He will manage the office’s patent practice, while John Hawker will continue to manage the office’s trademark practice.

Marks & Clerk, which has 18 offices in eight countries, including: the UK, France, Canada, Luxembourg, Malaysia, China and Singapore, opened its Melbourne office in 2011.

Pini worked as a patent examiner at the Australian Patent Office from 1990 to 1999. He then worked as a patent attorney in Watermark Trademark and Patent Attorneys in Melbourne, before working as an in-house patent attorney on the corporate IP team of Vision Systems Limited (now Leica BioSystems Melbourne Pty Ltd and Invetech Pty Ltd).

More recently, he has been a partner in a number of private practice firms.

“I am very pleased to be joining Marks & Clerk,” said Pini. “The Australia office has big plans for both the domestic and international market, particularly in the electronics, telecommunications and IT space. We are already planning further appointments to meet the growing demand for our services.”