About Us

Brett Kensett-Smith

Principal

Brett Kensett-Smith is a registered Australian & New Zealand Patent and Trade Marks Attorney who for over 30 years has worked as an intangible asset strategist, investment and commercialisation adviser, IP manager, patent attorney (both in private practice and inhouse) and as a practising research scientist. Brett has been independently recognised for his strategic work by IAM as one of the IAM300 Global IP Strategists.

In the last 5 years alone, Brett has helped over 200 companies to evaluate and enhance their Intangible Asset and IP portfolios, through auditing and advising on the best practice for protecting their assets, in the context of his clients’ business goals. Brand strategy is also a strength, where Brett provides practical advice on strong vs weak Brands, how they are best protected and how strategy must change as businesses grow. Other duties include providing trade secret and patentability advice; IP strategic planning; commercialising new IP; inbound and outbound licensing advice; and facilitating innovation brainstorming sessions and workshops. He also conducts intrinsic asset due diligence reviews for investors and has acted as an outsourced IP Manager for several companies, and has demonstrably saved several companies tens of thousands of dollars per year through better management of patent and trade marks portfolios.

Brett has particular experience working in medtech, food & agriculture and environmental sciences. In previous roles, he managed a major orthopaedic device project funded by private equity and by a NSW Government Medical Devices Fund grant of AUD$1.59M, and was IP Manager for an ASX listed medical device company. He has also managed outsourced innovation projects for PepsiCo, Meat & Livestock Australia and Hort Innovation. 

Ian Fletcher

Director, Consulting

Ian is widely known in New Zealand for his role as Director of the GCSB, New Zealand’s cyber intelligence and defence agency.  Between 2012 and 2015 he led the organisation through great change, including transforming its legislation and core focus to cyber defence initiatives. He is an experienced organisational leader and diplomat, highly regarded for his organisational change management work.  After leaving the GCSB, Ian was a founding partner in cyber security consultancy InPhySec Security Ltd, until its sale to Fujitsu at the end of 2022. InPhySec’s clients included the NZ Defence Force, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NZ Police, and a significant number of major companies.  He was also an early director of Humblebee Ltd (a synthetic biology startup company).

Before joining the GCSB, Ian was Director General of the Queensland Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation from 2009 to 2012. Before this he spent three years as CEO and Comptroller-General of the UK Intellectual Property Office, (ie the Patent Office). Here, he chaired the G8 Group on Intellectual Property and Innovation and established the ‘Vancouver Group’ of UK, US, Canadian and Australian patent offices.

Ian Fletcher spent seven years with UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), in two separate periods between 1998 and 2009, culminating in his appointment as Managing Director, International, in 2005, running the global UK trade promotion network. From 2002 to 2004 he was Principal Private Secretary to the UK Cabinet Secretary and managed his office. The Cabinet secretary is Head of the UK Civil Service as well as the senior adviser to the Prime Minister and UK Cabinet. This period included the Iraq War and its aftermath. He came to the Cabinet Office after a UN posting in Kosovo, where he managed the Customs Service and established a nascent Department of Trade and Industry, complete with a body of new company and insolvency law. Ian Fletcher had joined the UN team in Kosovo from a series of assignments in the UK government and the European Commission working on trade policy, trade promotion and utility regulation.  Ian’s early career was spent in the New Zealand Diplomatic Service. He now lives in Masterton.