My Mission
My mission is to champion innovation, invention and abundance by creating conditions where human ingenuity thrives.
About Antonia
I excel at the intersection of law, technology, and innovation, particularly in the domains of artificial intelligence (AI) and intellectual property (IP) strategy and management.
Patent Attorney, lawyer, and Computer Scientist, specialised in deep technology and AI
Recognised in Managing IP's IP Stars directory and named New Zealand's only "Corporate IP Star" in 2024.
Top-three finalist in the 2024 Innovation Leadership Awards for transforming an in-house IP function from traditional legal bureaucracy into a platform that strengthened the company's culture of innovation.
Experienced in growing strong and diversified IP portfolios. Grew AI R&D company Soul Machines' IP portfolio, filing over 300 patents across 10 jurisdictions, protecting Soul Machines’ inventions in machine learning, human-computer interaction, computer graphics and animation
Co-founding the off-grid renewable energy company LUX Solar and AI Edutech startup Amy.app.
Education: MSc in Computer Science and LLB
Articles and Papers
Lawyers talk a lot about technology – but how many are walking the talk?
The Four Reasons Lawyers Resist Technology: Many lawyers see technology as a threat – whether that be a threat to their ego, to their income or to the profession. But what if lawyers saw new technologies as opportunities, not threats?
Does New Zealand need a specific law for deepfakes? A glimpse of how New Zealand law already catches many harmful misuses of deepfakes, via the Privacy Act, Crimes Act, Fair Trading Act, and more!
How to Cross-Examine an Algorithm (for lawyers): As more human activity is replaced by artificial intelligence, lawyers and judges need to be better equipped to understand and argue about machine learning.
The Robot Revolution Re-Inventing Inventorship
Intellectual Property in Higher Education: Who owns student innovation?
Talks, Panels and Seminars
Aotearoa AI Summit: AI and Intellectual Property: Navigating Challenges and Opportunities (September 2024)
Seeking Assurance: Understanding the Artificial Intelligence Attack Surface - CREST x ISC2 Seminar (March 2024)
Generative AI – What does the Future Hold? – IPSANZ Seminar (September 2023)
World IP Day 2023 panel discussion. Women and IP – IPONZ & NZIPA (May 2023)
Strategies for Protecting Artificial Intelligence Invention – LESANZ (June 2022)
Artificial Intelligence & Intellectual Property in the Creative Industries Panelist – UK Intellectual Property Office & University of Exeter (November 2021)
In-House Legal IP Management: Developing an IP Strategy and Getting Everyone in the Company on Board – Legalwise In-House Counsel Conference (2021)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Patent Law – Legalwise Trade Marks and Patents Conference (2020)
The Great Reset: A Tech Perspective – Potentia (2020)
Seminar on: The Robot Revolution – Reinventing Inventorship – IPSANZ Seminar (2018)
Seminar on: Intellectual Property in Higher Education: Who owns student innovation – ANZELA Conference (2013)
My Story
Eight years ago, I was packing my bags for Sydney. One of Australia's best law firms had made me an offer, and I was ready to go. Then a New Zealand startup convinced me to stay. It showed me how the most beautiful little island at the bottom of the world could raise over $200 million dollars, rivalling the opportunities of Silicon Valley, London, or Sydney.The companies that keep our talent in New Zealand are creating something that the world wants: they solve real problems, and pay real wages. Volpara using AI to detect cancers, Xero empowering small business owners, Halter (just valued at $3.4 billion) improving the cost and quality of our food. There is no reason why we can't have thousands more businesses like this. There is no reason why NZ can't be most prosperous country in the Southern Hemisphere.I want New Zealand to be a place where innovation and technology drive abundance and prosperity, not anxiety. The biggest challenges and the biggest opportunities facing this country — productivity, wages, global competitiveness — will hinge on how we innovate, regulate, and respond to new technology. Get it right, and we unlock growth we haven't seen in generations. Get it wrong — through fear, overregulation, or ignorance — and we fall further behind.When it comes to emerging, powerful technologies such as AI, the media loves to exploit humanity’s inbuilt fear of change and uncertainty with headlines that only focus on risks and fears. But we must not be blinded by this at the expense of the opportunity technology provides to change the world for the better - and solve problems in education, healthcare, transport, energy, and affordability. Technology helps is do more, with less.My daughter Sofia is five. My son Christian is two. By the time they're making decisions about their futures, I want New Zealand to be a country worth staying for — where they can find high-paying work that reflects the real value it adds to the world, where a great idea means access to global capital and skilled, driven teammates to build something great, and where success and ambition are celebrated.