Jennifer Huby

Jennifer’s experience is in corporate and commercial law with a specialisation in the areas of media and entertainment, intellectual property and competition and consumer law.  She advises on commercial and business matters for a variety of clients and has acted as general counsel to a number of multinational corporations for many years. She has acted on both local and global mergers as well as corporate and business acquisitions and divestments including advising on restrictive trade practices and liaising with the ACCC and FIRB.

Jennifer has practiced in the area of media and entertainment for nearly 30 years and has worked extensively in live performance and theatre, film and television and music industries. Jennifer has acted for many leading producers of theatrical productions including rights acquisitions for Australian productions of Broadway and West End productions, financing and investment arrangements and agreements for theatre hire, merchandise, engagement of creative and cast, music licensing and cast albums. She has also acted on licensing and delivered show agreements for the touring of productions throughout Asia.  She acts for a number of leading film and television producers and financiers (both local and international) and has credits on numerous film and television productions spanning over 20 years. In the music field, Jennifer acts for a number of iconic Australian artists and one of the major record companies and is experienced in all aspects of music acquisition, protection and exploitation.

Jennifer also has specialist expertise in the area of intellectual property. She advises on the protection, commercialisation, exploitation of clients’ products and services including copyright, trade marks and designs and acts for owners of well-known brands, characters and trade marks worldwide and FMCG companies. Jennifer is also regularly engaged to review advertisements and marketing campaigns as well as the labelling, packaging and get-up of products.  She has also advised on numerous large transactions over many years in which IP plays a critical part.  She has conducted reviews, audits and due diligence on IP assets of companies, particularly when acting for a party wishing to acquire an IP based company or invest in an IP based company or project.  Jennifer regularly advises clients on both the restrictive trade practices and consumer protection provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act, prepares compliance programs and runs ongoing education and training for clients.

Experience

Jennifer’s experience includes advising:

  • Midnight Oil, Jimmy Barnes, Tina Arena and Baz Lurhmann and other entertainment industry clients on tours, publishing, live performance and recording deals;
  • Producers on various productions including Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Kinky Boots; The Book of Mormon, Mamma Mia!, Les Miserables and The Lion King tour of Asia;
  • Warner Music, Sony Pictures and FremantleMedia on the acquisition of Australian television production and/or music companies and businesses;
  • Department of Defence: on conducted reviews and audits of their IP including providing IP training for staff, the creation of an IP register and management plan for the ongoing management of their IP assets;
  • Several large international organisations on the management of trade mark profiles which includes the registration and maintenance of their trade mark portfolios (both in Australia and overseas), provision of a regular trade mark watching services and dealing with oppositions and infringements. This has included the management and implementation in Australia of brand protection programs (including trade marks) for the BBC’s key IP assets including children’s characters and the brand and characters from ‘Dr Who’;
  • Producers and investors on many productions over 30 years ranging from the BBC’s 3D feature film ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’ to the Australian television series of ‘Surfing the Menu’; and
  • Entertainment industries and manufacturers of consumer goods including clothing and homewares on the creation of Competition Compliance Manuals and running training for clients.

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