The Australian Government's Innovation Report

• commercialisation seminars for small and medium-sized enterprises held in Sydney, Melbourne and
Brisbane as part of the Australian Innovation Festival;
• celebrations associated with the 100 th anniversary of the Trade Marks Office including a special promotion
that voted Weetbix as Australia’s favourite trade mark;
• the launch of the IP Media Centre website and Journalist’s Guide to IP; and
• an education campaign conducted with the Queensland Department of Tourism, Fair Trading and Wine
Industry Development to redress confusion surrounding business names and trade marks. Two postcards
were developed and over 25 000 were distributed to business name applicants in Queensland.
Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia
The Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia (IPRIA), located at the University of Melbourne, provides
multi-disciplinary research on key IP issues to promote debate, help develop IP policy and identify best
commercial practice in the use of IP. IPRIA has a growing national and international profile. Major research
achievements over the past year include publishing 27 working papers or occasional papers and six reports/
scoreboards, delivering 36 conference papers or other presentations in Australia and overseas and securing
publication of 21 research outputs in either a refereed journal or book.
IPRIA is currently engaged in research on 23 research projects, covering a broad range of issues.
Review of Designs Spare Parts Exclusions
The new designs rights system, which commenced in June 2004, excluded spare parts from designs protection
through a right of repair provision. When introducing the new designs legislation, the Australian Government
announced that IP Australia would undertake a formal review of the right of repair exclusion to assess how
well it had met the government’s objectives of encouraging innovation and competition. The review
commenced in August 2005, and a final report was released on 23 June 2006. It recommended that no changes
be made to the designs spare parts provisions at this stage as the provisions had yet to have a significant affect
on industry and consumers. The full impact of the provisions is unlikely to become evident for some years.
Review of Innovation Patent
The Australian Government committed to review the effectiveness of the innovation patent system within five
years of its introduction in 2001. The purpose of the system is to encourage and stimulate innovation by providing
a faster and relatively cheaper means through which Australian businesses, particularly small and medium-sized
enterprises, can protect their lower level inventions.
IP Australia released an issues paper in August 2005 for consultation. The final report, which was released in
August 2006, found that the system meets its objectives and that significant changes are not warranted. Inadequate
knowledge of the system was identified as a barrier to further improving public usage of the innovation patent. To
address this, IP Australia is, however, planning further public awareness activities.
Review of Grace Period
Amendments to the Patents Regulations 1991 providing a grace period for filing patent applications came into effect
on 1 April 2002. The grace period ensures that a patent is not invalidated because the invention was published
or used in the 12-month period before the Australian filing date of the application, where the publication was
made by, or with the consent of, the applicant.
The Australian Government committed to review the effectiveness of this initiative within two years and
issued its report in August 2005. The report concluded that no changes were necessary, but that IP Australia
should continue to monitor international developments as well as monitoring judicial consideration of the
provisions in Australia.
More information is available at: www.ipaustralia.gov.au; www.ipaustralia.gov.au; and www.ipria.org
80 Backing Australia’s Ability