Medical Records: Copyright to be determined case-by-case

At what point do medical records such as prescriptions, health summaries, referral letters and consultation notes attract copyright?

An article posted recently to Mondaq by Clayton Utz looks at this question in the light of the Federal Court decision in Primary Health Care Ltd v Commissioner of Taxation [2010] FCA 419 which found that “copyright does not automatically exist in a medical records such as prescriptions, health summaries, referral letters and consultation notes. … the existence of copyright in a medical record must be determined on a case-by-case basis.”  Further it was found that “for copyright to exist there must be something in the medical record sufficiently substantial to qualify as an original literary work.”

As the questions around the ownership of intellectual property in databases and other forms of non-literary information continue to grow along with the litigation this cases presents another interesting area for discussion. We welcome comments on the topic.

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