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We are Intellectual Property Specialists.

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We are Intellectual Property Specialists

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Georgina O’Farrell

Joel Masterson

By George offers intellectual property solutions. We are creative thinkers and problem solvers.

We have decades of experience working in intellectual property in Australia and overseas, in large and small practices and in-house with publishers, media companies and FMCG companies. We’ve taken the grounding and technical excellence that we picked up in top tier law firms, added crisp communication and packaged it all up with a flexible fee structure. 

The result: high-quality, commercially astute advice and robust legal representation.

We don’t pretend to be a full-service law firm. We are fully focussed on doing what we do really well. We’re not trying to be the biggest. Like our clients, we’re focussed on being the best. 

Meet our people

By George offers intellectual property solutions. We are creative thinkers and problem solvers.

Georgina O’Farrell

Joel Masterson

By George’s team has years of experience working in intellectual property in Australia and the UK, in large and small practices and in-house with publishers, media companies and research institutes. By George encompasses the best elements of what we’ve learnt along the way about providing excellent client service, practical and strategic solutions and robust representation.

Meet our people

"By George" is the expression you utter when something falls into place with ease or the solution to your problem becomes clear.

We help market leading, privately held businesses to maximise their value.

Our clients come from diverse industries including retailing, manufacturing, hospitality, food and alcohol, fashion, film and TV, music, broadcasting, education and professional services. Our clients are market leaders who recognise the strategic value of IP and how to use it with impact.

We know that being the best means we need to attract and retain the most talented team. So we make a point of being a great place to work.

By George Legal is focussed on delivering high quality, results orientated advice and working on great projects.

  • Freedom to operate advice for trade marks, copyright, designs and patents
  • International trade mark portfolio management
  • Dispute resolution
  • IP advice and due diligence in business sale and acquisition transactions
  • Negotiation of supplier and software agreements
  • IP training for buyers and other staff
  • Letters of demand
  • Acting for plaintiffs and defendants in IP-related court proceedings and oppositions
  • Pre-litigation strategy and negotiation
  • Litigation, arbitration, mediation and expert determination
  • Settlement and coexistence agreements
  • Brand clearance advice for key naming projects
  • Terms of Service and website T&Cs
  • Software and app development agreements
  • Privacy policies and compliance advice
  • Domain name disputes and cybersquatting advice
  • Contractor and employment agreements
  • Advertising review and clearance
  • Brand clearance advice for key naming projects
  • International trade mark portfolio management
  • Dispute resolution
  • Drafting and negotiating supplier and distribution agreements
  • Contractor and employment agreements
  • Worldwide brand clearance
  • ABAC advice
  • Freedom to operate advice for trade marks, copyright, designs and patents
  • International trade mark portfolio management
  • Dispute resolution
  • IP advice and due diligence in business sale and acquisition transactions
  • Negotiation of supply and distribution agreements
  • Competition T&Cs
  • Drafting and negotiating industry template agreements
  • Advice and negotiation of rates for creators
  • Option and assignment agreements
  • Development, production, coproduction and investment agreements
  • Agreements with writers, directors and talent
  • Drafting and negotiating artist management agreements, record label agreements, publishing agreements, live performance agreements, venue hire agreements and synchronisation licence agreements
  • International trade mark portfolio management
  • Brand clearance and protection
  • Dispute resolution
  • Website takedowns
  • Domain name disputes and cybersquatting advice
  • Terms of Service and website T&Cs
  • Sound, strategic advice that overseas lawyers can easily relay to their clients
  • Registration, prosecution, oppositions and IP disputes
  • Notarial services
  • Filing Customs Notices and handling seizures by Customs
  • Expert handling of disputes in the .au domain space
  • Strategic advice easily relayed to the end-client
  • Full suite of IP protection and enforcement work across Australia and New Zealand
  • IP training
  • Trade mark filing, prosecution, renewal and enforcement
  • Design filing, registration, certification and enforcement
  • Litigation, arbitration, mediation and expert determination
  • Customs Notices and seizures
  • Website takedowns
  • Drafting and negotiating industry template agreements
  • Advice and negotiation of rates for creators
  • Option and assignment agreements
  • Development, production, co-production and investment agreements
  • Agreements with writers, directors and talent
  • Drafting and negotiation of artist management agreements, record label agreements, publishing agreements, live performance agreements, venue hire agreements, synchronization licence agreements
  • Design registration advice
  • Licensing, manufacturing and distribution agreements 
  • Enforcement and infringement action 
  • Public notary services
  • Officially recognised certification of documents, usually for use overseas
  • Powers of attorney
  • Certified copies of original documents
  • Witnessing declarations
  • Design registration advice
  • Brand clearance and protection
  • Licensing, manufacturing and distribution agreements
  • Enforcement and infringement action
  • Brand clearance advice for key naming projects
  • ABAC advice
  • International trade mark portfolio management
  • Dispute resolution
  • IP advice and due diligence in business sale and acquisition transactions
  • Negotiation of supply and distribution agreements
  • Competition T&Cs

Why By George? Because we get it.

“By George, she’s got it!” – My Fair Lady

Expertise​

Our service and expertise are top notch. We deliver excellent results for our clients.

We focus on what we do best. We are recognised intellectual property subject matter experts.

Our people are ranked in the prestigious World Trademark Review. This is the world’s leading directory for trade mark professionals. We are also listed in Doyle’s Guide as a Leading Contentious Intellectual Property Firm and as top-ranked IP lawyers in Best Lawyers published by the Australian Financial Review.

Cost transparency​

As a nimble team with modest overheads, we’re able to offer competitive, flexible fee arrangements tailored to your needs and those of the project. We don’t put a spin on our approach to pricing.

