Creative Industries

Our creative industries experts regularly advise global names on licensing, due diligence, infringement advice, and intellectual property commercialisation.

Creative industries expertise

Our creative industries experts regularly advise on licensing, due diligence, infringement advice, and intellectual property commercialisation.

James & Wells has an experienced team of Creative Industries specialists, with hands-on experience in complex areas.

The Creative Industries team can help you with everything from advice on licensing to defending your rights in court. We have a long and established reputation in intellectual property – it’s why the big names in Australasia trust us to protect their IP.

Meet our experts

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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…

Partner

Jason Wach

Jason is an experienced intellectual property litigator. He has an extensive background in acting for local and international businesses and assisting them with the enforcement of intellectual property rights. He has appeared as counsel and assisted senior counsel in all…

Associate

Stephanie Hadley

Stephanie is an Associate and Trade Mark Attorney based in our Christchurch office. With a background in marketing, media, and food and beverage law, she delivers quality legal service and brand strategy on trade marks, has specialist knowledge in food…

Partner

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…

Partner

Mark Williams

Mark is a Registered Australian Trade Mark Attorney and leads the James & Wells trade mark team in Australia. Mark specialises in both contentious and non-contentious trade mark work including trade mark clearance searching, infringement advice, filing and prosecution of…

Partner

Tonia Brugh

Tonia is a dual qualified trade mark and intellectual property specialist, with over 20 years of domestic and international experience advising clients in this area. Tonia also has significant experience in the entertainment and IT sectors, including drafting, reviewing and…

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Insights & Resources

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Trade marks

2024…new year, new opportunities?

First published in Bay of Plenty Business News January 2024 edition “Victory comes from finding opportunities in problems” (Sun Tzu) “Every time. Every, single, time. There has got to be a better way!” So you grumpily say to yourself as another pair of trousers is ruined from spilt bleach. Whatever the circumstances, if you are...

Trade marks

Brand protection in China

The China National Intellectual Property Administration (“CNIPA”) examines around 10 million trade mark applications annually. At the end of 2022, the Chinese Trade Marks Register stood at around 42 million trade mark registrations. Against the backdrop of these numbers, businesses too often enter the Chinese market without having properly thought about brand protection – only...

Trade marks

Sara Lee – just desserts or just another post-Covid victim?

First published in Bay of Plenty Business News November 2023 edition On 19 October, Australian dessert brand, Sara Lee, went into voluntary administration. Many New Zealanders will know Sara Lee of course for its range of frozen cheesecakes, pies and puddings. According to Vaughan Strawbridge, one of the voluntary administrators appointed,1 “Sara Lee is an...

Trade marks

Beware, beware how you compare…

First published in Bay of Plenty Business News September 2023 edition Capturing the consumer dollar can be a challenge at the best of times. At the worst of times, such as arguably those New Zealand is experiencing at the moment, it can be even harder. It is not surprising then that to maximise their chances...

Generative AI and Copyright: are you taking the right precautions?

Businesses have been using AI for a long time now to gather insights into their data and make strategic decisions, however recent generative AI improvements have brought the power of AI into the public’s hands like never before. As a certain spider once said, with great power comes great responsibility. Generative AI technologies can now...

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How we can help

Trade Marks

Licensing & Commercialisation

Enforcement & Dispute Resolution

Design Registrations

Anti-counterfeiting

Trade Secrets & Non-Disclosure

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.

Creative Industries