Patent & Trade Mark Attorneys in Sydney

A registered patent attorney is qualified to draft and prosecute patent applications before IP Australia, and must hold a technical or scientific degree as well as passing the patent attorney qualifying examinations — that combination is what the role requires. An IP lawyer, or solicitor, advises on the surrounding legal questions: contracts, assignments, and infringement proceedings in the Federal Court. Baxter IP’s team are registered patent and trade mark attorneys, not solicitors. We secure and defend your rights before IP Australia end to end, and where a matter genuinely requires court litigation we brief and coordinate specialist counsel. So if you searched for an "IP lawyer in Sydney", the work you have in mind is almost certainly attorney work.

Yes. We are at Level 21, 207 Kent Street in the Sydney CBD, between Wynyard and Barangaroo and a short walk from Wynyard Station. Meetings are by appointment so that the attorney who works in your technical field is the one who sees you. Most matters then run by video, phone and email — but the first conversation about an invention is often easier face to face. Full details and a map are on our Sydney office contact page.

The same as anywhere in Australia — cost is driven by the complexity of the invention and the countries you want to cover, not by the city. A provisional application is the usual first step and the least expensive way to secure a priority date while you develop the idea or test the market. A standard Australian application, a PCT international application, or both, follow within twelve months. We quote a fixed fee for each stage before starting, and our guide to what drives patent costs sets out where the money actually goes.

Yes. An Australian trade mark registration covers every state and territory, so one filing protects your brand nationally. The process runs from a clearance search, through selecting the right classes of goods and services, filing with IP Australia, answering any examination report, and then acceptance and a two-month opposition period — typically seven to nine months for a straightforward application. Our step-by-step guide to trade mark registration in Australia covers each stage, or our trade mark attorneys can run it for you end to end.

Possibly not, but treat it as urgent. Australian law provides a twelve-month grace period that can excuse your own prior disclosure, and a provisional application filed now can still secure a priority date. But the grace period does not exist in every country, so a public disclosure can quietly destroy your rights overseas even where Australia forgives it. If you have demonstrated, pitched, sold or published anything, speak to an attorney before you do anything further.

Regularly. We act for manufacturers, technology businesses and agribusinesses in Newcastle and the Hunter, Wollongong and the Illawarra, and across regional New South Wales, and we keep a Central Coast office at Toukley. Because IP rights are federal and almost all of the work is documentary, distance makes no practical difference — matters run by video, phone and email, and you are welcome in the CBD whenever meeting in person would help.

If you have made something that works differently from what exists, that is a patent conversation and it should happen before any public disclosure. If you have a name, logo or product brand you intend to build on, that is a trade mark conversation and it should happen before launch, while changing course is still cheap. If the value is in how a product looks, a registered design may be the right protection. Most first conversations sort out which of the three you actually need, and often the answer is more than one.