New Federal IP Laws aimed at raising quality

The Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Raising the Bar) Bill 2011 was introduced into the Federal Parliament via the Senate yesterday (Second Reading Speech – 22 June 2011).

The Bill states that the objective of the intellectual property (IP) rights system is to support innovation by encouraging investment in research and technology in Australia and by helping Australian businesses benefit from their good ideas. The purpose of the proposed law is to make improvements to IP rights legislation to better meet these objectives.

The Bill’s amends the Patents Act 1990, the Trade Marks Act 1995, the Copyright Act 1968, the Designs Act 2003 and the Plant Breeder’s Rights Act 1994.

Broadly the legislation aims to tighten the requirements for the granting of patents, and increase the level of damages for trademark infringements.

The proposed amendments can be divided into six areas, as follows:

• Raising the quality of granted patents

• Free access to patented inventions for regulatory approvals and research

• Reducing delays in resolution of patent and trade mark applications

• Assisting the operations of the IP profession

• Improving mechanisms for trade mark and copyright enforcement

• Simplifying the IP system

One area of special interest the Bill deals with is that of Research:

“Researchers are set to be given more clarity around patents, with the amendments making a distinction between research and commercial activities, saying that research and experiments relating to patented inventions are exempt from infringements.” (Read more . . .)

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