Justin Sweetman

Associate

Justin is an associate based in our Auckland office and is a member of the Life Sciences and Plant Variety Rights Teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science (Hons) - Biochemistry & Applied Molecular Biology, University of Manchester (1994)
• PhD - Molecular Biology, University of Leicester (1998)
• Registered Patent Attorney (New Zealand)

Before joining James & Wells Intellectual Property in 2004 Justin completed nine years post-doctoral research experience in the biotechnology industry, including staff scientist positions at Zeneca Agrochemicals (UK), CropDesign (Belgium) and Agrigenesis Biosciences here in New Zealand.

His research experience included developing an ethanol inducible gene switch; screening for and characterising for tissue specific promoters and the creation and sequencing of phloem specific cDNA libraries to identify phloem transported transcription factors. Justin is an author on over 10 peer reviewed scientific articles in the fields of animal and plant molecular biology.

Based in our Auckland office, Justin's areas of expertise include drafting and prosecution of patent specifications.  Justin is primarily involved in providing general advice on patentability issues, providing infringement opinions and freedom to operate opinions. He is also experienced in the preparation and filing of esign applications in New Zealand. Justin is also a member of the Plant Variety Rights team.

Justin is a writer on behalf of James & Wells Intellectual Property and has been a speaker at a number of national conferences on the subject of intellectual property - including the Lexis Nexis e-law conference 2008.

Justin is a member of the Intellectual Property Society of Australia and New Zealand (IPSANZ) - New Zealand Committee, a student member of the New Zealand Institute of Patent Attorneys (NZIPA) and a member of the New Zealand Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.