Anton Blijlevens

A good listener with a practical outlook, Anton has become a trusted advisor for clients looking to protect and commercialise their innovations.

Expertise

Anton joined AJ Park in 1994 after graduating from the University of Canterbury with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. He gained his law degree from The University of Auckland in 2004.

Experienced in intellectual property protection strategies and conducting IP audits and due diligence for mechanical and manufacturing technology firms, Anton has a track record of helping exporters be successful both locally and internationally. Anton also works with organisations to establish policies and procedures to maximise the value of their IP. His clients come from diverse industries such as packaging, marine engineering, aviation, agritech, and medical technology.

'Helping specialist manufacturing companies build an IP strategy to achieve their goals is very rewarding. Many of my clients have successfully grown their business because of well-protected innovations.’

Anton's been very helpful; he's guided me and given me good advice. We trust each other and I knew he'd understand what I had, which is important. I understood the products and the business end but not the patent process and how to go about protecting my product.

  Trevor McCoid, Fleximower

Working style

A favourite aspect of Anton’s job is working with clever innovators and helping contribute to their commercialisation process. He prefers visiting his clients to learn about their business first-hand to see their factory in action. Anton is particularly proud of his start-up clients who have taken huge leaps of faith with new ideas, and shown passion, vision and drive to bring them to fruition.

It’s essential to understand a client’s business, their industry and their innovations and how IP laws worldwide can help provide greater returns. If one of those ingredients is missing, you can miss the mark. With over 20 years’ experience, it’s easy to spot the speed bumps often encountered when taking a new innovation to market. At AJ Park, we have people with a wide range of technical backgrounds, which enables us to build an appropriate team of expertise to work with our clients.

Industry accolades

Anton’s recent industry accolades include being:

• ranked as a Patent Star in New Zealand in Managing IP's IP STARS for 2023 and 2021.
• named in the inaugural IAM Strategy 300 Global Leaders guide 2021, 2022 and 2023
• named an IAM Strategy 300 winner for 2021
• noted as a recommended individual in IAM Patent 1000 in 2023 
• named in The Legal 500’s Asia Pacific 2024 guide as a leading individual
• rated a 'distinguished practitioner' in the Asialaw Leading Lawyers 2021 edition
• named in the 2021 list of World Intellectual Property Review Leaders
• selected by his peers for inclusion in the The Best Lawyers^TM in New Zealand in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Other credentials

Anton lectures in IP at the University of Auckland and Massey University, regularly speaks to industry groups and business incubators, and is a mentor for the ‘Business in the Community’ programme and 'Start Me Up' Aerospace New Zealand programme. He also speaks on IP at international conferences and events across Asia and Australia. In 2015, he developed and delivered the Asia Patent Attorneys Association’s (APAA) first ever 5-day long ‘Patent Surgery’ course, covering patent preparation, prosecution and strategy. Anton has been running this course since 2015 and has now trained over 120 patent attorneys on patent drafting. Anton has since been asked to lecture for World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on patent drafting courses and has done so on four occasions now. He is also a co-author on the WIPO patent drafting manual exercise book.  

Anton was voted on as the APAA New Zealand group president in August 2019.