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Martin is a graduate in the Melbourne office. Although new to the world of IP, he is starting to develop an interest in patent law. Outside of the office, Martin’s interests include travel, playing sport socially and all things mathematical. |
In the US, the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 (“Act”) is considered by some to be the most “inspired” legislative enactment of the 20th century. The provisions of the Act are few and (seemingly) straightforward. Contractors — universities, national laboratories, teaching hospitals and the like — that enter into a research funding agreement with a US federal government agency are granted a right to ownership of any invention that is created in the course of the funded research. In return, contractors must comply with a number of obligations, including making disclosure of the invention to the relevant federal agency, filing a patent application for the invention, granting a non-exclusive paid-up licence to the invention to the federal agency and giving preference to small business and US industry when commercialising the invention.
A recent decision by the US Supreme Court has reversed what was thought to be implicit in the operation of the Act. read more »
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Earlier this year, the Australian Patent Office (“APO”) in First Principles, Inc [2011] APO 1 considered the patentability of an invention relating to a method for “rational inquiry”. The method purports to improve a person’s reasoning by detecting and removing “disintegrations”. This is achieved by compiling two “matrices” of data for the subject and comparing them to identify inconsistencies. The patent specification states that disintegrations read more »