Applications of Australian Intellectual Property Law

Australian laws relating to personal property securities (“PPS”) have been messy for years, based on often incomplete state records which have never been centralised. The major rationales for the reforms are that the previous laws were inflexible, outdated, and prevent product innovation.[1] Personal property incorporates intellectual property , an important repository of wealth in the 21st century.

Customary laws are the traditional common rules or practices that have been passed down through generations and have become a native part of the expected conduct in a community.

An offeror will have made an offer where it appears to a reasonable person in the position of the offeree that an offer was intended.

Patent and Trade Marks Attorneys in Australia are subject to the Code of Conduct 2013 ("Attorney Rules") made by the Professional Standards Board under the Patents Act and the Trade Marks Act. The conflicts rules thereunder are extracted in Annexure B hereto.

In this essay I will be critically analysing an article and report on the relationship between Australian law and International law, reflecting on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and whether it ensures the safe guard of human rights for future generations. I will then analyse whether this promotes peace and equality internationally.

3. Australian International Law – Australia’s legal system and effectiveness. Peter Greste - Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

An Introduction to the Law and Economics of Intellectual Property Author(s): Stanley M. Besen and Leo J. Raskind Reviewed work(s): Source: The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 5, No. 1 (Winter, 1991), pp. 3-27 Published by: American Economic Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1942699 . Accessed: 24/11/2011 08:39

Australian society is constantly changing and developing, therefore laws need to be accordingly dynamic in order to respond effectively to the changes in social values, overcome issues when they arise, promote equality, to support scientific and technological advances as they perpetually occur, and to ensure majority compliance amongst the community.

Over the past fifty years, the British Music Publishing industry has undergone dramatic changes. It has evolved as an entity with innovations in technology, changes and creations of laws and new mediums to promote and exploit songs to a wider audience. Therefore, the way in which the music publishing industry operates and exploits its assets has completely transformed, and continues to do so at a rapid pace. This paper will attempt to explore the ways in which publishers exploit song copyrights and the way in which this has changed over the past 60 years. It is important to define what is meant by copyright and its role within the industry. The Performing Right Society website states: “Copyright

Copyright is the legal right, to an inventor to perform, print, publish, film, or record artistic, literary, or musical material, and to allow others to do the same. Copyright law was developed to provide the creators and inventors of any works with powerful and effective rights of exclusivity over their creations (Patterson & Lindberg, 1991). Over the past, these rights were almost unlimited. People would use existing developments as if they were their own without any regard of the creator’s exclusive rights. The need to balance and limit such rights arose, and governments established these limits for the general good of the public.

The purpose of the copyright system has always been to promote creativity in society and protect the creators’ interests. In applying copyright laws to any creation, three basic guidelines apply. First is the fair return for a creators labor, second is “Fair Use” of the creators’ labor and finally the Progress of Science and useful Arts to further the public good. The application of these three guidelines in litigation for A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, found that the rights of reproduction, and distribution had been violated, in effect upholding the copyrights of nineteen different music companies represented under A&M Records name, this ruling had protected the music industries interests. However it would seem that the publishing industry would not be so lucky, litigation in Authors’ Guild vs. Google ruled that Google’s actions constituted fair use. Under these two scenarios’ the copyright laws’ have, effectively, protected the rights of music artists’, protected the public’s right to “fair use” and sparked new opportunities for creative growth. However, lawmakers continue to struggle to define copyright boundaries between the public’s right of use and the creators right to profit from their efforts.

Intellectual property is a broad term that is used to refer to the rights that the owner of an invention or an artwork enjoys. An example of intellectual property law is the Trade Related Aspect of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), which gives individual rights such as patent, designs, and trademark. Intellectual property is contained in the Article 2(viii) of the convention, which led the establishment of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Literary works, inventions, discoveries, trademarks, and industrial designs are among the rights that are provided in WIPO. Intellectual property in Australia has a strong judicial support.

The term ‘fair use’ is defined by Hudson as the use of copyright material without permission from the owner for purposes that are deemed fair. In the digital economy however, new challengers arise with ‘fair use’. These challenges are due to the complex and changing nature of the digital environment, and the need for the law to remain relevant, and be clear and broadly understood in the community. Secondly, the purpose of copyright law is to stimulate creation and learning by providing incentives to create and distribute. Therefore, it is important that reforms do not change the fundamental objectives of the copyright law. The ALRC has made recommendations outlining implementation of ‘fair use’ legislation in Australia, which is intended to outline the purpose and character of copyright material that may be used without permission from the owner. The purpose of the ALRC report is build a fair and reasonable legal guidelines where copyright material can be used fairly for purposes that may not infringe copyright.

The rise of the Internet era opened the whole new market for traditional media full of opportunities as well as threats. Online piracy being one of them because the music and film industry loses £5.4bn in a year and if it was reduced by 10% it could have created up to 13 thousand jobs in the UK. There are various attempts taken to fight with online piracy; a case study of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement will be considered as well as other legislations attempting to regulate copyrights in the Internet. This

A piece of computer software comprises a program, which is a series of instructions expressed in code, intended to cause a particular result when used in computer hardware. Computer software is afforded copyright protection as a category of literary work and enjoy copyright protection under sections 1(1) and 3(1) (b) Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 [1]. In order to be an original literary work, the computer program must be the product of a substantial degree of skill, labour and judgement by the author. This was decided in the case of University of London Press Ltd v University Tutorial Press Ltd [2].