INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

With strengths in: copyright, licensing, patents, trademarks and designs.

AGS has advised Australian Government agencies over many years on how to best protect, manage and leverage their intellectual property.

We have a national team of lawyers with expertise in the full range of intellectual property issues, including:

• intellectual property reform processes, including ‘digital agenda’ issues
• intellectual property policy guidance and strategic management
• research and development joint venture arrangements
• commercialisation of software and data products
• Crown copyright and Australian Government use of third-party copyright material, including whole-of-government arrangements with collecting societies such as Copyright Agency Limited
• ‘shrink-wrap’ and ‘click-wrap’ agreements for end-user licensing of intellectual property
• the full range of intellectual property and associated issues arising from the Internet
• intellectual property issues of collecting institutions such as libraries and archives
• moral rights, design rights, fine arts and Indigenous intellectual property issues
• protection of confidential information and know-how
• due diligence
• conducting intellectual property audits.

We regularly advise clients on trademarks and related areas of the law, including domain names and certification trademarks which have special relevance to the public sector. AGS has also assisted clients to develop innovative ways in which intellectual property can be protected and shared in academic and learning environments, including via digital rights management systems.

AGS Resources on Intellectual Property

All Commonwealth government agencies governed by the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 (the ‘FMA Act’) are required to comply with the requirements of the Intellectual Property Principles for Australian Government Agencies (the ‘IP Principles’). As part of this, each FMA Act agency is required to have in place an agency IP policy. Information about the IP Principles is available on the website of the Attorney-General’s Department at: http://www.ag.gov.au/cca.

AGS provides some important resources and services to assist agencies in developing an IP policy and implementing IP management strategies. The AGS resources include:

• ‘Intellectual Property Law, Policy and Practice within the Commonwealth’, which outlines some of the basic principles of IP law and practice in the Commonwealth
• ‘Methodology for developing an Agency IP Policy’, which presents a methodology for undertaking a strategic IP management review, leading to the development of an agency IP management policy
• ‘Diagram depicting Methodology for an Agency IP Policy’, which illustrates the structure of the AGS IP Methodology
• IP Review and Policy Development Questionnaire Suite, which is based on the AGS IP Methodology and designed especially to assist FMA Act agencies in their internal processes of information gathering and analysis leading to the development of an IP Policy. Explanatory Notes | Questionnaire 1: Scope | Questionnaire 2: Existing Law and Policy | Questionnaire 3: Key IP Material / Transaction.
• ‘Template for an IP Register’, with illustrative details drawn from AGS IP Case Study 4.

See also:

• IP Case Studies: fictional scenarios developing a continuing story line with familiar characters involved in management of IP within Commonwealth agencies, as presented at AGS IP Law, Policy and Practice Seminars:
• Case study 1: Dodgy Data and the Mediwise Project
• Case study 2: NCrypt and the Scamguard Affair
• Case study 3: Bird Flu and the Da Vinci Code
• Case study 4: The APEC Adventure
• Case study 5: Goings On at the Australia 2020 Summit.
• Publications:
• Commercial notes No. 28, 25 July 2008
• Commercial notes No. 25, ‘IT and Intellectual Property’, 11 January 2008
• Commercial notes No. 24, 30 June 2007
• Commercial notes No. 18, 24 February 2006
• Commercial notes No. 9, ‘Managing Commonwealth intellectual property’, 6 April 2004
• Commercial notes No. 3, 14 September 2001.
• ‘IP Practice, Policy and Reform — Issues for Universities’, Address by Philip Crisp, AGS Special Counsel, to University Secretaries, Darwin, 8 September 2008.
• Legal audits—review and risk

Canberra		Sydney
Philip Crisp T 02 6253 7159 | F 02 6253 7306		John Berg T 02 9581 7624 | F 02 9581 7445
Melbourne		Brisbane
Kenneth Eagle T 03 9242 1290 | F 03 9242 1481		Peter Blennerhassett T 07 3360 5767 | F 07 3360 5797
Perth		Adelaide and Darwin
Lee-Sai Choo T 08 9268 1137 | F 08 9268 1771		Andrew Schatz T 08 8205 4201 | F 08 8205 4499
Hobart
Peter Bowen T 03 6210 2104 | F 03 6210 2110

National contacts

Philip Crisp
T 02 6253 7159
F 02 6253 7306

Rachel Chua
T 02 6253 7086
F 02 6253 7306

Adrian Snooks
T 02 6253 7192
F 02 6253 7306

Canberra
Sydney
Melbourne
Brisbane
Perth
Adelaide
Darwin
Hobart