Australia – Page 9 – IP Law Watch

Methods of genetic testing still patentable (Meat & Livestock Australia v Cargill decision)

Feb 09 2018

On Friday 9 February, the Federal Court handed down its highly anticipated decision in Meat & Livestock Australia Limited v Cargill, Inc [2018] FCA 51. The matter has attracted substantial media attention in Australia and generated debate about whether patents claiming methods which use genetic information should be allowed.

The principal claims of the application in suit involve method claims for identifying a trait of a bovine subject from a nucleic acid sample. In particular, the invention made use of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).

Western Australian Court orders ex-customers and architect to pay damages to house designer for unauthorised use of plans

Feb 07 2018

On 22 January 2018, Justice Martino of the Supreme Court of Western Australia delivered his judgment in the case of Milankov Designs & Project Management Pty Ltd v Di Latte & Anor, a copyright infringement case in respect of house plans.

Mr and Mrs Di Latte engaged the plaintiff, Milankov Designs & Project Management Pty Ltd (Milankov), to design and prepare drawings for a home to be built at the Di Lattes’ property. The agreement provided that Milankov would prepare plans for stages of the design and build process – first, the development stage and, second, the construction drawing stage. The Di Lattes agreed to pay Milankov a percentage of the build cost, to be billed to the Di Lattes at various stages throughout the process.

After Milankov had prepared the stage one plans (including plans submitted to council for building licence approval) and the Di Lattes had paid several invoices issued by Milankov, the relationship between the parties broke down. The engagement contract was terminated by the Di Lattes, and Milankov promptly wrote to the Di Lattes putting them on notice that Milankov owned copyright in the plans it had created and that the Di Lattes were not entitled to reproduce the plans without its permission, including by building the house at their property.

Nonetheless, the Di Lattes proceeded to engage an architect to create plans including construction drawings by copying Milankov’s plans, and then to construct a house in accordance with the design.

Change is Coming to Australian Parallel Importation law – What do you Need to Know?

Jan 25 2018

Trade mark holders may need to reassess their commercial and international marketing strategies as the proposed amendments to the parallel importation provisions of the Trade Marks Act 1995 (Cth) (Act) take a step closer to enactment by the Australian Parliament.

The proposed amendments to the Act, contained in the draft Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Productivity Commission response Part 1 and other measures) Bill (Draft Bill) will favour parallel importers in Australia.

Pushing the limits of Australia’s grace period

Dec 20 2017

Australia’s “grace period” provisions allow a patent applicant to disclose or use their invention within 12 months before filing a complete patent application in Australia. In an interesting interpretation of those provisions, the Australian Patent Office has found that the grace period applies to whole of contents citations published after a patent application has been filed.

Australian Patent Office considers plausibility in a test for sufficiency

Nov 24 2017

The emergence of “plausibility” as a test for inventive step, sufficiency and industrial applicability represents a significant legal development in Europe in recent years. Now the concept of plausibility has reached Australian shores, with the Australian Patent Office applying it in a test for sufficiency.

Innovation patents as strategic tools for clients (Business Bytes video)

Sep 28 2017

As part of the K&L Gates Business Bytes series, Sydney partner and patent attorney, Nigel Lokan, discusses the use of innovation patents as strategic tools for clients.

Changes to divisional trade mark applications flagged by IP Australia

Sep 13 2017

IP Australia has released a consultation paper (Paper) concerning proposed amendments to Australia’s system for filing divisional trade mark applications. The Paper proposes amendments which will affect all divisional applications filed in Australia, including allowing divisional applications to be filed for International Registrations Designating Australia (IRDAs) for the first time.

Significant changes ahead for Australian patents

Sep 07 2017

The Australian Government has proposed significant changes to Australian patent law following an inquiry into the IP system recently completed by its advisory body, the Productivity Commission. These include:

Amending the inventive step threshold to reflect that of the European Patent Office
Phasing out innovation patents
Requiring applicants to identify an invention’s technical features in their claims, and
Adding an objects clause to the Patents Act.

Say My Name: Beyoncé files trademarks for her newborn twins’ names

Jul 26 2017

Long gone are the days where the first registration of your child’s name was on their birth certificate. On 26 June 2017, U.S. Trade Mark Application Numbers 87506186 and 87506188 were filed for the names of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter’s newborn twins ‘Rumi Carter’ and ‘Sir Carter’ by Beyoncé’s holding company, BGK Trademark Holdings.

Protecting Plant Innovations in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand

Jul 19 2017

The development of new plant varieties can be a costly and time-consuming process. To incentivise breeding endeavours, governments around the world have developed legal mechanisms which effectively provide breeders with a period of market exclusivity in which to commercialise their new variety. The mechanisms vary from country to country, and this article briefly reviews those available in the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

To read the full alert, click here.

By: Michael Christie and Margaux Nair

Tag:Australia