Ben Coogan

Ben Coogan practises in all areas of intellectual property law including agreements and disputes, information technology, privacy, confidential information, competition and consumer law, and litigation. In addition to his intellectual property law experience, Ben is also an experienced practitioner in the area of defamation and media law.

Ben has considerable specialist litigation and prosecution experience in patent, copyright, trade mark, designs, and confidential information matters. Ben’s experience extends from acting locally in Queensland, to national and international matters. He also has broad experience across the Federal Court of Australia. Ben is also admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand.

Ben advises international and national clients on their intellectual property and technology related contracts (including technology development and outsourcing arrangements), technology and IP licensing, research collaborations, e-commerce, intellectual property commercialisation, distribution agreements, other technology and intellectual property procurement and supply agreements, and regulatory compliance issues. Ben has experience acting as the independent reviewer of companies’ competition and consumer law compliance programs and reporting to the ACCC.

Ben is a qualified mediator, and acts as mediator in a variety of disputes. He also has experience in acting for clients and as an independent supervising solicitor in the execution of Anton Piller orders.

Ben has completed his Masters of Laws specialising in intellectual property law. He is a current committee member of the Queensland Law Society’s (QLS) Technology and Intellectual Property Committee and long-serving past committee member of the QLS Competition and Consumer Law Committee. He is a long-serving past committee member and treasurer of the Licensing and Executives Society of Australia & New Zealand (LESANZ) (Queensland Chapter), and a member of the Intellectual Property Society of Australia & New Zealand (IPSANZ), Law Council of Australia Intellectual Property Committee as well as the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC).

Relevant experience includes:

• Acted for the Hart Trading Pty Ltd in their successful defence to allegations of breaches of consumer legislation relating to the sale of a franchised business.
• Acted for Uniline Australia Ltd in its successful patent and designs litigation against SBriggs Pty Ltd. This technology related to a mechanical product used in blinds.
• Acted for Pac Mining and Central Queensland Mining Supplies and CQMS in patent litigation against Esco Corporation and Bradken Resources which went up to the High Court of Australia. The technology relates to the coal industry.