The purpose of this assessment is for students to apply their gained knowledge and to conduct further research on the topics of Intellectual Property and Research Commercialisation. It also provides students with the opportunity to apply their skills in poster development and preparation.
Each student is required to prepare a poster, choosing one of the following topics;
- a) Produce an informative poster on the Australian Patent System. Some detail on International patents is allowed but the focus should be on Australia.
- b) Produce an informative poster Australian Plant Breeder’s Rights. Like above, International licencing can be briefly described if deemed appropriate.
- c) Produce a poster explaining the IP considerations of a Company/Institute related to your research interests. For example, what IP issues are of relevance to CSL (Commonwealth Serum Laboratories) Limited? If choosing this option it is important to provide a brief introduction to the Company/Institute rather than delving straight into the IP issues.
Answer:
Intoduction
The patent law is a law that that governs the granting of temporary monopoly on invention use, publication exchanges, use of invention after a certain time for free.
This follows the Patent Acts 1990 (Cth) under which the patents are administered by the commonwealth government agency, IP Australia.
Being that Australia is a member state of the WIP (World Intellectual Property Organization) and also under compliancy of the Agreement on Trade – Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), then patent law in the country is comparable to that on other
Types of patent laws
There is the standard patent law which has a term of 20 years.
There is also the innovation patent has a lower inventiveness threshold and lasts for a maximum of 8 years.
The database is kept under the management of the Australian Intellectual property office.
The system through which patents are granted is based on the British law.
History has it that patents were issued by the governor of the colony before establishment of legislature in all Australian colonies.
Review of the Patent System
The innovation patent that was established in 2001 in order to stimulate innovation in Australia's small to medium business enterprises, was created so as to protect the low level inventions that failed to meet the standard patent protection and weren’t covered by the design legislation.
Back in 2011, ACIP was asked to investigate the effectiveness of the innovation patent system in the innovation stimulation of Australian.
After reviewing issues papers an option papers and also conducing intensive consolations, it was possible to set options of reforms for the IPS (Innovation Patent System).
This enabled more information to be availed on the IPS and a comprehensive analysis of the economic impact of the IPS has enabled.
There have been recommendation to review the IPS and incorporate phases to the system as part of the Intellectual property laws Amendments (Productivity Commission Response Part 1 and other Measures) Bill 2018.
Analysis
There has been questions raised into the benefits and necessity of the patent.
This is due to the fact that if an invention is publicly spoken about without filling for a patent for it, then it may not be possible for the patent to go through.
Benefits of patents
Through APS new inventions are set up for earnings and generations of a lot of money as a patent enables:
A person to be able to manufacture a product and stop others from owing it without permission of the owner.
It gives the owner the right to license someone to manufacture his or her invention as greed upon in legal constrictions.
It also gives the owner right to sue any person using the license without permission.
It also encourages Australians to continue researching and to develop innovative and new products by exploiting the resources availed, advances in technology an transfer of technology and knowledge between countries.
It also enables trading partners to gain incentives to provide rights and thus protecting export of products oversees.
But why choose a patent.
It is considered a right option if:
A products or service potential for commercial returns outweighs the time, energy and effort placed in getting and maintaining a pattern.
The monopoly offered by the patent lessens the risk of intellectual property (IP) theft in the markets.
The resources are available to manage the patent
There is a thorough search to reveal that there are no similar products, services r technology
You have managed to own the invention by keeping it a secret.
Only then can a patent be considered beneficial and the most appropriate form of protection.
However, many business and entrepreneurs have shied away from it due to the amount of energy and time used in managing the patent let alone acquitting it.
There is a provisional application that gives out the possible priority date which established if the applicant is the first person to file for the invention and still this doesn’t not protect the invention fully. It only offers protection for an year and then one has to consider other options or go ahead with the patent application.
There is also the issue with read ups to understand the policies that are dictated for inventors. More to that, Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application for business people who are thinking of expanding the business. The procedure is quite expensive in terms of legal fees as one requires an attorney in increasing chances of success.
Conclusion
Its therefore important to consider things carefully and slowly.
