ANUSA Legal Service can assist in answering questions including not limited to the following:

• IP Assignments and licensing
• Legal structures for business ideas
• Contract review for internships
• And other questions

Intellectual Property (IP) rights are a form of property related to ideas, innovation or creativity which are legally protected by law in Australia and globally.

There are variety IP types:

1. Trademarks – gives you property ownership in your brand and helps consumers distinguish your goods and services from other competitors
2. Patents – grants the owner property in an invention such as new technology, medicine, devices, or other processes
3. Design rights – protects the overall appearance of your product and can be a combinat5ion of shape, colour, configuration pattern, and ornamentation
4. Plant breeder’s rights – protects the new plant variety you develop

To protect the above, you must formally apply for registration of ownership of the IP. 

There are also other types of IP that apply automatically:

• Copyright – this protection is free and automatic. It protects your original expression of an idea as soon as it is expressed in material form (e.g. written down, painted, sculpted etc). This includes literary works, sound recordings, artistic works, etc.
• Circuit layouts – this protection is also free and automatic and protects the layout designs or plans of integrated circuits such as computer chips or peacemakers.
• Trade secrets – this is confidential information that gives your business a competitive advantage. This includes secret formulas, methods, or processes for creation. Trade secrets are not registered with anu IP office and is often protected with secrecy and confidentiality agreements. Trade secrets are not a form of property but are a legal right to protect secret or confidential information. Trade secrets are often protected by entering a non-disclosure agreement with the other party.

To learn more about IP, you can visit IP Australia.

Moral Rights

Intellectual property is very personal. Each creator of material which is protected by copyright also has a moral right to their work which is non-transferable even if the creator no longer owns the work or the copyright in the work. This protects the reputation of the creator and their work from being harmed.

There are three moral rights:

• The right to be attributed as the author (e.g. to have your name on the paper)
• The right that your work not be falsely attributed to someone else.
• The right that your work not be treated in a way which adversely affects your reputation.

While moral rights cannot be ‘traded’ – you can by contract consent to your moral rights being infringed. Sometimes contracts contain clauses with this effect.

Who is an author?

Authorship is both a question that arises under copyright law and a question of proper academic conduct. An Author is a person who has made significant intellectual or scholarly contribution to research and its output through at least one of the following:

• Conception and design of the project or output;
• Acquisition of research data where the acquisition has required significant intellectual judgement, planning, design or input;
• Contribution of knowledge, where justified, including Indigenous knowledge;
• Analysis or interpretation of research data; and/or
• Drafting significant parts of the research output or critically revising it to contribute to its interpretation.

The understand more about authorship and your rights and responsibilities in your research output, kindly read through the ANU’s procedures for Authorship. 

We understand that intellectual Property (IP) is complex and can be difficult to navigate. If you have any questions, have a contract you would like to review, or want to learn more about the best way to protect your work, we encourage you to get in touch and seek an appointment.

Below are also a few other contacts which you may go to for support and assistance: