Further to our July alert regarding the status of the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Productivity Commission Response Part 1 and Other Measures) Bill 2018 (Cth) (Bill), the Bill passed the Senate on 16 August 2018 and received Royal Assent on 24 August 2018, and is now an Act.

The majority of the Act commenced on the day of Royal Assent or the subsequent day.

Exceptions to this are the following, which are scheduled to commence on a date to be fixed by Proclamation or at the latest, 25 February 2019 (being the day that is 6 months after Royal Assent was provided):

• Revisions to the Plant Breeder’s Rights Acts 1994 (Cth) (PBR Act) relating to rights in essentially derived varieties, ownership of rights and register entry matters, and secretarial and document service formalities;
• Revisions to the Trade Marks Act 1995 (Cth) (TM Act) relating to the period to apply for the removal of trade marks for non-use;
• Revisions to the formalities and filing requirements set out in the Designs Act 2003 (Cth) (Designs Act), Patents Act 1990 (Cth) (Patents Act), PBR Act and TM Act;
• Changes to the Patents Act regarding patent document requirements;
• Changes to the Designs Act, Patents Act, PBR Act, TM Act and Olympic Insignia Protection Act 1987 (Cth) regarding unjustified threats of infringement; and
• Various transitional provisions applicable to the PBR and TM Acts.

Please see our April and July alerts for an overview of the changes brought about by the Bill (now Act).

This article was written by Luke Dale, Partner, Ashley Holland, Partner and Niomi Abeywardena, Special Counsel.