1. HOT TOPICS IN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW Robert Miller Principal, Electrical Team Spruson & Ferguson 1 September 2003

2. 2 Hot Topics in Intellectual Property Law  Intellectual property law and competition law  Technical standards and patents  Harmonisation and patent law – Substantive Patent Law Treaty  Copyright – parallel importation  Copyright – circumvention devices – the PlayStation case  The UNIX/AIX/Linux battle!

3. 3 Basic Principle I: IP laws are good

4. 4 Basic Principle II: Competition is good

5. 5 Intellectual property versus competition law

6. 6 Proposition: Competition law must not stand in the way of IP rights

7. 7 IP rights are exploited by:  Enforcement and/or  Licensing

8. 8 Comparison  EP: European Treaty, Articles 81(1) and (3)  US: Sherman Act  Japan: Antimonopoly Law 1947 – Article 21  Australia: Trade Practices Act – section 51(3)

9. 9 Trademark flooding case Japan

10. 10 Software (copyright licences) Japan

11. 11 Patent pool by Pachinko machine manufacturers Japan

12. 12 European Community VCR (1987)

13. 13 European Community APS (1993)

14. 14 MPEG-2 pool and MPEG-LA+5 pool 3G Mobile Equipment European Community

15. 15 United States VISX/Summit  Technology for performing laser eye surgery

16. 16 Dell – VL-bus United States

17. 17 Technical standards & patents Technical standards that coexist with patents without restriction: NONE

18. 18 Technical standards bodies that have looser arrangements regarding patents: Technical standards & patents

19. 19 Technical standards bodies that co-exist with patents with licensing obligations (as a minimum): Technical standards & patents

20. 20 Technical standards & patents Technical standards bodies that are anti-patent:

21. 21 Harmonisation of patent law Challenges:  Delays in search and examination  Building a Patent Office from scratch

22. 22 Harmonisation of patent law Substantive Patent Law Treaty  How to assess technical character  How to access novelty  How to assess inventive step  How to assess unity of invention  Date of invention (US)/grace period vs priority date (rest of world)

23. 23 Copyright: Parallel importation The principle: Genuine goods sold in another country by, or with the permission of the IP rights owner

24. 24 Copyright: Parallel importation Australia: Parallel importation is permissible in terms of:  Sound recording (1998)  Labeling (2000)  Software (2003)  Books (2003)  Periodicals (2003)  Sheet music in electronic form (2003)

25. 25 United States:  Strongly against parallel importation European Community:  Heading towards “Community exhaustion” regime Copyright: Parallel importation

26. 26 Copyright: Circumvention devices The Playstation case

27. 27 The UNIX/ LINUX/ AIX battle!

28. 28 IBM (AIX) LINUX DISTRIBUTORS (e.g. RED HAT) LINUX USERS SCO (UNIX copyright and patents) Open source code Seeks declatory judgment of non-infringement of copyright Asks for license fee of US$1399 per processor Sues for breach of trade secret & contract US$3 billion Sues for copyright infringement Sues for patent infringement Purports to terminate UNIX license

29. 29 Robert Miller Principal, Electrical Patents Group Phone:+ 61 2 9207 0738 Email: robert.miller@sprusons.com.au