Two new research papers have been released by IP Australia unveiling new information on how the nation’s intellectual property (IP) systems are being used.
On its website, IP Australia said the first study explored the extent to which Australia’s trade mark register was cluttered with out-of-use or overly broad trade marks.
It said the second revealed which Australian industries made intensive use of registered design rights, and how Australia’s design economy compared to those of its international peers.
IP Australia said the studies were conducted by researchers from its Office of the Chief Economist (OEC) with the aim of informing its continuing reform of Australia’s IP system.
“In national economies around the world, a fundamental shift is occurring in how economic value is derived,” the Agency said.
“In 2018, over half the value created in the global economy, estimated to be in excess of $60 trillion, took the form of intangible assets, such as trade marks and designs, rather than tangible assets.”
It said that as Australia sought to continue its transition to a knowledge-based economy, design and branding activities represented major potential sources of economic value and applications for trade marks and design rights submitted worldwide had been increasing steadily.
“However, relatively little is known about the use of these rights in Australia,” IP Australia said.
“A potential barrier to registering a trade mark is when the trade mark register is ‘cluttered’, containing many out-of-use or overly broad trade marks.
“Such clutter increases the costs of searching the register and can disadvantage business entrants.”
It said however, the OCE found that cluttering was not a significant problem in Australia’s trade mark register, compared as an example to that of the United States, though there was evidence of applicant behaviour in Australia that could produce greater clutter in the future.
It said the second research paper found that Australia’s design workforce was productive but small, given the country’s size as an industrial economy.
It found Australia to be lagging behind some of its major trading partners both in the rate at which its design force was growing and in its rate of growth in design registrations.
Both papers are available on IP Australia’s OCE website at this PS News link.
