Bill McFarlane
Consultant

Bill is a registered patent and trade marks attorney with a range of knowledge and experience in the areas of physics, electrical and electronic engineering, and computing. Bill has been in the profession for 30+ years and became a partner of Madderns in 1996. He was appointed as a senior partner in 2022. He is a Member of Engineers Australia. Bill has worked as an engineer in the South Australian Police Force, designing radio communications systems, and has also worked for world-leading communications company, Motorola.

Bill is involved in the drafting and prosecution of patent, design and trade mark matters, in Australia and overseas. He travels overseas on a regular basis to attend conferences, and visit corporate clients, keeping them up-to-date with Australian IP trends and reporting the progress in various litigation and opposition matters for which he is responsible.

Bill has a particular interest in the Start-Up community having been involved in eChallenge (a business plan competition run by The University of Adelaide) as lecturer, as well as a finals judge. He is also involved in multiple incubators as well as attending Start-up Weekends, and various community spaces to support the resident business enterprises.

Bill is also passionate about education, providing presentations to community groups and client in-house engineers and scientists, and is currently an Adjunct Lecturer at The University of Adelaide – Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship. He was previously a lecturer for the training of patent attorneys, at the Academy of Education of the Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia, which involved teaching the skill of drafting patent specifications to trainee patent attorneys, and also, along with fellow lecturers, setting and examining the examinations for qualification as a patent attorney in Australia in the patent drafting subject. Bill was awarded Fellowship of the Academy of Education of the Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia.

Bill served on the International Association of Intellectual Property Attorneys’ council for many years, six of which were as its Secretary and three as its President. Bill has represented FICPI Australia before the World Intellectual Property Organisation, Australian Government Commissions, and IP Australia. Bill has been a co-author with various council members of many submissions relating to Intellectual Property matters, voicing the views of the Australian patent and trade mark profession.

Bill is also an avid road cyclist and enjoys riding in the hills of Adelaide.