DISPUTES

Talk to a Disputes LawyerFree IP DownloadHave you received a letter of demand? Is someone using your intellectual property without your permission? If so, you are in the right place. (Received a notice regarding Getty Images - read our 7 tips here) Acacia Law partners have each personally stood up in the Court of Appeal (and other courts), and presented legal arguments, been quizzed and scrutinised by three judges. There is nothing like it to sharpen your focus and fully understand how legal disputes play out in the courts.

One time, one of our clients became aware that an unauthorised copy of his product was going to appear at an agricultural show the next day, and for the rest of that week. Within 24 hours, we had compiled a case, flown hundreds of kilometres to the location of the agricultural show, appeared before the judge in that area, argued against the copycat, and received an injunction stopping the copycat from selling the product at that show. Our client was delighted! If the copycat had been allowed to be sold at the show, our client would have lost tens of thousands of dollars. Not only that, because the copycat insisted they had done nothing wrong, we appeared before the judge again a few weeks later. The judge made the injunction permanent, and awarded substantial costs to our client, who by this time was ecstatic. Another time, our client was threatened with being sued by Apple Inc for alleged infringement of Apple's patents, designs and trade marks, which if proven, could have cost our client around 8 million dollars. They rang us at 4:50pmon the day that a long weekend was starting. Once we reviewed the situation and all of Apple's (very many) patents designs and trade marks, we explained to our clients that resolving the case out of court would cost them the least money. We would not need to focus on whether or not there was infringement, we simply needed to work out the best commercial and legal solution for our client. In the end, we managed to negotiate a settlement whereby our client became an authorised distributor of Apple's products, and our client made a contribution towards Apple's legal costs of a few thousand dollars. This turned a potential disaster (the court case could have bankrupted our client, even if they had won, because of the potential legal fees involved), into an income-generating win for our client.