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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.

By George’s team has years of experience working in intellectual property in Australia and the UK, in large practices and small and inhouse 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 offers intellectual property solutions. We are creative thinkers and problem solvers.

Georgina O’Farrell

Joel Masterson

George and Joel have been friends and colleagues since 2003 when they worked together as articled clerks in the IP department of one of Australia’s biggest law firms. Collectively, they have more than 30 years’ experience working in intellectual property in Australia and the UK, in large practices and small and inhouse with publishers, media companies and research institutes. By George encompasses the best elements of what they’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 maximise their value.

Our clients operate in a range of fields, including retailing, manufacturing, hospitality, food and alcohol, film and TV, education, professional services and more. Our clients are the market leaders in their industries and they recognise the strategic importance of their IP assets to their market position.

We don’t pretend to be a full service 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.

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

We recognise that this means we need to attract and retain the most talented team, so we’re also focussed on being a great place to work.

  • 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 IT agreements
  • IP training for buyers and other staff
  • 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, synch licence 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
  • 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
  • Freedom to operate advice for trade marks, copyright and designs
  • Brand protection, including for international franchises
  • Dispute resolution
  • Advice in relation to food marketing and labelling, country of origin claims and naming issues
  • Registration and protection of geographical indications
  • Fast and reliable service
  • 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
  • We’ve got you covered on trade marks, copyright, designs and patents
  • Our advice is sound, strategic and expressed in a way that can be passed straight on to the business
  • With years of inhouse experience, we understand the importance of expressing advice in a straight forward manner and can work directly with staff
  • Big firm quality with small firm pricing – giving you more for less
  • Preparing and responding to letters of demand
  • Pre-litigation enforcement, strategy and negotiation
  • Litigation, arbitration, mediation and expert determination
  • All industry sectors across all forms of IP – trade marks, copyright, designs and patents – for plaintiffs and defendants
  • Design registration advice
  • Licensing, manufacturing and distribution agreements 
  • Enforcement and infringement action 

Why By George? Because we get it.*

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

Expertise

Our service and expertise are second to none and we deliver excellent results for our clients. We don’t pretend to be a full service firm. We are fully focussed on doing what we do really well. We are recognised as subject matter experts, including as a Leading Contentious Intellectual Property Firm (Doyle’s Guide, 2021) and as top ranked IP lawyers in Best Lawyers published by The Australian Financial Review (2021).

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.

Industry knowledge

We have spent years working in publishing, film and digital media companies and with large retailers, fashion brands, hospitality venues and 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, we work with an established network of experts in other areas to bring together the best team for the job.

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
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