Thursday, 26 March 2026
Description
Attend and earn 0.5 CPD hour
* This interactive online recording includes questions and quizzes requiring critical thinking about the topics, so you have no annual limits to the number of points/hours you can claim with this format of learning. Please verify with your CPD rules
Learning Objectives:
- Understand key IP licensing structures used in business sales, including transitional and long-term arrangements
- Identify critical legal and commercial considerations when sharing, splitting, or retaining IP rights with a purchaser
Business Sales, Sharing IP with the purchaser and IP licensing (transitional and long term)
- An overview of common licensing structures in a business sale context including:
- Transitional IP licensing to support business continuity post sale
- Long term trade mark licensing
- Splitting a brand with the purchaser / co-existence scenarios
- Technology licensing when IP is not transferred but remains important
- Analysis of some key considerations in IP licensing including treatment of:
- Confidential information and trade secrets
- Jointly owned IP
- Improvements
- Duration and termination
- Quality control
- Enforcement and dispute resolution
Presented by Christopher Young, Partner, MinterEllisonRuddWatts
Chair
Kate Wilson, IP Strategist, James & Wells
Presenters
Christopher Young, Partner, Minter Ellison Rudd WattsChris heads the intellectual property team in New Zealand, and has a widely recognised IP practice internationally. Chris worked at Nabarro in London and then before returning to New Zealand completed post graduate studies in Intellectual Property Law and Licensing at Queen Mary College, University Of London. He gives practical advice on all aspects of IP through its life cycle including development, protection, transfer, enforcement and commercialisation. He is recognised for branding strategy and manages trade mark portfolios for a wide range of companies locally and internationally. With more than 20 years’ experience in licensing and commercialisation, franchising, commercial arrangements and the IP aspects of transactions, including business acquisitions and mergers, and financing, commercial IP is a key area of Chris’ practice. Chris acts for a wide range of businesses from start ups and SMEs through to local listed companies and multinationals. Chris has been actively involved in the International Trademarks Association (INTA) and the International Bar Association (IBA) for years and has served on a range of important committees having previously chaired INTA’s East Asia Pacific Famous Marks subcommittee, and he has served on the Parallel Imports Committee, Internet Committee and the Asia Pacific Global Advisory Council. Chris is currently a co-chair of the Asia Pacific subcommittee of the Bulletin Committee.
Kate Wilson. IP Strategist, James & Wells
Kate Wilson is an internationally recognised IP strategist and registered patent attorney (New Zealand and Australia), with deep expertise across patents, intangible assets, and organisational IP capability. A former founding partner of James & Wells, she has advised many of New Zealand’s leading innovative companies and built extensive experience managing IP portfolios and guiding businesses on how to commercialise and protect their competitive edge. After stepping down from partnership in 2015, Kate established several successful non‑IP businesses, served on corporate boards, and developed a thriving consultancy focused on strategic IP advice. Kate is widely recognised in global IP rankings, including IAM’s Top 300 IP Strategists, and is regarded as a leader in IP education, delivering workshops and seminars in New Zealand and internationally. She is also the author of The Hidden Mechanics of IP – Demystifying Intellectual Property, released in 2025.
