Submission | Productivity Commission Inquiry into Intellectual Property Arrangements

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission on the Productivity Commission’s Intellectual Property Arrangements draft report.

Intellectual property policy can contribute to a more competitive economy, benefiting both businesses and consumers by promoting innovation, productivity and access to markets. Strong intellectual property policy provides an incentive to innovate and prevents others from free-riding without contributing to the costs. However, overly strong intellectual property rules can stifle innovation and prevent valuable ideas from being fully exploited.

Research has shown that protections are most effective at encouraging non-sequential innovation, which is where innovation focuses on single applications. This is often the case for pharmaceuticals. Where innovation is sequential, building on previous intellectual property, protections can restrict innovation. This is particularly relevant in growing fields such as computer technology and telecommunications.

The Australian Chamber believes that Australia’s intellectual property regime balances its conflicting objectives relatively well, but there is still scope for further reform.

In particular, Australia’s intellectual property system presents challenges for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that often lack the resources to apply for, enforce, or defend their property rights. As a result, SMEs use the intellectual property system far less than larger firms.

The Australian Chamber’s initial submission made recommendations relating to:

• Compensation for rights holders impacted by reforms.
• Personal or domestic use of copyrighted material.
• Introduction of fair use exceptions.
• Fixed term exceptions (as an alternative to fair use exceptions).
• Third party use of copyrighted material.
• Parallel imports.
• Complexity.
• Assessment delays.
• Innovation patents.

While many of the issues raised in the Australian Chamber’s initial submission have been addressed in the draft report, this submission provides further comment on draft recommendations relating to the introduction of fair use exceptions, parallel imports, innovation patents and the complexity of the patent system.