Australia Pro Bono

The Australian Literacy & Numeracy Foundation

The Sydney office has a deep relationship with charity ALNF, having provided it with pro bono support for nearly 10 years.  ALNF is an organisation founded to help the most marginalised Australians with literacy and learning, and it has a particular focus on assisting Indigenous communities through it's innovative early learning programs and products.  Its Living First Language Platform (which is an app which enables Indigenous communities to teach their languages through the app) was awarded multiple international accolades - in 2019, ALNF won the prestigious Solve – MIT Challenge in New York; in 2020, ALNF was been named as the winner at the 2020 United Nations World Summit Awards in Vienna in the category of ‘Culture and Tourism’; and the GOLD Award at the prestigious Edison Awards in the ‘Social Innovation’ category as well as the ‘Empowerment Platforms’ subcategory.   

Its Early Language & Literacy Development Index was again the winner of the United Nations World Summit Awards I 2023 – this product is a world-first and highly accessible digital platform that assesses and nurtures the capabilities of children between 2 and 8 years.

Bird & Bird is proud to have worked with ALNF in supporting these key projects and BAU activities.  We have developed the legal structure for the ownership of intellectual property and licensing within the ALNF group, and specific terms around the funding, development and licensing of these world leading products.  This work has taken the firm into the fascinating area of Indigenous cultural intellectual property, assisting ALNF to navigate the appropriate IP ownership structure of products containing indigenous language and facilitating mindful and respectful treatment of the IP rights in this property.