| Publication |
2009.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Australian patent law contains no express exemption from infringement for any experimental use of patented inventions. A variety of international and local events became catalysts for two extensive reviews in Australia of the existence of and need for some form of exemption from infringement for experimental and research use of patented inventions. One was conducted as part of a larger investigation by the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC): Genes and Ingenuity: Gene Patenting and Human Health. The second was a specific investigation into patents and experimental use by the Advisory Council on Intellectual Property (ACIP). Its final report Patents and Experimental Use was published in 2005. Both reports recommended that the Commonwealth government should amend the Patents Act 1990 to establish an exemption (ALRC) or exception (ACIP) from patent infringement for certain acts involving experimental use of patents. However, while the former Howard liberal government chose to accept the ACIP recommendation in 2007, the new Rudd labour government has not introduced any amendment to date. This article provides a brief overview of the recommendations of those reviews and evaluates the current position in Australia in both the light of the reviews and of subsequent international developments
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