Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for the call, Deputy Speaker Dick, and can I formally congratulate you on being a member of the Speaker's panel. I wish you all the very best in the future.

I rise today to speak in support of the Designs Amendment (Advisory Council on Intellectual Property Response) Bill 2020, a bill which will improve Australia's intellectual property system and a bill critical to fostering the innovation of the 1.3 million Australians working in our design intensive industries. Intellectual property is incredibly varied, spanning trademarks, trade secrets, patents and copyrights. It is often the lifeblood of what differentiates a business offering involving great ideas built on visions—ideas which must be protected and not put at risk of intellectual property theft. But, unfortunately, when there is a great idea there will always be people wanting to replicate it and make it their own, and it's all the easier to do this in the digital age. For small-business designers especially, the risk can be so detrimental, with the potential to significantly affect their market share and revenue, not to mention derailing the hard work and effort that goes into developing their own unique business ideas.

In response to a report by the former Advisory Council on Intellectual Property, this bill seeks to protect and encourage our designers to create new innovative products with confidence. It seeks to make absolutely certain that they can benefit from their creative investment. Implementing measures from the report, this bill will clarify and simplify the design systems and provide more flexibility for designers. It will improve the registered design system to support this important sector, which is estimated to contribute $68 billion to the economy every year. Our government has consulted extensively to put the report's recommendations into effect. We are confident that this bill's measures strike the right balance between the needs of designers, third parties and the broader public.

Amongst the changes made by the bill is the inclusion of a grace period. Currently, if a designer publicly discloses their design before applying for protection, they will never be able to obtain a registered and enforceable IP right. This grace period will give designers 12 months to apply for protection after publicly using their design. It aligns Australia with many of our major trading partners, making it easier for our designers to seek protection overseas and encouraging international designers to bring their work to Australia. It will also increase competitiveness in export markets.

For Australian businesses that have licensed exclusive rights for a design, they will now be able to bring infringement action without needing to rely on the owner. When an exclusive licence is granted, it can be in circumstances where the design owner is based overseas. This bill will allow exclusive licensees to enforce their rights that they have paid for, and is already the case for patents, trademarks and plant breeders' rights.

As well as delivering benefits for designers, the bill will also implement safeguards to protect third parties in the design sector who are operating in good faith. A prior use exemption to the infringement of designs will be created. It will safeguard those who start using or preparing to use a design in good faith during the grace period before the designer seeks to register it. This bill will extend the current innocent infringer defence so that relief is available from any time after the designer's filing date. The amendments will mitigate the risk of infringing a design during this period for those acting in good faith. The defence will only be available to those genuinely unaware of the design protection. Designers will be able to advertise their design protection and take legal action against deliberate copiers.

Finally, the bill will also streamline the designs application process, reducing red tape and the administrative burden for designers. It will remove the rarely used option to publish a design application without registration. It will make requests for registration automatic after six months unless the designer indicates otherwise. This will reduce the number of dates that are needed to be tracked by applicants, and it will make it easier and simpler for them to delay publication of a new design until they are ready to launch in the market.

The bill will also make a range of smaller technical corrections and improvements to the design system, streamlining the process for updating design application filing requirements and ensuring the requirements can be easily amended to reflect changing technology and commercial practices. This bill will improve procedural fairness, clarify third parties' freedom to operate and reduce legal uncertainty. It will make sure new business ventures see their innovations and creativity transformed into market share, successfully setting themselves up for expansion, protecting what is theirs and achieving profitable returns. Our government is committed to supporting our businesses to go from strength to strength, giving them the access to the resources to do so confidently and with maximum assurance, especially during this time. That is why I commend this bill to the House.

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