Intellectual Property

What is Intellectual Property?

Intellectual property law is designed to encourage innovation by offering protection to those that develop original designs, processes and formulae. These protections allow them to maintain their competitive advantage and therefore profit from their work. IP Australia is the Australian Government agency that administers intellectual property rights and legislation.

What is intellectual property?

Intellectual property includes patents, copyrights, trademarks, designs and secret processes and formulae. The main requirement is that they be original, and if they satisfy the requirements for intellectual property and they are properly protected, the owner is granted a monopoly by law. This is incredibly important in industries where R&D costs are high and where there is a high risk of failure. Intellectual property law incentivises innovation by preventing other businesses from stealing ideas after they have been proven to work.

Types of intellectual property

• Patents are a right granted by the government to an inventor, giving the owner the right to prevent others from making, using or selling their invention for a limited period of time. To gain a patent, the designs and documentation must be submitted to the Government and generally become available to the public. A patent must generally be new, not obvious and have applicability in some context.
• Copyrightgives the creator of intellectual or artistic work exclusive right to it for a limited time. In Australia, all creative works immediately gain copyright. These rights are not administered through IP Australia, like other intellectual property rights, they are instead handled by the Department of Communication & the Arts.