Australian Government 'Has No Coherent IP Policy'

by Mary Swire, for LawAndTax-News.com, Hong Kong

06 February 2004

A study recently conducted by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has revealed that the majority of Federal Government agencies in the Commonwealth have no coherent policies in place to protect their intellectual property.

In a report released on Thursday, the ANAO revealed that of the government agencies questioned, only 34% indicated that they had systems in place to manage the licensing, transfer, sale or disposal of agency intellectual property. However, all the case study agencies had systems in place, or under development, for the uptake or transfer of agency intellectual property.

Twenty-six agencies (representing 35% of those questioned) indicated that they had commercialised intellectual property in the last two years.

The ANAO asked agencies that had commercialised intellectual property to estimate the annual revenue received from commercialisation and transfer of agency intellectual property, and of the 13 agencies that provided an estimate, the average annual revenue was $1.7 million.

Commenting on the results, the Audit Office suggested that without a coherent IP strategy: "Agencies increase the risk of 'giving away' valuable intellectual property, paying multiple times for access to the same piece of intellectual property and more broadly ignoring intellectual property assets when making strategic resource and operational decisions."

Concluding its report, the ANAO made two key recommendations, the first of which was that in order to ensure the effective and efficient management of intellectual property, government agencies should develop an intellectual property policy appropriate for agency circumstances and functions, and implement the required systems and procedures to support such a policy.

The second recommendation suggested that in order to ensure that the Commonwealth’s interests are protected, the Attorney-General’s Department, the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, and IP Australia (along with other relevant agencies), should work together to develop a whole-of-government approach and guidance for the management of the Commonwealth’s intellectual property, taking into account the different functions, circumstances and requirements of agencies across the Commonwealth, and the need for agency guidance and advice on intellectual property management.

Recommended