Patentable Subject Matter the ACIP Report

The Advisory Council on Intellectual Property (ACIP) is an independent body advising the Australian Government on matters of intellectual property policy and administration. ACIP’s membership comes from business and manufacturing sectors and including patent attorneys, legal professionals, government, tertiary and research sector, technology and commercialisation groups.  In 2008 the relevant Minister and IP Australia* requested ACIP to take a broad, strategic view of the role of intellectual property and its contribution to the development of Australian industry, or “to review patentable subject matter”.

In its report delivered 23 December 2010 the ACIP identified three key recommendations:

• [To] “introduce a general patentability exclusion in respect of subject matter the commercial exploitation of which would be wholly offensive. The proposed exclusion would provide a mechanism for dealing with contentious subject matter in extreme cases and remove the current uncertainty in relation to the doctrine of general inconvenience.”

• “ [T]o amend the Patents Act 1990 to introduce a clear and contemporary definition of patentable subject matter, remove overlap and improve clarity. “

• The inclusion of “a statement of objectives in the Patents Act 1990 to outline its purpose and provide general guidance in the application of the legislation.”

A useful article just posted to Mondaq by Clayton Utz “ACIP report into patentability goes some way to clarifying patent law” examines the report which the government is still to respond to and is a good overview of the key recommendations.

Do you have any comments on the Report?

Click here if you would like to read the report.

For those in need of more information on Intellectual Property, contact TimeBase to trial our Australian legislation Intellectual Property Point-in-Time product for free.