16 October, 2012
Legal News & Analysis – Asia Pacific – Australia – TMT
The Victorian government has released a new policy for the management of the State’s intellectual property replacing the previous Guidelines Relating to Victorian Crown Copyright (August 1991). The new policy may have relevance to IT development and consultancy contracts, in addition to a range of other transactions.
The philosophy underpinning the new IP Policy Principles is that the State will seek to grant intellectual property rights with as few restrictions as possible but will nevertheless exercise its rights restrictively where this is necessary for reasons such as privacy, security or law enforcement. The new policy states that the government is “not in the business of commercialising intellectual property” and does “not create intellectual property in order to generate a financial return”, meaning that it would generally not seek to own the intellectual property rights in developed software unless there were special circumstances which rendered a licence inadequate. This policy applies to all Victorian government agencies including departments and public bodies.
To view the Victorian Government media release click here.
To view the new intellectual property policy click here.
For further information, please contact:
Gordon Hughes, Partner, Ashurst