Rebuttals to the latest attacks on IP Australia are necessary. They're under attack* for cementing if not extending the ban on software patents. Even though Australia has, for a long time in fact, merely limited software patents, it has just banned software patents in a more explicit way. This should be very big news, but we hardly saw any press coverage about it (in spite of the language being English) and this new interview with the Director General of IP Australia mentions none of that either. What it does, however, mention is the motivation for some of the latest changes in lieu with recommendations from the Australian Productivity Commission (PC).
Rather than the outcomes of the judicial process with regard to IP, recent focus has been on improving access to the judicial system to pursue IP issues. The Australian Productivity Commission (PC) recently made international comparisons suggesting that Australia has robust IP enforcement arrangements, but that more can be done to improve the ability of rights holders to utilise Australia’s enforcement infrastructure, in particular for small to medium enterprises (SMEs). We have recently seen both the Federal Court of Australia and the Federal Circuit Court of Australia make efforts to improve accessibility and efficiency.
IP Australia is also committed to helping SMEs to understand that alternative methods of dispute resolution are available outside of the courts. We have recently launched an IP Mediation Referral Service, and we are working with the insurance sector to explore possibilities for trade mark defense insurance. It is early days for these initiatives and we continue to look for ways to assist in the enforcement area.