Julia Stephens is a director, head of department and a qualified Trade Mark Practitioner at KISCH IP. She obtained a BSc degree in Biochemistry and Microbiology in1996 and an LLB degree in 1998, both from Rhodes University. Julia was admitted as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa in 2001 and became a Fellow of the South African Institute of Intellectual Property Law (SAIIPL) in 2004. Having joined KISCH IP in 2000, Julia has 20 years’ experience in all aspects of trade mark law including availability and registrability searches, trade mark filing and prosecution, trade mark litigation and opposition matters; trade mark assignments, copyright issues, domain name audits, registrations and complaints, advice to clients in the advertising industry regarding Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) regulations and issues and has also advised clients on food labelling regulations and concerns.
More recently, Julia has elected to focus exclusively on advising and assisting clients with their brand protection strategies, portfolio audits and reviews, securing the best, most efficient and effective protection of clients’ trade marks. Protection that makes business sense. As such she now deals with all aspects of audits, searches, filing and prosecution matters and overall brand management. Julia represents a vast array of both local and foreign based clients across many spheres, from the hospitality industry and FMCG goods to clients in the retail space, luxury goods and those in radio and television industries.
Julia is a member of INTA and ECTA (where she is a member of the Geographical Indications Committee) and is a regular attendee of each association’s annual conferences.
