Carl Harrap

Carl Harrap is a Principal Patent Attorney with more than 20 years’ experience helping organisations identify, protect and defend their intellectual property.

Carl advises clients across the full lifecycle of innovation, from developing patent and design protection strategies and securing intellectual property rights, through to managing international portfolios, navigating freedom-to-operate issues, and responding to challenges presented by third-party rights. He works with organisations ranging from start-ups and research institutions to multinational technology companies.

His practice spans a broad range of technologies, including software, artificial intelligence, machine learning, computing, telecommunications, electronics, optics, medical devices and advanced manufacturing systems. Drawing on his engineering and legal expertise, Carl quickly understands complex technologies and legal issues and develops strategies to obtain commercially valuable intellectual property assets that offer both broad and strong protection.

In addition to patent and design prosecution, Carl advises on contentious intellectual property matters, including patent oppositions, design disputes, validity and infringement issues, and enforcement and defensive strategies. Earlier in his career, he spent several years working on patent and design litigation strategy in proceedings that remain among the largest patent and design litigation matters ever conducted in Australia.

Carl is known for taking a strategic and commercially focused approach to intellectual property. He works closely with clients to ensure that their IP strategies support broader business objectives, protect future opportunities, and align with evolving competitive and regulatory landscapes.

Carl is a co-author, with his colleague Stuart Irvine, of the Australian chapter of Design Law: Global Law and Practice (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024).