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Nicholas is a Partner in the firm's Life Sciences and
Intellectual Property & Technology practices. He is a
dual-qualified (Australia and the United States) specialist
intellectual property (IP) litigator. Nicholas offers a level of
experience unique to the Australian market, having spent many years
litigating IP disputes in both the US and Australia.
WHAT ARE YOUR KEY AREAS OF PRACTICE?
Patent law in the life sciences and technology sectors and
copyright and trade mark law, as they relate to the internet and
cutting-edge technologies.
WHERE HAS THE PRACTICE OF IP LAW TAKEN YOU?
Around the world. My love of IP law first took me to New York,
where I obtained a Masters of Law from Columbia University. I then
worked as a patent litigator at the New York office of Fish &
Neave, one of the top specialist patent litigation firms in the US,
for several years. While at Fish & Neave, I acted for many
Fortune 500 life science and technology clients, including in one
matter that went to the US Supreme Court. Since returning to
Australia, IP law has then taken me to the UK, much of Europe,
Singapore and New Zealand, as well as many return visits to the
US.
WHAT ARE THE MOST NOTABLE CASES/ MATTERS YOU HAVE WORKED
ON?
It's hard to choose, but three of my favorites would be:
Defending Sharman Networks - the distributor of the
peer-to-peer software Kazaa® - in what was at the time
Australia's largest ever copyright infringement litigation.
This was counterpart litigation to the Grokster case heard by the
US Supreme Court, and was the first major Australian case to give
detailed consideration to the application of copyright law to the
internet.
Acting for Eli Lilly & Company as part of a global team
involved in multi-jurisdictional patent infringement and revocation
proceedings. In the Australian proceedings, I acted for Eli Lilly
in successfully resisting a challenge to the patent term extension
of one of the patents-in-suit, successfully amending the claims of
that patent in the course of litigation and successfully obtaining
an interlocutory (preliminary) injunction enjoining the marketing
of two generic competitors' products. The proceedings
established an important set of guiding principles in Australia for
determining when an interlocutory injunction will be granted in
pharmaceutical patent infringement cases.
Directly advising the then Australian Prime Minister on the
legislation to implement the pharmaceutical and patent aspects of
the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement. In doing so, I was able to
call on both my US and Australian experience to advise from both
perspectives.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE THING TO DO OUTSIDE OF WORK?
As much as I loved practicing law in New York, I always felt the
call of Australia's beaches, the best beaches in the world.
Since returning to Australia, I have been blessed with two sons. My
favourite thing to do outside of work is to spend time at the beach
with them and my wife.
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