is usually raised by the examiner rather than left for a third party to find. Registered designs need to be certified before they can be enforced, which is a separate step after registration and is often missed. And the innovation patent has closed to new applications, so businesses that once relied on it for fast, short-term protection now need a different approach.

Industries we work with in Australia

We work across the sectors that drive Australian innovation, helping clients protect the technology and brands their commercial value actually rests on.

Electronics, embedded systems & IoT

The best electronic products are built by hardware, software and connectivity teams working as one. We bring engineering backgrounds of our own, so we work alongside your developers to identify what’s genuinely inventive and protect it in a way that supports the whole product roadmap.

Mining, resources & industrial equipment

Australian mining, energy and heavy industry have produced some of the country’s most valuable engineering IP, and much of it ends up licensed or deployed offshore. We help clients protect equipment, processes and control systems in a way that holds up in the jurisdictions where the technology is actually manufactured and used.

Software, AI & digital technologies

In software, the hardest IP question is often what can be protected at all. We help software, AI and data-driven businesses find the protection that fits: patents where the invention supports them, alongside copyright, trade secrets and clear ownership of what your team and your models create, so your IP keeps pace with your product.

Start-ups, scale-ups & emerging technologies

For an early-stage company, your IP is often the most valuable thing you own, and the first thing an investor or acquirer examines. We help founders make the right calls early, when budgets are tight and timing is everything: what to protect now, what can wait, and how to build an IP position that adds real weight to your next raise.

Medical devices & health technology

Long development timelines and heavy capital requirements mean IP decisions in this sector are investment decisions. We advise on protection strategies that support funding rounds, clinical partnerships and eventual market entry, and on the timing questions that come with publishing and disclosure.

Manufacturing & fabrication

Your edge often lives on the factory floor, not in anything a customer can see. A better process, tool or material can be a genuine competitive advantage, so we help manufacturers decide what to patent and what to hold as a trade secret, and protect the know-how that makes your operation hard to copy, even as designs and tooling move across suppliers and borders.

Consumer products & industrial design

Pick up a well-designed product and you can feel the work in it, the shape, the detail, the way it sits in the hand. That’s an asset, and it’s protectable. We help product companies cover what they’ve created across design rights, patents and brand, so the things that make your product worth choosing become lasting commercial value.

Entertainment, gaming & digital media

A game is three businesses in one. There’s the technology that runs it, the creative content that makes it worth playing, and the brand people come back to. Each is protected differently, and we bring all three together, so your engine, your world and your title are covered as one.

Fashion, luxury brands & consumer goods

In fashion and luxury, the name is the asset. Decades of reputation can sit in a single mark, and a brand is only as strong as its protection. We build and defend trade mark portfolios that hold their value across markets, and move fast when someone trades on a name that isn’t theirs.

Mechanical engineering & design

Good mechanical engineering is quietly clever, a mechanism, a tolerance, a way of doing something simpler than everyone else does it. We have the engineering background to see it. We work with mechanical innovators to identify the real invention in a design and turn it into patents that protect market share and add value to the business.

Energy, battery & clean technologies

Cleantech lives or dies on being first and being fundable. We help energy innovators lock in protection early across generation, storage and grid technologies, so your IP stands up to the technical due diligence that serious investment and project finance bring.

Building, construction & infrastructure

Construction isn’t a sector people associate with patents, which is exactly why there’s an edge in it. New materials, methods, components and systems are all protectable, and most go unprotected. We help builders, engineers and product suppliers turn genuine innovation on site and in the supply chain into IP that holds commercial value.

Chemicals & advanced formulas

Every valuable formulation comes with a choice: patent it and disclose it, or keep it secret and protect it another way. Get that call right and the advantage lasts; get it wrong and you give it away. We help chemical innovators weigh patents against trade secrets and build protection around formulations, processes and applications.

Brand protection, trade marks & commercialisation

A brand is a business asset, and like any asset it can be built, defended and sold. We manage trade marks from first clearance through to registration, enforcement and licensing, so your brand is protected as it grows and ready to work commercially, whether that’s entering a new market, franchising, or closing a deal.

Automotive & motorsport technologies

Modern vehicles compete on technology now, not just mechanics. From EV systems and control software to the marginal gains that win on track, the value increasingly sits in electronics and code. We protect innovation across the vehicle and build the IP position that underpins your commercial standing in a crowded, fast-moving market.

Agritech, horticulture & forestry

Agtech innovation rarely sits in one discipline. A single product can combine several fields of science, engineering and software, and the inventive part can live in any of them, or in the way they work together. Seeing the whole picture is how you capture it all. We work across every field involved, so we can find what’s genuinely inventive wherever it sits and protect it with the right mix of patents, trade secrets and brand.

Who you'll work with

Barry Meskin

Founder and Principal

Barry Meskin, the founder and principal of IP Guardian, is an experienced attorney and is passionate about helping clients’ protect their inventions and brands. He has over 20 years’ experience as a patent and trade mark attorney at specialist IP law firms and as in-house counsel in Australia.

Ali Al-anbuky

Principal and Senior Patent & Trade Marks Attorney

Ali is a senior Trans-Tasman Patent and Trade Marks Attorney and is widely recognised as the “IP guy” for some of New Zealand’s most successful and innovative technology start”‘ups. His practice is built around making high-quality, commercially aligned IP services accessible to tech companies and businesses with global ambitions.

Matthew Howe

Principal and Senior Patent Attorney

Matt advises on building, asserting and defending global patent portfolios across electronics, embedded systems, power management and automotive technologies, drawing on his own experience founding and exiting a technology company.

Mike Biagio

Principal and Senior Patent Attorney

Mike Biagio is principal of IP Guardian and has been involved in specialist intellectual property law since 2001 in a variety of countries including South Africa, New Zealand and Australia, and has more than 21 years of experience as a patent attorney.

Simon Murphy

Principal and Senior Patent Attorney

Simon has been practising in the intellectual property field since 1996, bringing nearly three decades of experience across patent drafting, prosecution, oppositions, and strategic IP advisory work.

Sandra Murphy

Patent Attorney

Sandra is an experienced patent attorney with eight years of practice supporting clients across New Zealand, Australia, and internationally. Her work spans the full patent lifecycle, including patent drafting, prosecution, infringement and validity assessments, novelty evaluations, and freedom”‘to”‘operate investigations.

Tom Hamilton-Gilligan

Patent and Trade Marks Attorney

Tom is a registered Australian patent attorney with a background in software engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Computing and Software Systems. His technical background in computing, software systems, physics, mathematics, and electrical engineering gives him a strong foundation for quickly understanding new and complex technologies.

Dr Seán Klinkradt

Patent Attorney

Dr Seán Klinkradt is an accomplished intellectual property professional with more than two decades of experience advising clients across Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Seán brings a rare combination of deep scientific expertise, legal training, and cross-jurisdictional experience.

Robin Richardson

Trade Marks Attorney

Robin is a highly experienced trade mark practitioner with a genuinely global perspective, having practised across the UK, South Africa, and Australia, and served as senior corporate IP counsel for a multinational organisation. His career spans leading IP firms and in”‘house roles, giving him a rare blend of legal, commercial, and operational insight.

Let's talk about your IP

Every market is different and so is every client. Tell us what you’re working on and we’ll help you work out the right approach.