Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

You heard? That's all that matters, Senator Duniam! The bill will introduce a 12-month grace period to help protect designers from losing their rights if they accidentally publish or use their design before filing an application. There will also be an expanded prior-use-exemption infringement to protect third parties who start using designs during this 12-month window.

The design registration process is being simplified by making registration automatic six months after filing and removing the option to publish a design without registering. The bill extends innocent infringer defence to safeguard those who use designs that have been filed but not published on the Register of Designs. This is in alignment with other IP rights by giving exclusive licensees legal standing to sue for infringement.

The time line for the legislation to reach the parliament is also worthy of note. In 2012 the Advisory Council on Intellectual Property was tasked with the job of investigating the effectiveness of the design system in innovation by Australian users, and its impact on economic growth. A final report was handed down in March 2015 and the government didn't respond to the report until 6 May 2016. The legislation is only now being dealt with years after these recommendations were made.

Whilst Labor supports the bill, we continue to highlight the government's continued non-strategic approach to innovation policy and the failure to deliver timely R&D funding support for Australian manufacturing. Only $50 million of the government's $1.5 billion announcement is being made available to manufacturers this financial year. I commend the bill to the Senate.