POF welcomes new addition to the POFL team, Alexis Keating

Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick would like to extend an official welcome to our newest lawyer in the POFL team, Alexis Keating. Alexis is joining our Melbourne office, bringing with her six years of experience in the legal industry across general commercial litigation, property law and criminal law. Alexis holds a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and a …
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Proposed changes to the Plant Breeder’s Rights system

Background In October 2017, IP Australia released an Exposure Draft of the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Productivity Commission Response Part 1 and Other Measures) Bill (the draft Bill). The draft Bill follows a public inquiry by the Productivity Commission into Australia’s IP framework and seeks to implement a number of the Commission’s recommendations, together with …
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Innovation patent system to be abolished: results of the Productivity Commission inquiry

The Australian Government recently released its response to the Productivity Commission’s (PC) inquiry into Australia’s intellectual property (IP) system. These recommendations include the significant change of abolishing Australia’s innovation patent system, further raising of the bar on the inventive step threshold for patents, and the replacement of existing exceptions to copyright infringement. Abolishment of the …
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2017 APAA Annual Council Meeting

This week, Auckland, New Zealand, played host to the annual council meeting of the Asian Patent Attorneys Association (APAA). The principal objective of APAA is to promote and enhance intellectual property protection throughout the Asia region. The association includes approximately 2,400 members across 20 countries such as Australia, United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore and …
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Proud sponsor of the Graeme Clark Oration

Yesterday marked the 2017 Graeme Clark Oration, of which POF is very proud to be a long-time sponsor. The Oration informs the community about scientific advances in health and medical research, delivered by recognised global leaders in their field. This year the Oration was delivered by Dr Harold Varmus and focussed on ’Transitions in Cancer …
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IP Australia takes first steps to abolish the innovation patent system

On 23 October 2017, IP Australia released draft legislation for public comment  which includes measures to implement aspects of the Australian Government response to the Productivity Commission’s inquiry into Australia’s IP system (reported here). Both the Productivity Commission and the former Advisory Council on Intellectual Property had recommended that the innovation patent system be abolished, …
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