Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Raising the bar) Bill 2011

CropLife Australia (CropLife) welcomes the opportunity to make this submission in response to the Exposure Draft of the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Raising the Bar) Bill 2011.

CropLife congratulates the Australian Government, and in particular IP Australia, on this important reform initiative. We encourage the Government to bring these amendments into force as soon as possible.

CropLife believes that many of the issues that are raised with certain classes of patents, particularly biological patents, are most effectively addressed by general reforms to the tests for patentability. The amendments in the Exposure Draft do this and are a timely contribution to discussions about patent eligibility. They are also highly preferable to current legislation proposals that aim to ban all patents on specific types of materials.