HOT TOPICS IN

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW

Robert MillerPrincipal, Electrical Team

Spruson & Ferguson1 September 2003

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Hot Topics in Intellectual Property Law

Intellectual property law and competition law

Technical standards and patents

Harmonisation and patent law – Substantive Patent Law Treaty

Copyright – parallel importation

Copyright – circumvention devices – the PlayStation case

The UNIX/AIX/Linux battle!

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Basic Principle I: IP laws are good

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Basic Principle II: Competition is good

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Intellectual propertyversus

competition law

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Proposition:Competition law must not stand in the way of IP rights

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IP rights are exploited by:

Enforcement

and/or Licensing

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Comparison

EP: European Treaty, Articles 81(1) and (3) US: Sherman Act Japan: Antimonopoly Law 1947 – Article 21 Australia: Trade Practices Act – section

51(3)

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Trademark flooding

case

Japan

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Software (copyright licences)

Japan

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Patent pool by Pachinko machine manufacturers

Japan

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European Community

VCR (1987)

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European Community

APS (1993)

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MPEG-2 pool and

MPEG-LA+5 pool

3G Mobile Equipment

European Community

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United States

VISX/Summit Technology for performing laser eye surgery

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Dell – VL-bus

United States

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Technical standards & patents

Technical standards that coexist with patents without restriction:

NONE

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Technical standards bodies that have looser arrangements regarding patents:

Technical standards & patents

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Technical standards bodies that co-exist with patents with licensing obligations (as a minimum):

Technical standards & patents

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Technical standards & patents

Technical standards bodies that are anti-patent:

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Harmonisation of patent law

Challenges:

Delays in search and examination

Building a Patent Office from scratch

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Harmonisation of patent law

Substantive Patent Law Treaty

How to assess technical character How to access novelty How to assess inventive step How to assess unity of invention Date of invention (US)/grace period vs priority date

(rest of world)

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Copyright: Parallel importation

The principle:

Genuine goods sold in another country by, or with the permission of the IP rights owner

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Copyright: Parallel importation

Australia:

Parallel importation is permissible in terms of: Sound recording (1998) Labeling (2000) Software (2003) Books (2003) Periodicals (2003) Sheet music in electronic form (2003)

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United States: Strongly against parallel importation

European Community: Heading towards “Community exhaustion” regime

Copyright: Parallel importation

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Copyright: Circumvention devices

The Playstation case

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The UNIX/LINUX/

AIXbattle!

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IBM

(AIX)

LINUXDISTRIBUTORS(e.g. RED HAT)

LINUX

USERS

SCO(UNIX

copyright and

patents)

Open source codeSeeks declatory judgment of

non-infringement of copyright

Asks for license fee of US$1399 per processor

Sues for breach of trade secret & contract US$3 billion

Sues for copyright infringement

Sues for patent infringement

Purports to terminate UNIX license

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Robert MillerPrincipal, Electrical Patents Group

Phone: + 61 2 9207 0738Email: robert.miller@sprusons.com.au