Helping Business Owners Protect What They're Building

Whether you're launching a brand, creating original content, developing software, using AI, or planning your business succession, I help you understand, protect and commercialise your intellectual property with practical legal advice.

BOOK A STRATEGY CALL

TAKE THE FREE IP AUDIT

Registered Trade Marks Attorney • Commercial Lawyer • Host of Elise Explains IP • Working with clients Australia-wide

WHAT I HELP WITH

Intellectual property isn't just about protecting ideas. It's about protecting the value you've created.

Trade Marks & Branding

Protect your business name, logo and reputation before someone else does.

Copyright & Creative Assets

Understand who owns your content, software, designs and creative work.

AI & Emerging Technology

Navigate the legal risks of AI-generated content, ownership and business use.

Business Protection & Succession

Make sure your intellectual property is owned by the right people and can be transferred, licensed or sold when the time comes.

Latest Podcast Episode

IP Risk & Ownership Audit — Elise Explains IP

Elise Explains IP

IP Risk & Ownership Audit

Know exactly where your IP is exposed.

Work through seven areas of your business in a few minutes. You'll get a personalised, ranked action plan showing what to fix first — and why it matters commercially.

⏱ About 6–8 minutes No sign-up required

This audit gives general guidance to help you spot gaps and priorities. It isn't legal advice tailored to your specific circumstances — for that, talk to an IP lawyer about your results.

Your results

0% protected

Your IP Action Plan

Here's what to prioritise, ranked by urgency and commercial importance.

How your score and priority ratings work

Your protected % isn't just a count of "good" answers — it's weighted by how commercially important each area is. A gap in something high-value (like an unregistered trade mark) pulls the score down more than a small gap in something minor (like inconsistent use of ™). Anything you marked N/A is left out of the score altogether — it neither helps nor hurts.

Each item in your action plan below is ranked the same way: how urgent the gap is × how commercially important that area is to a typical business. That's why two "No" answers can land in different priority tiers — the underlying risk isn't the same.

Critical — high-value area, currently unprotected. Deal with these first.
High priority — meaningful gap or exposure worth fixing soon.
Medium priority — worth tidying up, lower stakes.
Low priority — minor or easy fix.

This is a general guide, not a formal legal risk assessment — your own circumstances may weigh differently.

Want help working through this list?

Get a lawyer's eye on your results and a clear plan of attack.

Book a consultation

Get a copy of your results

Enter your email and we'll open your email app with your action plan ready to send — Elise gets a copy too, so she can help you work through it.

Prefer not to enter an email? Use "Print / Save PDF" below to keep a copy instead.

This audit gives general guidance to help you spot gaps and priorities. It isn't legal advice tailored to your specific circumstances.

28 October 2026

How do you protect a new brand without spoiling the launch

The Brisbane 2032 emblem leak shows why trade mark planning belongs in the launch timetable

Elise Steegstra

Business Growth Intellectual Property International IP Strategy Trademarks

26 October 2026

Copyright & Creative Businesses: Safeguarding Your Intellectual Property

Most business owners don't think about copyright until something goes wrong. A design gets copied. Content appears on a competitor's site. A collaboration falls apart and nobody can agree on who owns...

Elise Steegstra

15 October 2026

Copyright & Creative Businesses: A Strategic Approach to Protecting Your Work

Most business owners don't think about copyright until something goes wrong. A piece of work gets copied, a contract dispute surfaces, or a collaborator walks away claiming ownership of something you...

Elise Steegstra

Business Growth Copyright

ABOUT ME

Every business creates intellectual property, but many business owners don't realise how valuable those assets become until there's a dispute, a sale, or someone copies their work.

My goal is to help businesses avoid those problems before they happen by making intellectual property understandable, practical and commercially useful.

As both a Commercial Lawyer and Registered Trade Marks Attorney, based in Melbourne, working with clients nationally, I advise businesses on protecting brands, copyright, software, AI, ownership structures and business succession.

WHY WORK WITH ME

Practical Advice

Clear answers without unnecessary legal jargon.

Commercial Focus

Advice designed to support business growth—not just legal compliance.

Strategic Thinking

Helping clients identify valuable intellectual property before it becomes a problem.

Education First

Empowering business owners to make informed decisions through practical guidance and ongoing education.

BOOK A STRATEGY CALL

Let's Protect What You're Building

Whether you're starting a business, protecting a brand, using AI or planning for the future, I'd love to help.

BOOK A STRATEGY CALL

Elise Explains IP is Elise’s independent education platform and is not a law firm. Legal services requested through this website are provided through Yarra Lane Legal Pty Ltd, subject to conflict checks, client onboarding and a formal engagement agreement.