Way more than an everyday interest in IP
As you will know from previous posts (see here and here), when Appointed Persons speak, we listen! One of our favourites, it has to be said, is Mr Iain Purvis QC. He has a knack of getting straight to the point, with clear and memorable turns of phrase. Indeed one often finds oneself (if one read more…
For most of us, our exposure to software code is limited to the Matrix and those terrifying moments when you accidentally open Terminal on your Mac. However, as computers slowly and silently assume dominion over every facet of our lives, it’s inevitable that the mysteries of source code will increasingly confront us with novel challenges. read more…
Between 31 May 2012 and 26 March 2013, an Australian husband and wife (Mr and Ms Vinson), through their self-managed superannuation funds, invested $1,250,000 and $1,625,000 respectively in a company that never earned any operating revenue. The company, Semantic Software Asia Pacific Limited (formerly Tralee Technology Holdings Pty Ltd) (Semantic), was a software company looking read more…
Late last week the Full Federal Court delivered what should be the final word in a long-running dispute between the Privacy Commissioner and Telstra about whether data generated within a telecommunications network in the course of transmitting calls and other messages should be treated as “personal information” under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). The case read more…
Yesterday the Productivity Commission published its final report on Australia’s IP system. Our high level summary of the Commission’s recommendations across all aspects of the IP system can be found here. The Commission sees the patent system as tipped in favour of patent owners and its recommendations are designed to restore balance. This post provides read more…
Yesterday, Australia’s Productivity Commission released their Final Report into Australia’s Intellectual Property Arrangements. This report was sent to Government on 23 September 2016. The Government is carrying out additional public consultation in relation to the recommendations made in the Final Report, which differ in key respects from some of the Commission’s draft recommendations. You can read more…
Prepared by: Helena Kanton and Michael Swinson This month, the New South Wales Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal by regional TV broadcaster WIN against an earlier decision by the New South Wales Supreme Court that the Nine Network was not prohibited under an exclusive licence agreement with WIN from live streaming Nine’s TV programming read more…
Recent publicity about an Australian university’s practice of tracking the location of people connected to the university’s wi-fi network raises a mixture of policy and legal issues. The media report claims that the legal position is not clear, so this post is intended to help readers understand that position. The university’s spokesman is quoted as read more…
The Federal Court of Australia has given summary judgment in Tolkien Estate Limited v Saltalamacchia [2016] FCA 944 for Tolkien Estate Limited (representing the estate of the late JRR Tolkien) against a jewellery trader selling rings bearing the infamous inscription of the ‘One Ring’ from Tolkien’s The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings series. read more…