Current Reviews

ACIP's current work program covers a number of reviews, including:

Collaborations between the Public and Private Sectors: The Role of Intellectual Property
Review of the Innovation Patent System

For information on completed reviews, follow this link

Collaborations between the Public and Private Sectors: The Role of Intellectual Property

The Australian Government aims to double the level of collaboration between business and publicly-funded research organisations (including universities) over the next decade.

The Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator the Hon Kim Carr, requested that ACIP investigate how intellectual property (IP) acts to enable or disable collaborations between PFROs and private sector stakeholders.

The investigation includes collecting evidence of collaboration models between the private and public sectors and experiences that the parties to such collaborations have, including how matters involving IP arise and impact on collaborations.

As part of the investigation, ACIP independently seeks views from:

private sector stakeholders to identify which aspects of collaborations with Australian PFROs work well and which do not.
representatives of publicly-funded research organisations—including the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australian National Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Australian Institute of Medical Scientists (AIMS), Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO), Australian universities, medical research institutes and cooperative research centres—to identify which aspects of collaborations with private sector stakeholders work well and which do not.
funders of PFROs, including the Australian Research Council (ARC) and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and philanthropic organisations.

Please address any queries to:

Vera Lipton
Secretariat
Advisory Council on Intellectual Property
PO Box 200
WODEN ACT 2606

Email: mail.acip@ipaustralia.gov.au
Telephone: 02 6283 2830
Fax: 02 6285 1048

Review of the Innovation Patent System

The innovation patent system was established in 2001 to stimulate innovation in Australian small to medium business enterprises. It protects incremental or low level inventions that do not meet the inventive threshold required for standard patent protection and are not covered by design legislation.

In recent years a variety of concerns have been raised about the innovation patent system and whether it is meeting its original objectives. A key concern is that an innovation patent is overly difficult to invalidate and the remedies for infringement are overly generous. Another concern is that innovation patents are being used to obtain a form of quick protection for higher level inventions while a standard patent is being pursued. Also, the innovation patent system has never been reviewed to assess whether it remains effective and appropriate for Australia now and in the future.

On 28 February 2011, the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research requested that ACIP investigate the effectiveness of the innovation patent system in stimulating innovation by Australian small to medium business enterprises.

ACIP released an Issues Paper on 17 August 2011 to seek the views of interested parties. A number of written submissions were received. ACIP also conducted a number of public forums in October 2011 to discuss the key issues. ACIP is currently reviewing the submissions and feedback from the forums.

An Options Paper will be released in early-mid 2012 to seek further public input on a number of possible options for reforming the innovation patent system.

For more information, please contact:

Jeff Carl
Secretariat
Advisory Council on Intellectual Property
PO Box 200
WODEN ACT 2611

Email: mail.acip@ipaustralia.gov.au
Telephone: 02 6283 2543
Fax: 02 6285 1048