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

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…

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…

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…

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…

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Insights & Resources

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NZ to laugh last? The spoof is in the pudding

New Zealand comedians and critics may be able to poke fun at and critique the world more freely if a Bill to amend the Copyright Act is passed. The Green Party’s Copyright (Parody and Satire) Amendment Bill was introduced on 7 November 2024. The purpose of the Bill is to amend the Copyright Act 1994...

Trade marks

“Sorry for the inconvenience.” Are you? Really?

First published in Bay of Plenty Business News September 2024 edition “Customer satisfaction is worthless. Customer loyalty is priceless.” (Jeffrey Gitomer)1 The current economic climate is not an excuse for poor customer service – especially when brand loyalty is being ditched for cheaper alternatives.2 Nor is technology an excuse for poor customer service – especially...

Trade marks

The use of AI generated imagery – death by a thousand cuts?

First published in Bay of Plenty Business News July 2024 edition “The ancient Chinese torture tactic known as lingchi — which translates loosely to “slow slicing,” “lingering death,” or “death by a thousand cuts” — was a method of execution from the seventh century up until 1905, when it was officially outlawed. As the name...

Trade marks

The winners and the losers…a review of trade mark opposition and invalidity grounds in New Zealand

Raising alternative grounds of objection under s 17(1)(a) and (b) is of limited utility when the alleged unlawfulness is breach of the Fair Trading Act or passing off. If the opponent establishes s 17(1)(a) as a ground of objection, registration will be prohibited. If the opponent does not establish that s 17(1)(a) applies, then it...

No Children – Copyright in the aftermath of separation

Despite Terry Brooks’s assertion that “there was hardly any difference at all” between practicing law and writing fantasy novels, my experience as someone who moonlights as a fiction writer is that there is seldom interest in newly published judgments from writers, or any type of artists at all. However, that may not be true of...

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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.