The Pitfalls of Unregistered Trade Marks The Australian Consumer Law (ACL) affords businesses a certain level of trade mark protection. Businesses acquire that protection automatically as they undertake their ordinary operations and build a reputation. The automated nature of the protection can make it an attractive alternative to formally registering a trade mark right. The recent Federal Court case of …
Protecting the Intellectual Property of Your Font
Current Cases before the Courts Over recent years there has been some discussion concerning the intellectual property rights in fonts and typefaces. It’s not a new area of law given that the first printing press started in 1440. Originally, there were separate metal font moulds for each letter and the letters were placed manually side by side to create the …
Artificial Intelligence
When Robots, IP and Copyright Collide It seems that everywhere we look at the moment, the issue of artificial intelligence (AI) and intellectual property rights is a hot topic. In fact, such a hot topic that it was difficult to know what angle to take for an article. So, we asked one of the free chatbots this question, ”got any …
Heap Leaching
A case study in mineral processing patents In early 2022 a decision from the Australian Patent Office in Technological Resources Pty. Limited [2021] APO 52 (the Decision) got me thinking about the technology of heap leaching, and the many components or aspects of the heap leaching process that may properly be the subject of patent protection. The Decision related to …
Australia’s Extension-of-Time Policy in Patent Oppositions
Time for a Change? Australia has a pre-grant patent opposition procedure. This means that, after a patent application has been advertised as accepted (i.e., “allowed” in US terms), any third party has a period of three (3) months in which to oppose the grant of a patent on the application. Because patent infringement proceedings cannot be commenced until the patent …
Australia’s unfair contract terms (UCT) regime
ACCC action against Fuji This article summarises the recent decision in Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v Fujifilm Business Innovation Australia Pty Ltd, where the Federal Court declared that 38 contract terms included in 11 types of standard form contracts were unfair. This decision provides important guidance for businesses about terms that may be considered to be ‘unfair’ and serves …