“Realising a Balanced and Effective System of Intellectual Property Protection within the World Trade Organisation” Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry

of Recommendations Australian commerce and industry:. endorses the cautious and moderate approach adopted by the Australian Government on calls for extensions to the current arrangements for protection of geographical indicators. Any movements in our national stance and obligations should only take place through the WTO TRIPs system, and not bilateral or regional agreements;. shares the views of the Australian Government that the existing TRIPs Agreement is adequate for the protection of indigenous intellectual property and traditional knowledge, while seeing considerable merit in strengthening the exchanges of information on national experiences. However, insofar as substantial and significant legal gaps can be shown to be present in the TRIPs Agreement on such matters, then the Australian Government should engage actively in such talks or formal negotiations, recognising the unique nature of Australian indigenous cultures, and their commercial and economic value;. supports the Australian Government's approach to the patenting of genetic resources under the TRIPs Agreement, namely much more investigation and careful consideration of the underlying issues is required, and that appropriate action may be more effectively taken at national legislative and policy-making levels than through formal amendment to the TRIPs Agreement;.. supports further careful consideration of the operation of non-violation issues, in particular within the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, by the TRIPS Council. The Australian Government should be intensively engaged in such discussions;. considers patent priority to be an important issue in any robust multilateral system of TRIPs, and would support further discussions within the TRIPs Council of the relative merits and implications of the competing approaches; and,. abhors the practices of 'cybersquatting' and 'reverse hijacking' in obtaining Internet domain names, seeing merit in a 'legitimate use/direct connection' approach within international and national regimes in the allocation of domain names to those holding registered and relevant trademarks. Copyright Legal protection for the original expression of an idea, but not of the ideas themselves Industrial Designs The ornamental aspect or visual appearance of an article that is produced in quantity, which does not IP Intellectual Property: ideas, inventions and creative expressions IPRs Intellectual Property Rights: legal protection for intellectual property Patents A form of protection for a clearly identified, novel and useful invention, which prevents other persons from producing or selling the product without the consent of the patent holder. Trade Secrets Undisclosed information, which are generally covered by laws of contract and confidence rather than statute Berne Convention deals with international protection …