Corporate and commercial law firm Lowndes Associates, which has provided patent and trade mark services as part of their service offering for many years, has launched a separate firm, Lowndes Associates Patent & Trade Mark Attorneys. The new firm is led by Leonard Cousins, who brings with him experience in tier-one patent and trade mark firms in Australasia and Europe, and from working at Nortel Networks and at a large-scale San Francisco-based start-up, Redfern Broadband Networks. Cousins’ key focus is on helping New Zealand and Australian businesses to get more value from their IP spend. According to a firm statement, Cousins “believes that IP expenditure in [New Zealand] is often poorly directed and that the IP service procurement process can be overly time-consuming and arduous.”