29.
The Copyright Act, the Designs Act and the Patents Act
Much the same may be said of the other items of statutory intellectual property relied upon in the BAT Matter.
Copyright is "personal property" which is transmissible by assignment as provided in the Copyright Act and by will and by devolution by operation of law (s 196)[1]. Section 31(1)(b) of the Copyright Act specifies that copyright in relation to an artistic work is the exclusive right "(i) to reproduce the work in a material form; (ii) to publish the work; (iii) to communicate the work to the public". The effect of s 13(2) is that exclusive right includes the authorisation of another to do the acts specified in s 31(1)(b).
It is an infringement of the copyright in an artistic work, without the licence of the owner of the copyright, to do any of these acts in Australia or to authorise the doing of any of these acts in Australia (s 36(1)).
The Designs Act confers upon the registered owner of a registered design the "exclusive right" during the term of the registration, among other things, to make a product which embodies the design and to use such a product in any way for the purposes of any trade or business, and to authorise any person to engage in those activities (s 10(1)). These exclusive rights are "personal property" which are capable of assignment and devolution by will and by operation of law (s 10(2)). It is an infringement of a registered design, without the licence or authority of the registered owner, to engage in any activity in respect of which exclusive rights are conferred by s 10 (s 71). There are provisions for compulsory licences (s 90) and the revocation of registration after grant of a compulsory licence (s 92).
Section 13(1) of the Patents Act confers upon the patentee the "exclusive rights" to exploit the invention and to authorise that exploitation. These exclusive rights are "personal property" which are capable of assignment and of devolution by law (s 13(2)). The term "exploit" is defined as follows in Sched 1:
"exploit, in relation to an invention, includes:
- where the invention is a product – make, hire, sell or otherwise dispose of the product, offer to make, sell, hire or otherwise dispose of it, use or import it, or keep it for the purpose of doing any of those things; or
- ↑ The phrase "devolution by operation of law" refers to the legal consequences flowing from an involuntary act such as intestacy, insolvency and bankruptcy: O'Brien v Komesaroff (1982) 150 CLR 310 at 320–321; [1982] HCA 33.
