AJPark

John has practiced as a patent attorney since 1975 and joined A J Park as a partner in 1999.  John is a trade mark strategist with extensive experience managing trade mark portfolios and advising on branding strategies for a wide range of clients from individuals through to large multi-nationals, both in New Zealand and overseas.

John advises clients from a range of industries including the food, fashion, wine, entertainment, media, freight, retailing, finance and insurance businesses.  His major New Zealand clients include Griffins Foods Limited, Sky Television, Vitaco/Healtheries (manufacturers of vitamin preparations and health foods), Manuka Health Company (exporters of manuka honey worldwide), Antipodes Water Company (global exporters of New Zealand bottled water) and the Foodstuffs group of companies. Overseas clients include Time Warner Inc, Disney Corporation, Lacoste, Kohler Group and Citigroup.

John is one of the Global Top 20 Most Highly Regarded Individuals, as ranked by the International Who's Who of Trademark lawyers 2009.  John has led a number of high profile projects including a foreign filing programme and strategic brand re-positioning exercise for Les Mills International Group and implementing a compliance programme to prevent the SELLOTAPE and GLAD WRAP brands becoming generic. He has also prepared strategic plans to protect the NAVMAN, MAINFREIGHT and TRELISE COOPER brands both in New Zealand and overseas.

In his role as partner and team leader in A J Park's Auckland office, John is involved with:

• trade mark clearance searches and advising on availability;
• prosecution of trade mark applications;
• trade mark opposition and revocation actions;
• local and international client trade mark portfolio management;
• strategic input for local and overseas branding programmes;
• IP audits of clients' trade mark portfolios;
• domain name protection and dispute resolution;
• anti-counterfeiting practice including Customs procedures;
• trade mark litigation;
• compliance programmes for avoiding genericism of brands;
• indigenous rights issues in relation to brands.

John writes regularly for New Zealand and international publications.  He attends overseas conferences and most recently made presentations on genericism in the computer industry at the 2007 Chicago INTA meeting, anti-counterfeiting for INTA in Washington DC (February 2005), for IBA in Auckland (October 2004) and presented a trade mark seminar for INTA in Dallas (February 2003). In October 2005, John presented a paper on indigenous rights and their impact on intellectual property at a conference for the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (ITMA).

John is an active member of the patent attorney profession and is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Patent Attorneys (NZIPA), the Intellectual Property Society of Australia and New Zealand (IPSANZ). He is also a member of the International Trade Mark Association (INTA), where he serves on two committees including the International Annual Review.

John is also active in the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (ITMA) and the Pharmaceutical Trade Marks Group (PTMG). He is the Chairman of the Marketing and Membership Committee of AmCham NZ (American Chamber of Commerce) and a past president of his local Rotary club and the French New Zealand Business Council. He has also served on the Council of the New Zealand Institute of Patent Attorneys. Currently, he is Chairman of a local hospice trust board in Auckland.

In 2002 John was awarded a Rotary International Paul Harris Fellowship. John is a founding member of IP Trek. IP Trek is a group of intellectual property lawyers who go on adventure hikes around the world. John has trekked in various parts of the world with his group. He is an improving golfer, keen snow skier and enjoys all sorts of outdoor activities.

John is fluent in French and Italian.  He is also a Notary Public, as well as being on the New Zealand Council of the Society of Notaries Public.

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