I have acted for clients in High Court, Federal Court and Supreme Court disputes concerning IP infringement and validity, misleading and deceptive conduct, misuse of confidential information and breaches of directors' duties, including matters involving patents, copyright, trade marks, confidential information and related IP rights. 

I have deep life sciences industry expertise but also work across a range of other industries including IT, consumer goods, manufacturing, media, energy and resources, defence, telecommunications and automotive.

I regularly advise on brand protection, defending infringement claims, and managing IP risk in major commercial disputes and M&A transactions. I also advise on therapeutic goods regulation, including product approval, advertising and promotion, reimbursement and post-market compliance for medicines and medical devices, and act in disputes involving the TGA or competitor companies regarding regulatory matters.  

Over the course of my career, I have advised on more than 30 complex IT contract disputes arising from technology outsourcing, software development, systems implementations and software licensing, acting for both customers and vendors.

Career highlights

• Successfully acted for Sandoz in resisting an interlocutory injunction application made by Regeneron and Bayer, seeking to restrain the launch of the first biosimilar of aflibercept, a drug used in the treatment of serious eye conditions such as macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema.  
• Acted for Kreglinger Wine Estates and Pipers Brook Vineyard in defending misleading and deceptive conduct claims made by French chateau Vieux Château Certan (VCC) which did not result in any award of pecuniary relief and allowed Pipers Brook to supply its New Certan pinot noir wine in relabelled form. 
• Acted for Domain in defending Federal Court copyright infringement and Australian Consumer Law claims brought by realestate.com.au relating to alleged data scraping (resolved prior to trial).
• Acted for LONGi Green Energy Technology (LONGi) and its Australian subsidiary in defending a patent infringement proceeding brought by competitor Jinko in the Federal Court of Australia (resolved prior to trial).
• Acted for Hytera Communications in its successful defence of patent infringement and additional damages claims brought by Motorola in a long-running high stakes Federal Court dispute.
• Successfully acted for Hospira / Pfizer in Australia's first litigated regulatory dispute regarding biosimilars, which was decided by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
• Acted in interlocutory injunction applications and substantive patent infringement and invalidity litigation, including:
  • the Actavis Group’s successful application to have AstraZeneca’s patents for blockbuster cholesterol drug rosuvastatin (Crestor) declared invalid (and successfully defended AstraZeneca's infringement allegations), which was ultimately decided by the High Court; 
  • Alphapharm (Viatris) in successfully resisting an interlocutory injunction application made by Sanofi seeking to prevent the launch of a proposed insulin glargine injector pen product;
  • Mylan (Viatris) in patent infringement proceedings against Sun Pharma in respect of Mylan patents relating to fenofibrate, a drug used in the treatment of cholesterol and diabetic retinopathy;
  • Hospira's successful application for an interlocutory injunction against Interpharma to prevent it from launching a generic version of ICU specialist sedative drug dexmedetomidine.
• Acted in a number of trade mark, misleading and deceptive conduct, and passing off cases, including successfully defending Sweet Rewards against trade mark infringement claims pursued by Mars Australia in the Federal Court (and on appeal to the Full Court), and acting for Cadbury in litigation and trade mark office proceedings against Darrell Lea regarding the colour purple.
• Acted for copyright owners, and alleged infringers, on copyright disputes regarding source code, songs, photographs, building plans, databases, training materials, computer programs, video clips of sporting highlights, and technical documents submitted to regulatory authorities.
• Advised on breach of confidence disputes arising from former employees working for competitors, or companies allegedly misusing information obtained in the course of exploring potential commercial collaborations, including for Incitec Pivot in successfully defending Supreme Court proceedings for breach of confidence brought by former consultants Manderson M&F Consulting.