History

Baldwins’ history dates back to the days when New Zealand was still a British colony, and is intimately involved with the origins of the patent attorney profession in New Zealand.

In 1886, Ernest Smith Baldwin came out from England as an engineer. He then qualified as a patent attorney and was placed on the new Patent Register which was established in 1891.  Ernest Smith Baldwin, his brother-in-law, W. Ernest Hughes, and Henry Hampton Rayward formed a new partnership under the name Hughes, Rayward and Baldwin in 1896.

Ernest Carey joined Baldwins’ Auckland office in 1919. In 1927 they were joined by Ernest Baldwin’s son Jasper and took the name Baldwin Son and Carey.
The firm successfully continued to practise throughout the depression and the Second World War and to expand and prosper in the post-war boom years under Jasper Baldwin and Ernest Carey.

New partners Sydney Hewison and Jonathan Ellis joined the firm in 1967. In 1976 Sydney Hewison became senior partner on the death of Jasper Baldwin. The firm continued to expand under a dynamic partnership to become, by its centenary  in 1997, one of New Zealand’s leading intellectual property firms. It continues today to maintain its position as a leading IP firm in New Zealand.

Baldwins office staff, 1906