Industry knowledge

We have spent years working in publishing, film and digital media companies and with large retailers, fashion brands, hospitality venues, food and wine producers and brewers. We understand the importance of context and industry experience.

Established networks of experts

We know where our strengths lie: we’re IP experts. Where aspects of your project are outside our core expertise or require the input of foreign IP experts, we work with our established network of experts in other areas and jurisdictions to bring together the best team for the job.

WIN/WIN

We love Jon’s work. It resonates with what By George aims to achieve for our clients each day and the multiple nuances of winning.

 

There’s the big win, which we love as competitive folk who take what we do very seriously. The long term win, where the problem is solved and the risk is neutralised. The collective win, where the deal is done, the negotiation successfully concluded. And the team win, where everyone pulls together to deliver an excellent collective result. 

George is amazing. She can translate the impenetrable legal jargon of a publishing contract with seamless clarity and has a vast knowledge of publishing. She has negotiated on my behalf, producing outstanding results leaving me with more time to get on with the creative stuff. Her personal encouragement and commitment to the arts is all part of ensuring the best outcome for the artist.
Sue deGennaro, Children’s book illustrator
George represented me in my copyright case against Target Australia. A genuine David versus Goliath moment. Mostly individual artists do not have the capital to run a case like this and it was George’s steady, calm and generous approach that steered me through. She is professional in her engagement but also down to earth, super organised and diligent in her research and attention to detail.
Jon Campbell, Artist
George has provided me with outstanding, practical and effective legal advice. George has written copyright and commission agreements, subcontractor agreements, engaged in contract negotiations and successfully negotiated a number of copyright infringement settlements within Australia and internationally. George’s advice, guidance and professionalism has been invaluable to my artistic practice and I look forward to working with her for many years to come.
Esther Stewart, Artist
The most important things for me with an external lawyer are trust, honesty and the courage to tell me what I need to hear even if it’s not what I want to hear. Joel ticks all of those boxes. He also has the ability to understand needs across a variety of different businesses and sectors, he’s responsive and last but not least, I enjoy working with Joel. I’d recommend him to anyone looking for an Australian IP lawyer.
Ron Fuchs, Managing Director, FH Distribution, Singapore
We like Joel because we were able to form a good relationship with him quickly in the early days – he is easy to work with and we get on well. He gives us good advice and always helps us find a solution to whatever we need. And he’s fast and responsive – that’s really important to us because we constantly come up with new ideas for restaurant names and want to protect them quickly.
David Loh and Louis Kuo, Melbourne restaurateurs
We engaged George to represent us in a trade mark dispute in the Federal Court after she was referred to us by a TM attorney. In all of our dealings, George was always trustworthy and professional. She provided clear legal advice and strategy that considered our values and desired outcomes. George was engaged and responsive in the process alongside us at all times in a highly organised and timely manner. We highly recommend her.
Eva Nikias – Owner, La Siréne Brewing Co.
Joel understands retail and how IP fits into our business. I would recommend him to any other retailer who is looking for common sense guidance when it comes to protecting their IP and defending themselves against outside threats. Joel has gone to a lot of trouble to understand our business and its priorities, risks and people. I know that I can count on him to deliver clear and concise advice, whether it’s to our senior management, buyers or back-end staff.
Leigh Gratzer, General Counsel, Spotlight Group
Joel is the sort of external lawyer every in-house lawyer wants. I trust him not only to get the answer right, but to explain it in a way that stakeholders will understand. I also know that when I contact Joel he will be responsive, fast and cost effective. And I like him personally too.
Jessica Ransley, Legal Counsel, Spotlight Group
From our very first email, Tali and the By George team have been a dream to work with throughout the course of our trademark matter. From the outset, Tali took the time to research and understand our specific needs and has consistently shown a genuine interest in our industry and business model. We are an international client with sometimes tricky timezone issues - that has never been an issue.
Belinda Stark, Aloha Brands
Tali is our first port of call for all IP/trademark issues. Besides her engaging and personable manner, the great thing about working with Tali is her ability to quickly identify the issues, interpret them in plain English and arrive at commercially pragmatic solutions that balance risk and reward. She’s extremely responsive and focuses on achieving an outcome. This has increasingly meant we use Tali as a trusted source of advice for broader legal/commercial questions. Highly recommended.
Tim Sturrock, General Manager, Rollie
Finding the right name for our new venture was a considerable challenge. Tali made this process simple. She shared our journey with grace, expertise, and a good dose of humour. She provided clear guidance for entering local and international markets with our budget in mind. We feel understood and respected by this legal team. It's rare to find this level of genuine interest in the ongoing success of a company.
Anita Brown-Major, Founder, Cliterate
We have worked with both Lesley and James and highly recommend them both. They are strategic thinkers with an obvious deep level of knowledge on a broad range of commercial law issues. They are also responsive, upfront, and genuine. Highly recommend.
Matt Hurle, Co-Founder, Brandcrush
Fowles Wines has relied on James to look after our global trade marks portfolio for more than 15 years, as well as being our go-to person when it comes to legal issues – whether the questions are wine industry specific, or general commercial. We know we can rely on him to turn things around quickly when required, and to ensure proposed strategies are sensible and commercial.
Matt Fowles, CEO, Fowles Wine
Pernod Ricard has trusted James to look after our Australian trade marks portfolio for more than a decade, as well as helping our inhouse team with advice regarding other IP and industry specific legal issues. He knows our business very well, is a font of knowledge, focused on commercial outcomes and most importantly, great to deal with.
Helen Strachan, Legal & Corporate Affairs Director, Pernod Ricard
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We acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation as the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and work.  We pay respect to Elders, past and present, as well as to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander in the wider Melbourne community and beyond, and to their cultural heritage, traditional arts, sacred sites and customs.

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