Donna specialises in intellectual property law and her practice covers both contentious and non-contentious intellectual property matters. Donna advises clients on intellectual property identification, protection and commercialisation as well as assisting clients with intellectual property disputes. Donna's areas of expertise also encompass technology, privacy and Australian Consumer Law issues. Her clients include financial institutions, pharmaceutical companies, multinational companies, government departments and large Australian retailers .
Donna advises her clients on:
global trade mark strategies
rebranding projects and product launches
copyright issues
registered designs and IP infringement claims.
Her practice regularly covers the commercialisation and licensing of intellectual property rights, which includes the drafting and negotiation of a broad range of IP agreements.
Donna assists clients with enforcing their intellectual property rights including acting in trade mark opposition proceedings before IP Australia and in Federal Court proceedings. Donna has also worked with clients to enforce their rights where the infringement has occurred on social media sites.
Donna regularly advises clients in areas such as domain name disputes, privacy and data protection and Australian Consumer Law issues. Donna also carries out compliance reviews for advertising campaigns.
Donna acts for large financial institutions and has worked on a number of major rebranding projects, as well as assisting a financial institution with intellectual property issues in respect of its national television advertising campaign. She also manages the international trade mark portfolio for a pharmaceutical company.
Recent work includes advising a Swiss financial institution on trade mark infringement by a third party based in Australia, acting for the operator of medical and occupational health centres in respect of Federal Court proceedings involving intellectual property issues and representing an e-learning provider in domain name complaints filed with the World Intellectual Property Organisation against two cyber squatters .
Donna has also been advising clients on the reforms to the Privacy Act which take effect in March 2014 and assisting clients with implementing appropriate changes to documents and practices.
Donna regularly presents seminars on intellectual property issues and recently presented seminars on social media and advertising legal issues, copyright issues as well as a number of seminars on the privacy reforms. She is recognised in Chambers Asia Pacific 2013 and 2012 and Chambers Global 2013 and 2012 as a leading individual for intellectual property where she is noted as outstanding for "her proactivity, organisational skills and assertive advice." Donna is also listed as a recommended lawyer in Asia Pacific Legal 500 2013 as having "extensive experience and knowledge" and for "gaining a solid understanding of clients' businesses" . In Asia Pacific Legal 500 (2012), Donna was recognised as "an expert in trade mark law" .
Donna has been described as "hardworking, proactive… and a good communicator, consistently able to bring in the right expertise and come up with good ideas" in Australasian Legal Business 2011.
More information about Donna:
Qualifications
BEc LLB
Associations
Member of the International Trade Mark Association (INTA)
Member of the Licensing Executive Society of Australia and New Zealand (LESANZ)
Member of the Copyright Society of Australia
Member of the Intellectual Property Society of Australia and New Zealand (IPSANZ)
Member of the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA)
