MAY,Edition # 25, 2001

 

Thursday, 26th April 2001, celebrated the inaugural World Intellectual Property Day. The day is designated as the date on which the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) came into being back in 1970.
To mark the event WIPO has issued the following message:

"Creating the Future Today - four words that underscore the importance of innovators and artists to the development and growth of societies everywhere. We owe the inventions, designs and works of art that ease our workload, improve our living conditions and enrich and beautify our surroundings to a long line of men and women whose creativity and invention have led us from the inkwell to the Internet, and from railways to rockets. Let us use this first World Intellectual Property Day to salute these special individuals who power us forward and give us the opportunity to create a better future. They are an encouragement to all and should inspire us to work together - men and women, young and old of every nation- toward a universal culture of creativity. We salute them and pledge ourselves to ensuring that their works are put to good use for the common benefit of all countries."

WIPO was initially formed to protect the intellectual property rights of individuals and organisations on a global basis. Working through a number of sub-committess, the organisation establishes international standards for the protection of copyright and related rights, leading to an international protocol or treaty establishing the rights of the various stakeholders.
Australia is represented at these forums through the Attorney-General's department.
Mention is made of the above to create an awareness of the fact that a whole raft of new legislation is being prepared in Australia, some of which has recently come into force, which will require a good working knowledge of to avoid litigation problems.
Regulations will cover a vast range of topics, as indicated by the agenda for a WIPO committee meeting to be held in Geneva from the 30th April to the 3rd May, 2001, which will cover intellectual property issues relating to genetic resources, indigenous traditional knowledge and folklore. When the deliberations of this committee finally reach treaty status, it could mean that in Australia's case, any Aboriginal symbols (boomerangs), artwork designs, music traditional stories or traditional craft items, may become subject to copyright, which may further involve licensing fees if other than traditional ownership is involved in its commercial use.
The APEC organisation, which Australia is actively involved, comprises a group of expanding economies located around the Pacific rim. This newsletter has previously mentioned APEC activities in the area of education and professional practice certificates, where there is an objective to have complete interchangeability of all trade and professional qualifications within member economies. The engineering profession was the first to establish a universal practice certificate, and there is no doubt that this will occur in pharmacy when practice certificates become mandatory.
APEC also has a keen interest in intellectual property trade, which is currently estimated at a value of $600 billion per year among the member economies. The Intellectual Property Rights Experts Group (IPEG) meets regularly to discuss issues surrounding trade issues, the twelfth of such meetings having been held in Sydney on the 20th March, 2001.
Countries represented included Canada, Chile, The People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Japan, The Republic of Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Phillipines, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, The United States of America and Vietnam.
Policy dialogue covered a range of "current intellectual property issues including e-commerce, biotechnology, traditional knowledge, and geographical indications as well as technical issues relating to the administration, exploitation and enforcement of intellectual property rights."
The meeting was followed by a government/industry workshop on intellectual property law enforcement and focussed on three key areas:
software, branded goods and copyright industries.
For anyone interested in viewing papers considered at this IPEG meeting, please follow the link http://www.apecsec.org.sg

The deliberations of WIPO and IPEG eventually find their way into Australian law and everyday basic activities.
For example, laws such as the Digital Agenda Act have had recent amendments covering copyright and e-mail. These amendments are hailed as the most significant and comprehensive since 1968.
Material circulated by the Attorney-General's Dept is worth studying, and follows:

"The Digital Agenda Act has introduced into the Copyright Act a new broadly based, technology-neutral right of communication to the public.
The Copyright Act defines 'communicate' as meaning to make available online or electronically transmit (whether over a path, or combination of paths, provided by a material substance or otherwise) a work or subject matter.
The new right encompasses e-mail.
Contrary to some media reports, the simple act of sharing e-mail would generally not be a criminal offence under the Copyright Act.
Forwarding an e-mail is not illegal under the Copyright Act unless it is prejudicial to an authors' economic interests (see s.132 of the Act).
While the forwarding of e-mails is generally not a criminal offence under the Copyright Act, copyright may subsist in an e-mail, if the e-mail has a sufficient level of originality.
An e-mail will be considered original if it is the creator's own intellectual effort and has not been copied from another person's work.
No particular level of literary or artistic merit is required.
Although forwarding an e-mail could amount to a copyright infringement, the copyright owner may also have given permission to further communicate the e-mail.
Recipients of e-mail should therefore have regard to any copyright notices attached to e-mail.

Conversely copyright owners wishing to limit further use of their material should make this clear to recipients.

Other Issues:
The forwarding of an e-mail containing personal information of another person potentially raises privacy issues. In some situations it could amount to a breach of privacy under the Privacy Act 1988. Even if it does not breach privacy laws then individuals should consider the appropriateness of distributing personal information of other person."

Another development in the orderly management of intellectual property takes the form of a Collecting Society. Applications are currently being sought from bodies interested in collecting fees from users of intellectual property which may involve a multiplicity of licences and stakeholders. Two applications have so far been received, from which one (Screenrights) has been appointed on an interim basis until other legislative changes are in place, giving protection to free-to-air broadcasters.
Legislation is also being developed around equipment such as DVD players, games consoles etc. to disallow copying by circumvention, where certain security procedures have been installed to prevent such a procedure.
Laws are also being reviewed to enforce foreign copyrights and the multiplicity of state and federal regulations concerning all areas of copyright and the criminal code, are also being reviewed so that there is harmonisation.
It is claimed that breaches of copyright laws internationally have cost their owners incalculable billions of dollars in lost income. This has translated into higher retail prices for intellectual property products such as computer software.
Theoretically, by creating uniform global regulation and enforcement, lower market prices will occur.
It should also improve opportunity for individuals to develop their intellectual property without having their material pirated by stronger organisations with marketing networks capable of outpacing that individual.
In the area of software and its prolific pirating, you may well see a form of software rental develop, where you hire a program for a limited time and download a current version next time you need it.
Whatever the area of intellectual property involved, Australia is about to see a more vigilant oversight of all copyright areas, and a rigorous enforcement of any infringements to create a base of precedents.
Just make sure you are outside of the dragnet.
ends

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