Geographical Indication- IP Australia Report

What do the Byron Bay Chilli Company, Classic Tasmanian Smoked Salmon, Margaret River Olive Company, Certified Australian Angus Beef, and Château Tanunda Grand Barossa all have in common…besides being fantastic ingredients you should probably have on your shopping list for your next dinner party? They all utilise geographical indication (GI) in their names and trade marks filed with IP Australia. …

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Who is the main driver of IP growth?

According to the latest IP Australia report, applications for patents, trade marks and design rights in Australia all grew in 2017. Trade marks even reached a record peak. Sounds like good news. However, the main driver of this growth was from overseas (or non-resident) applicants. In fact, trade mark filings by non-residents increased by 25 percent and design filings by non-residents increased by 9 …

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Research – The Positive effects on Commercialisation

The 2018 IP Australia report (Chapter 6) reviews two separate studies that show “public funding of research has a positive and statistically significant impact on patent production, with the impact being stronger for collaborative grants.” This is an important finding because – as the IP Australia report notes — patenting activity is an indicator of the commercialisation potential of research …

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Patent Applicants- Who is applying?

All hail Australia’s small businesses! IP Australia estimates that more than 75 percent of the Australian residents who applied for patents in Australia in 2016 were private individuals or small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The numbers demonstrate that a significant amount of innovation in Australia is happening at the start-up level, highlighting the need to further nurture this growing sector …

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Patent Filing- Global Findings

World patent filings have been averaging around eight percent annual growth between 2010 and 2016. By comparison, patent filings in Australia have averaged around three percent growth over the same period, ranking us 10th in OECD countries in terms of average annual growth. Patents are filed where entrepreneurs and companies believe they will have commercial opportunity and want to protect …

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The IP Perspective: clever planning or pure luck?

Perhaps one of the least acknowledged, and yet most critical, factors contributing to one’s ‘success’, is luck. All too often, people will credit their achievements solely to their personal skill and brilliance, hard work, and hustle. They will rarely mention the role that luck played, and even more rarely (respectfully) give thanks to it. Perhaps they feel that by doing …

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3D Printing – IP implications of a layered approach

The game changing technology of 3D printing (a form of additive manufacturing – the creation of 3D objects by adding layer upon layer of materials) is becoming mainstream in our modern society. It has now entered our homes so that what was once a technology only available to large organisations and researchers is now available to hobbyists and smaller companies …

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Government’s long-awaited reforms to R&D Tax Incentive

In last week’s Federal Budget, the government announced some long-awaited reforms to the R&D Tax Incentive, to boost its integrity and provide much needed clarity for how companies can claim the incentive moving forward. There was some good news: A $4 million annual cap on cash refunds for early-stage start-ups, instead of the proposed $2 million, and no lifetime cap …

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