Productivity Commission’s Intellectual Property Review Initial Submissions Stage Ends, Draft Report To Follow
Thursday 3 December 2015 @ 10.35 a.m. | IP & Media
Initial submissions on the Productivity Commission’s year long report into Australia’s intellectual property framework closed earlier this week. The inquiry was started in August this year by then-Treasurer Joe Hockey, and has twelve months to provide a final report to the Government. A draft report is scheduled to be released sometime in March or April 2016, to be followed by a round of public hearings. The inquiry was foreshadowed earlier this year as part of a set of recommendations by the Harper Competition Policy Review – for more information, see TimeBase’s earlier article.
Terms of Reference
The scope of this inquiry is very broad, with the official terms of references asking the Productivity Commission to:
“examine the effect of the scope and duration of protection afforded by Australia’s intellectual property system on:
(a) research and innovation, including freedom to build on existing innovation;
(b) access to and cost of goods and services; and
(c) competition, trade and investment…
[and]…
recommend changes to the current system that would improve the overall wellbeing of Australian society, which take account of Australia’s international trade obligations, including changes that would:
(a) encourage creativity, investment and new innovation by individuals, businesses and through collaboration while not unduly restricting access to technologies and creative works;
(b) allow access to an increased range of quality and value goods and services;
(c) provide greater certainty to individuals and businesses as to whether they are likely to infringe the intellectual property rights of others; and
(d) reduce the compliance and administrative costs associated with intellectual property rules.”
The inquiry also has to take into account the findings and recommendations from a range of recent reports into specific aspects of the system, including the Australian Law Reform Commission’s report into Copyright and the Digital Economy, the Advisory Council on Intellectual Property’s Review of the Innovation patent System and the recommendations on parallel import restrictions from the Harper Competition Policy Review.
The Productivity Commission must also take into account Australia’s international arrangements and obligations. In their submission to the Productivity Commission, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission raised some concerns about the effect of the intellectual property provisions in the newly-released Trans-Pacific Partnership, saying:
“The ACCC is concerned that the agreement appears to impose IP restrictions beyond existing international treaties, and this may tilt the balance in favour of IP rights holders to the detriment of competition and consumers.”
Public submissions for the Productivity Commission inquiry can be found on its website.
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