Copyright protection for fashion brands has become increasingly difficult despite the strong desire of international brand owners to use intellectual property to limit parallel importation. This is reinforced by this Full Federal Court decision involving copyright protection for the iconic polo player logo (“the Logo”) embroidered on Ralph Lauren T-Shirts. Polo/Lauren Company (“Ralph Lauren”) unsuccessfully claimed that a parallel importer of genuine Ralph Lauren garments, Ziliani Holdings Pty Ltd (“Ziliani”), infringed its copyright in the Logo. Copyright/design overlap issues are particularly interesting given the extensive changes to the Designs Act 2003 (Cth) (“the Designs Act”) and amendments to the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) (“the Act”) in the last decade. Parallel importation raises interesting copyright and trade mark issues in the fashion industry but smaller players or international brands with limited sales in
Excluding Patentability for Biological Materials: Proposed Patent Act Amendments
This paper considers the specific exemption to patentability for biological materials proposed in the Patent Amendment (Human Genes and Biological Materials) Bill 2010 (the Amendment Bill). The rationale for the amendments is an attempt to avoid the possibility of monopolies being granted for inventions that would transgress socially acceptable norms. This paper will argue that the Amendment Bill is not an appropriate means to achieve this. The Amendment Bill follows the 2010 Senate Report, Gene Patents, (the Senate Report) however it was not a recommendation of that report that there be a specific provision prohibiting gene patents. By excluding biological material from patentable subject matter, this amendment to section 18 of the Patents Act 1990 (Cth) (the Act) would have an even broader impact on patentable subject matter in Australia than prohibiting gene patents, and risk placing it out of step with international standards and Australia’s international obligations. Rather than achieving its stated goal of reinforcing the distinction between discovery and invention, the Amendment Bill would exclude a wide range of potential inventions from patent protection and provide a specific exemption where, it will be argued, technology neutral and non-specific reforms would be more appropriate. More
Costs Consequences in Confidential Information Cases
In Luxottica Retail Australia v Grant & Ors (No. 2) [2009] NSWSC 736 (31 July 2009) the Supreme Court of New South Wales has awarded costs against an employer who was successful in its confidential information and copyright claims against a former employee but only obtained nominal damages, as their claim for additional damages for breach of copyright was unsuccessful. More
Patent Reform IP Australia
Significant changes to the Patents Act 1990 (the Act) have been proposed by the Federal Government with the release of two reform papers by IP Australia on 30 March 2009. The stated objective of the reforms is to assist commercialisation of Australian innovations in the global market place and encourage foreign investors to introduce their technology into Australia
