Who we are
Wrays is Western Australia's largest locally based firm has been providing invaluable expertise and service to its clients since 1920. Now in its 90th year, Wrays continues to provide trusted advice on all aspects of intellectual property - patents, trade marks, industrial design registrations, contentious and non-contentious intellectual property matters, and plant breeders' rights.
Realising the need that sophisticated clients have for sophisticated solutions, Wrays has risen to the challenge and we have entered a new era in holistic IP services. Wrays is one of few firms in Australia which can provide its clients not only with IP registration services, but also with legal enforcement and IP management and strategy services.
What Makes Us Different?
We believe we are one of few firms that learn as much as we can from our clients. We then respond by teaching them as much as we possibly can about intellectual property. We made a commitment to our clients long ago: we are not in the business of selling patents or trade marks. Rather, we are here to give support, provide the best advice we possibly can, and to help our clients achieve their goals in a commercially sensible way.
Our History
Wrays Patent Attorneys' origins stem back to post-war 1920 when a newly-registered Patent Attorney, Mr. Peter Bonnerup, travelled from Sydney to Perth to establish the firm of P.M. Bonnerup & Co. Mr. Bonnerup practised here until his retirement in 1955 and his practice was at the time the only firm of Patent Attorneys in WA. During the 1950s Mr. Bonnerup encouraged a young Patent Attorney, Mr. Reg Wray, to move from Sydney to join him and soon handed the firm to Reg, who in 1959 changed the name of the firm to R.C. Wrays and from then single-handedly ran the practice until his own retirement. In the later part of this period, Reg was assisted by John King and Errol Harwood when they joined the Firm as professional assistants in 1973.
Errol Harwood and John King purchased R.C.Wrays in 1985 upon Reg's retirement thereafter renamed the firm Wray & Associates. John is still a partner with the firm and Errol, after a lifetime dedicated to IP, retired at the end of 2009.
Peter Caporn and Gary Cox joined the partnership in 1997, inviting Todd Shand to become partner a few years later. In January 2009, Scott Vile became the most recent addition to the Wrays partnership.
In 2008 the firm relocated from the Perth CBD to its own purpose built offices in West Perth and adopted the name “Wrays”, which had become the common use name of the firm over the years.
Continued Growth
In 2009, Wrays expanded its group structure service offering to clients with the launch of Wrays Lawyers Pty Ltd, an incorporated entity permitted to practice under the Legal Profession Act. For more information go to: Wrays Lawyers. The highly regarded team at Manta IP was also incorporated under the Wrays banner and now provide management and strategy services to our clients in the form of Wrays Management & Strategic Services (MSS). For more information go to: Wrays MSS.
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