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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.

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 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 happy expression you utter when something falls into place with ease.

By George Legal helps local and international clients protect and commercialise their intellectual property.

By George Legal was established in 2016 to offer high quality, specialised and cost-effective IP advice to individuals and businesses as an alternative to the often impersonal, inappropriately delegated and costly services offered by big city firms.

By George offers legal advice for creative people and businesses, big and small and everywhere in between.

  • 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
  • Freedom to operate advice for trade marks, copyright and designs
  • Website terms and conditions
  • Software and app development agreements
  • Privacy policies and compliance advice
  • Domain name disputes and cybersquatting advice
  • Freedom to operate advice for trade marks, copyright and designs
  • International trade mark portfolio management
  • Dispute resolution
  • Drafting and negotiating supplier and distribution 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
  • 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 in-house 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
  • Public and private art commission agreements
  • Advice on the protection, registration and enforcement of copyright and design rights
  • Advice on digitising collections of art and other works
  • Drafting, negotiating and terminating agency agreements
  • Advice in relation to exhibiting and publishing controversial artwork
  • 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

Why By George? Because we get it.*

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

Excellent service and expertise

While we don’t have the same fees as large firms, our service and expertise are second to none and we deliver excellent outcomes for our clients.

Competitive legal fees

As we’re not tied to billable targets, and we don’t have expensive overheads, we 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 artists, 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

Where aspects of projects are outside our core expertise, we work with an established network of experts 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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