Logo

Intellectual Property

International Filings

View all Insights

Contact us

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

View All
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…

Read More
Kate Wilson

Consultant – IP Strategist

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….

Read More
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…

Read More
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…

Read More
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…

Read More
Ben Cain

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…

Read More
Stephanie Hadley

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…

Read More
View All People

Insights & Resources

View All Insights

IP update

New Zealand and China introduce Patent Prosecution Highway

On 1 November 2024, the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) and the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) launched a new Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot programme. The PPH programme is intended to run for at least two years (i.e. until 31 October 2026) and allows patent applicants to request accelerated examination of...

IP update

Changes to IP Australia Official Fees

IP Australia have announced changes to their patent fee procedure which will be effective from 1st October 2024. These changes include incremental fee increases (+10-20%) for patent prosecution and large increases in opposition fees (up to 100%). The most significant change is to bring forward the timing as to when excess claim fees are incurred....

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...
View All Insights

How we can help

Patents
Trade Marks
Copyright
Licensing & Commercialisation
Enforcement & Dispute Resolution
Design Registrations
Anti-counterfeiting
Trade Secrets & Non-Disclosure
International Filings
Renewals & Maintenance
Geographic Indications
Domain Names

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