IP and small business

We learn how you work so we can adapt to provide our services in a way that suits you.

As a 100% Australian business itself, HIP takes great pride in helping other Australian businesses grow and succeed by working with you to implement and manage a successful strategy to identify and protect your IP.

How can Halfords help your business?

Strategic IP advice… Halfords IP Attorneys have vast experience in providing strategic IP guidance to businesses of all sizes, from small-to-medium sized enterprises (SME) to large international corporations.

In addition to performing the usual services of preparing and filing Patent and Trade Mark Applications, Halfords IP Attorneys can also guide you to ensure that your intellectual property protection is commercially focused to support your business development strategy and optimised to deter your competitors from producing similar ‘copycat’ products.

Identify your assets… Do you have IP assets that have not been protected? Or do you know whether or not IP protection may be possible for your products and/or processes?

It is quite common for businesses not to protect their products or processes, perhaps due to lack of time, knowledge or insufficient resources. It is also not uncommon for businesses to be unaware that IP protection may even be possible for their products.

The realisation that these, sometimes extremely valuable, IP assets have not been protected is often brought to light only when a competitor copies your product, and that little, if any, action can then be taken against the ‘copycat’.

Halfords IP Attorneys can assist you by attending you factory or office to look at your current and upcoming products and manufacturing processes, to then advise you what may be protectable by Patents, Designs, Trade Marks, etc. and, whether seeking such IP rights would be commercially cost-effective to your business development program.

Watch your competitors next move… Do you know what your competitors are up to, and what new products they may be about to release to compete with you?

In order to ensure that you are moving in the right direction, you should keep an eye on where your competitors are heading with their upcoming products.

Halfords IP Attorneys can arrange to watch the Patent and Designs office records, to see what new Patent or Design applications your competitors are filing to therefore gain insight into what future new products they are about to release to market. This can assist you in your marketing efforts to minimize the impact of a competitor’s new product, and allow you to consider what product you may want to produce in response, or what changes you may want to make to your product and/or you marketing materials in anticipation of your competitor’s next move.

Check your “freedom” to make/sell a new product… Are you in thinking of developing a new product? Do you want to check that you are not going to infringe on the IP rights of a competitor?

The last thing you want to do is expend a significant amount of money on tooling up, marketing or manufacturing a quantity of product, or, importing a supply of product into Australia, and then find out that your new product infringes the Patent, Trade Mark or Designs rights of another entity. This can not only cause you significant disruption to your business, but also may result in you defending legal action taken against you for ‘infringement’ of Patent, Trade Mark and/or Design rights. Such legal action may be extremely costly and may also result in your payment of ‘damages’ to the owner of the IP rights.

Halfords IP Attorneys have significant experience conducting ‘freedom to operate’ searches and providing you with advice as to your risk factors before you put a new product on the market, such that you can make an informed business decision whether or not to proceed to market.

Halfords IP Attorneys can also work with you to refine your new product, so you can make an appropriate modification to it to avoid infringement of your competitors IP rights.

Portfolio management… Do you need assistance in managing your IP portfolio to ensure that you do not miss any deadlines related to your Patents, Designs and/or Trade Marks? Or do you need assistance in conducting a one-off or periodic review of your portfolio to ensure that you are not paying for renewal fees for Patents, Trade Marks or Designs that you may no longer be using?

Halfords IP Attorneys can also work with you to refine your new product, so you can make an appropriate modification to it to avoid infringement of your competitors IP rights.

Halfords IP Attorneys will assist you in the management of your IP portfolios, either on a one-off basis or periodically, to ensure that you meet any IP deadlines in a timely manner, and that you are not maintaining IP rights related to outdated products.

Educate your organisations personnel… Do your people know much about IP? Do you, your management personnel, or your R&D Engineers know if a new idea invented in your organization is patentable?

Halfords IP can conduct in-house seminars to educate your personnel, at all levels in your organization, about Patents, Trade Marks and Designs.

We can assist you in implementing an in-house process for identification of potentially patentable subject matter, and then advise you as to the process and costs associated with seeking patent protection, such that you can make an informed decision as to whether to pursue patent rights.

Buying a business?… Are you looking at acquiring a business, or part of a business? Are there IP rights associated with that business?

Halfords IP can conduct ‘due diligence’ on the IP rights which are being sold as part of the business. We can check that the IP rights are in force, and, that they appropriately protect the products that they purport to protect to ensure that you are not over-paying for the business… you may be in a position to negotiate the price you are being asked to pay for the business.

Selling your business?… Are you looking at selling your business? Or are you looking at selling off a part of your business which is no longer in line with your long-term business objectives?

IP assets, including Patent, Trade Mark and Design rights can have high value and can significantly boost the sale price of your business.

Halfords IP can assist you in identifying that you are ready for the sale of your business, or part of your business, by ensuring that your IP rights are in good order, and/or, advising you whether it may be prudent to seek any other IP protection before you advertise your business for sale. This ensures that you are ready to maximize the sale price of your business.

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