Nicholls Legal has a breadth and depth of experience in the legal and commercial aspects of communications, information technology and intellectual property.  Principal areas of practice include the following.

• Technology and communications: negotiating and drafting all forms of agreements, including interconnect, supply, acquisition, distribution, agency, joint venture, telehousing, technology development and exploitation, technology assignments and transfers, outsourcing, facilities management and confidentiality agreements.

• Regulatory: the full range of ACCC, ACMA and telecommunications self-regulatory issues.  Matthew Nicholls served two years on the board of directors of ACIF Limited (now Communications Alliance), the Australian telecommunications industry's self-regulatory vehicle.  Recently, Nicholls Legal has been engaged to provide the lead external legal and regulatory advice to the Commonwealth Department of Communications Information Technology and the Arts in relation to its review of telecommunications regulation in Australia, having regard to next generation networks.

• Disputes: Nicholls Legal acted for Primus Telecom on Telstra's PSTN appeal before the Australian Competition Tribunal as well as a variety of telecommunications access disputes and intellectual property, contract, defamation, shareholders and trade practices disputes.  Recently, Nicholls Legal has acted for a total of 14 parties in all four telecommunications-related appeals to the Australian Competition Tribunal and successfully represented a number of defendants in Telstras High Court challenge to Part XIC of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth).

• Intellectual property: copyright, circuit layouts, trade marks, confidentiality and trade secrets advice and prosecutions.

• Trade practices: general trade practices matters, including advertising, consumer protection, anti-competitive conduct and compliance programmes.

• Privacy and freedom of information: advice and disputes.

• E-commerce and commercial: internet, e-commerce and general commercial matters.