One of the great unknowns of patent policy is how much infringement goes on, and how much of that infringement leads to enforcement of an informal or formal kind. Our representative survey of over 3700 Australian inventors estimates that 28 per cent of inventions (which were the subject of a...

One of the great unknowns of patent policy is how much infringement goes on, and how much of that infringement leads to enforcement of an informal or formal kind. Our representative survey of over 3700 Australian inventors estimates that 28 per cent of inventions (which were the subject of a...

Recent recommended changes to Australia’s patent laws could narrow the scope of patentable inventions. We argue this could have a comparatively bigger impact on female inventors who we find clustered in the life sciences. We examine 309,544 patent applications filed with IP Australia (the...

There is considerable concern in U.S. trademark scholarship that privileging the “likelihood of consumer confusion” test has expanded trademark owners’ monopoly rights beyond traditional limits. An unfortunate consequence of this expansion is said to be a chilling effec t on useful and...

Australian laws relating to the protection of fashion design have been unfavourably compared with those of Europe. Some commentators have argued for the adoption of a European-style unregistered design right or a tort of unfair competition. These commentators argue that armed with these causes...

The evolution of the sneaker from sports equipment to high-end fashion, is one of the most significant sartorial transformations in recent history. Expanding demand and competition in the sneaker market (driven by a new interest in fashion by men) has meant designers are seeking more ways to...

In the past, well-publicized adverse events have triggered surges in “tragedy” trade mark applications for signs such as “9/11” or “MH370”. Unsurprisingly (as at 31 March 2020) there were 57 trade mark applications for the word “COVID-19” across trade mark registers across the...

The Digital Economy Act 2010 (the Act) was given Royal Assent on April 8th, 2010. The Act regulates digital media and contains many of the suggestions from the Digital Britain Report of June 2009. The Act is controversial for many reasons. First, the lack of debate surrounding the Bill left many...

This article discusses the registrability of trade mark applications for “COVID-19” (and other “tragedy trade marks”) under Australian law. The Australian approach is instructive as it proceeds on doctrinal principles (such as distinctiveness), a common threshold for trade mark...

The effectiveness of trade mark protection depends on the enforceability of rights. However, little is known about how trade mark owners actually go about enforcing their trade marks in the civil courts. The few studies which have emerged recently show a high success rate for trade mark owners....