Clare Cunliffe

Clare has expertise in a wide range of areas, including general commercial litigation, competition/trade practices, intellectual property and administrative law. Clare has a particular expertise in intellectual property litigation, with extensive experience in patent revocation and infringement proceedings  (including pharmaceutical patent injunctions) and patent oppositions, trade mark infringement and revocation proceedings, non-use applications and oppositions, and copyright litigation, as well as litigation concerning the misuse of confidential information in the pharmaceutical context.  She also has extensive experience in litigation concerning consumer protection legislation and the law of passing off.  

Before joining the Bar, Clare was a Senior Associate at Corrs Chambers Westgarth in Melbourne where she practised in intellectual property litigation, including patent and trade mark litigation, and general commercial litigation.  Clare has also worked in the United Kingdom, at boutique intellectual property firm Powell Gilbert, and at Allens. 

Clare is the author of several chapters of Halsbury’s Laws of Australia on patents. She is currently writing an annotated version of the Patents Act 1990 (Cth) for Lexis-Nexis. Since 2012, Clare has been the secretary of the Intellectual Property Society of Australia and New Zealand (IPSANZ). In 2015 she became treasurer. She was committee member of the International Association for the Protection of Industrial Property (AIPPI Australia). In 2016 she became treasurer.  She is also chair of AIPPI’s global amicus curiae committee. 

Clare read with Helen Rofe. She has been listed in Doyle's Guide to Leading Victorian Intellectual Property Barristers (2017) as a preeminent junior counsel, and listed in Doyle's Guide to Leading Victorian Intellectual Property Barristers (2016) and (2015) as a leading and recommended junior counsel. 

Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation