Legal Guides

A guide for medical cannabis companies. Medicinal cannabis has been lawfully available in Australia since 2016, yet it remains among the most heavily regulated products a business can supply. Two features explain the complexity. The first is that cannabis is a controlled substance, so its cultivation and manufacture are licensed by the Commonwealth under the Narcotic Drugs Act 1967 (Cth). The second is that almost every medicinal cannabis product supplied in this country is u

A guide for life science companies This guide explains how a patent dispute typically arises, the urgent relief available at the outset, the issues fought at trial, the course of the proceeding, and the remedies available at its end. Patent disputes in Australia are heard in the Federal Court of Australia, which has principal jurisdiction over matters arising under the Patents Act 1990 (Cth) (s 154). Litigation is the mechanism by which patent rights are enforced: a patent co

Guide to Australian patent law for life science companies. A patent is a monopoly over an invention, granted by the Commissioner of Patents under the Patents Act 1990 (Cth). For the life of the patent, the patent owner holds the exclusive right to exploit the invention and to authorise others to do so (s 13). Exploitation is defined widely, and extends to making, selling, using and importing a patented product, as well as using a patented method or process (sch 1). The practi

Guide to Australian patent law for life science companies. A standard patent ceases twenty years from the date of the patent, or up to twenty-five years where the term has been extended in respect of a pharmaceutical substance (Patents Act 1990 (Cth) ss 67, 70–79A). The complete specification has been open to public inspection since publication, but until the term ends the patent owner alone may exploit the invention. On cessation that exclusivity falls away by operation of t

Guide to Australian patent law for life science companies. A pharmaceutical patent does not exist in isolation. Its commercial value is determined as much by the regulatory system administered by the Therapeutic Goods Administration as by the Patents Act 1990 (Cth) itself, because it is entry on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods, not the grant of the patent, that permits a medicine to be sold. The two systems run on separate tracks, yet at several points the regul