Australian IP Reforms Introduced To Parliament

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

04 April 2006

Australia's Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, Bob Baldwin, on Thursday introduced the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill 2006 into the House of Representatives.

Dr Ian Heath, the Director-General of IP Australia, the Government agency responsible for the administration of the patents, trade marks, designs and plant breeder’s rights systems in Australia, said that the Bill amends several pieces of intellectual property law, in order to introduce new policy initiatives and improve the operation of the legislation.

The Bill amends the Patents Act to allow for some recommendations of two reviews into the intellectual property system to come into effect. These are the Intellectual Property and Competition Review (IPCR) Committee’s report “Review of the Intellectual Property Legislation under the Competition Principles Agreement” and the Advisory Council on Intellectual Property’s (ACIP) report, entitled “Review of Enforcement of Industrial Property Rights”.

Several key recommendations of these reviews have already been implemented by the Government.

The Bill also implements wider springboarding provisions by allowing springboarding on any pharmaceutical patent at any time.

Springboarding refers to using a patent to collect data in order to obtain regulatory approval for a generic version of the product, during the life of the patent. The springboarding amendments to the Patents Act remove an obstacle to the development of generic drugs in Australia, while remaining consistent with Australia’s international obligations.

The Bill makes a number of other amendments to the Patents, Trade Marks, Designs, Plant Breeder’s Rights and Olympic Insignia Protection legislation.

These amendments are designed to clarify and improve their operation, and make the intellectual property system easier to use. Other amendments will enhance the administration of the intellectual property system by IP Australia, and will facilitate the recent integration of the Plant Breeder’s Rights Office into IP Australia.

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