At its core, the Business Council is of the view that the purpose of intellectual property arrangements and rights is to encourage additional investment in, and the creation, development and marketing of innovative products and services.

Intellectual property fundamentally underpins the competitive position of Australia as a modern, knowledge based economy. Intellectual property arrangements need to strike an appropriate balance between generating new knowledge and allowing for the dissemination of existing knowledge.

Overall the intellectual property is operating well and disturbing it materially could have unintended consequences. Australia has an evenly balanced system, with solid reserves of case law that provide certainty. Any changes to the system need to address a clearly identified problem and be well justified.

Trade agreements are increasingly impacting our domestic intellectual property arrangements. The Business Council supports the Harper Competition Policy Review recommendation that trade negotiations be informed by an independent and transparent cost benefit analysis.

Potential implementation of a ‘fair use’ exception for the copyright system should be informed by a cost-benefit analysis.

As part of its review, the Productivity Commission should prioritise measures that reduce the time and cost arising from the current system.

Download a copy of our submission here.