ARTICLE · 13 AUGUST 2008

Employees & Intellectual Property – Who Owns It?

Donaldson Walsh

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On 17 April 2008, Justice French of the Federal Court of Australia handed down a decision that will potentially have significant implications for organisations with staff that create intellectual property that their employer wishes to claim as its own.

AustraliaEmployment and HR

Sandy Donaldson

On 17 April 2008, Justice French of the Federal Court of Australia handed down a decision that will potentially have significant implications for organisations with staff that create intellectual property that their employer wishes to claim as its own.

University of Western Australia (UWA) v Gray (No 20) [2008] FCA 498 was an action between UWA and previous employee, Dr Bruce Gray. There were additional parties to the case and further causes of action which are not discussed in this article due to the case's complexity.

Dr Gray had participated in the research and development of technologies for the delivery of treatments for cancer while working as an academic at UWA. After a long and difficult relationship with UWA, Dr Gray left to form the biotechnology company Sirtex. UWA commenced legal proceedings against Dr Gray alleging that applications for patents were for inventions made while Dr Gray

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