Current practice

In 1997 Paul joined Freehills Patent Attorneys (now Freehills Patent & Trade Mark Attorneys), in Sydney as a partner. He acts as patent attorney for many of the firm's leading Sydney clients. He has wide experience in the patent attorney profession internationally and this allows Paul to be an ideal link between the patent attorney practice and the intellectual property section of Freehills. Paul thus enhances the firm's ability to offer a truly integrated practice specialising in the creation of intellectual property rights, the commercialisation of those rights, and the protection of those rights against attack and infringement.

Industry experience

Paul's practice, over the past six years, has involved advising clients in a wide range of technologies including, in particular, software development, business methods, mining, hydraulic, general mechanical, and fluid dynamics technologies. In addition, he has been extensively involved in advising on the commercialisation of various aspects of intellectual property for major corporations. He has also been involved in preparing commercial agreements relating to research and development contracts, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry. He has been the principal solicitor involved in defending clients in the mining industry on allegations of patent infringement.

Professional background

Paul was born and grew up in South Africa and was awarded a degree of BSc Civil Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1979. He was awarded a degree of Bachelor of Laws from the same university in 1985 and qualified as a patent attorney in the same year. His early training as a patent attorney was done in South Africa.

For four years, from 1987 to 1991, Paul trained and worked in Australia with a leading firm of Australian patent attorneys and qualified during that time as an Australian Patent Attorney and a Victorian Barrister and Solicitor. Thereafter he spent six years as a partner with a firm of South African patent attorneys specialising in patent specification drafting and prosecution, intellectual property licensing, and patent litigation.

Paul is a member of the Institute of Patent Attorneys of Australia, the Intellectual Property Society of Australia, the Law Society of Victoria, and the Asian Patent Attorneys Association.