Under Section 18(1) of the Design Act 2003 (Cth), a design is only registerable if it is new and distinctive when compared to the prior art base for the design as it existed before the priority date. This section, when read in conjunction with Section 18(2), effectively means that if a designer has publicly released …
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Congratulations to POF’s very own Dr Annabella Newton who has been accepted into the Women in Leadership Development (WILD) Program! The WILD Program, sponsored by the CERA Centre for Eye Research Australia, the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science and Brandon Capital, is open to women in the science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) sector. …
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The two key remedies sought by intellectual property owners in infringement cases are an injunction to stop the infringing conduct and compensation in the form of damages or an account of profits. Typically, the Court will determine the question of infringement separately and prior to considering what, if any, compensation should be awarded. In many instances …
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Red Energy Pty Limited v Registrar of Trade Marks [2018] FCA 1449 A recent decision of Justice Beach in the Federal Court may have breathed new life into appeals from Trade Marks Office decisions during prosecution. Background Energy retailer Red Energy filed Australian Trade Mark Application No. 1746950 for the mark EVENPAY for various goods …
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On 20 August 2018, the Federal Circuit Court issued a Practice Direction for the streamlined management of intellectual property matters. Most intellectual property matters are filed in the Federal Court. However, the Federal Circuit Court can provide an alternative avenue for pursuing some intellectual property cases. Like the Federal Court, it has jurisdiction to hear …
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It’s risky business bringing proceedings for IP infringement without proper legal advice. A self-represented Debra Crocker learnt this the hard way over a series of court proceedings, which saw her sentenced to time in prison for contempt of Court and prohibited from instituting proceedings in the Federal Court with limited exception. Following these recent proceedings,[1] …
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Australian Federal Court not impressed with parallel AU/US proceedings Earlier this year, in a decision¹ made by O’Callaghan J of the Federal Court of Australia, Kraft was restrained from proceeding with arbitration proceedings against Bega in the US. The dispute arose in the context of the sale and promotion of BEGA branded peanut butter produced …
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In what is a quite recent but unpublicised development, IP Australia now record “special” non-English characters (i.e. accented letters, umlauts, diaeresis and the like) for applicants and inventor names on new incoming patent applications. Until recently, an inventor named, for example, Åsa or Björn in a PCT national phase entry designating Australia would be recorded …
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Congratulations to University of Tasmania for winning both the KCA Research Commercialisation Award and People’s Choice Award at last night’s KCA Awards dinner! The University of Tasmania’s award-winning pitch revolved around a research project in rock lobster biology, and a subsequent commercial sublicense from UTAS that will see the world’s first commercial‐scale tropical rock lobster …
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The first interlocutory injunction restraining the launch of a biosimilar pharmaceutical product was granted by the Federal Court of Australia in a decision on 12 June 2018¹. Background The decision concerns the monoclonal antibody rituximab, a biologic therapy which is prescribed in Australia to treat a number of immunology conditions including lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukaemia …
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