The passing of the Intellectual Property Laws
Amendment (Raising the Bar) Bill 2011 ("the
Bill") was reported in March 2012 ShelstonIP news (link:
http://www.shelstonip.com/news_story.asp?m=3&y=2012&nsid=222).
The Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Raising the Bar) Act
2012 ("the Act") has since passed into law with the
Governor General's assent on Sunday 15th April 2012. The
majority of provisions in the Act come into effect on 15 April
2013. However, the exemptions for research and regulatory use will
apply immediately.
As noted in our previous article, one of the schedules of the
Bill was to provide freedom of access to patented inventions for
the purposes of obtaining regulatory approval for
non-pharmaceutical patents and conducting research. One of the aims
of this schedule was to allow researchers to conduct genuine
scientific inquiry without concerns regarding patent infringement.
Under this new law, experimental activities conducted on or after
16 April
