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21 Info. & Comm. Tech. L. 1 (2012)

handle is hein.journals/infctel21 and id is 1 raw text is: Information & Communications Technology Law Routledge Vol. 21, No. 1, March 2012, 1-18 R Tayor&Francis Group A critical evaluation of government-sponsored reviews of intellectual property in Australia Assafa Endeshawa* and Pauline Sadlerb aThe Faculty of Law, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; bSchool of Business Law at Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia, Australia Constant changes to the Australian intellectual property (IP) system undertaken in the three decades since the 1970s have been accompanied by a proliferation of legislation and intermittent reviews. The staggering volume of such activities has generated debate as to whether such an approach should be allowed to continue in light of Australia's determination to forge ahead in knowledge creation and management that the information era demands. This article investigates the propriety and consistency of the reviews conducted, the respective recommenda- tions made, and the underlying perspectives, if any, for IP lawmaking and implementation in Australia in the past or, indeed, for the future. Keywords: intellectual property; review, economic policy; lawmaking, patents; copyright; industrial property; competition; international trade 1. Introduction Australia has emerged in the last 10 years as one of the foremost nations vigorously engaged in a systematic commissioning of research into the making and implementa- tion of intellectual property (IP). The Federal Government has backed the establish- ment of research centres and institutions that churn out diverse studies into IP law and policy and aim to become active agents in promoting IP for Australia's economic advances. In 2007, the Commonwealth Attorney-General announced 'Intellectual property principles for Australian government agencies' relating to their activities in 'IP management, including procurement, record keeping, industry development and broader innovation policy, and public access'. 'Guidance and advice' on how the principles should be applied in practice, by 1 July 2008, are expected to be supplied through an'IP manualfor Australian government agencies'.2 At the time of writing this article in late 2008, the manual had not been yet been published. Australia is also a keen participant in international negotiations on IP. The Free Trade Agreement it signed with the US has been favourably portrayed as providing for 'state-of-the-art intellectual property protection'.3 Lately, Australia has expressed a desire to help other countries in infrastructural development. Thus, after signing an agreement between 'IP Australia', the Australian government's arm for IP, and Thailand's Department of Intellectual Property, whereby the former *Corresponding author. Email: assafaendeshaw & yahoo.com ISSN 1360-0834 print/ISSN 1469-8404 online 0 2012 Taylor & Francis http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13600834.2012.641433 http://www.tandfonline.com

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