Mallesons IP Whiteboard - Latest news in copyright, trade mark and patents law from Australia and around the world

Yesterday, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments from both sides in Bilski v Kappos over whether American law should permit patents for business methods.  Mallesons IP Whiteboard has closely followed the progress of Bernard Bilski and his fight with the US Patent and Trademark Office in relation to whether he is able to patent a business method for structuring transactions to protect against weather-related risk.  read more »

On Wednesday 21 October 2009, the Government announced details of its $196m Commercialisation Australia initiative.  Commercialisation Australia (previously known as the Commonwealth Commercialisation Institute) will open in 2010 and provide tailored assistance to those wanting to commercialise their ideas.   read more »

To improve the chances of success when seeking to amend a patent before the Court, patentees should be candid in their disclosure of all the reasons for seeking the amendment.  read more »

A report prepared by an advisory committee to the Secretary of Health & Human Services in the United States has recommended that US patent law should be amended to create an exemption from liability for persons who infringe patents for genetic testing technologies.   read more »

On Friday the Full Federal Court overturned the decision by Ryan J in Wake Forest University Health Sciences v Smith and Nephew Pty Ltd to grant an injunction restraining Smith & Nephew from commercialising its negative pressure wound therapy product.

The joint judgment of Finn, Bennett and Middleton JJ is interesting for two reasons.   read more »

The European antitrust watchdog this week conducted surprise raids of the French offices of several major generic pharmaceutical companies as part of a growing investigation into suspected anti competitive practices in the European pharmaceutical market.  read more »

Professor Blackburn from Launceston, Tasmania, has become the first Australian woman to win a Nobel Prize.  read more »

For the third time this year, the Federal Government has amended the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989.  These amendments are mostly aimed at tweaking the administrative structures that apply to the regulation of medicines and chemicals.  More generally, the new changes form part of the Government’s ongoing reform agenda to replace the Therapeutic Goods Administration (the “TGA”) with the proposed “Australia New Zealand Therapeutic Products Authority”.  read more »

An update from an earlier post: an appeal from the decision of the Full Court of the Federal Court in University of Western Australia v Gray may be heard by the High Court, after the University of Western Australia applied for special leave to appeal.  read more »

A Judge in the US this week vacated the highly publicised US $388 million jury verdict earlier this year against Microsoft for the alleged infringement of an anti-piracy software activation technology patent owned by Uniloc - a software security company founded by Australian entrepreneur Ric Richardson.  read more »