The executive opinion survey undertaken by the World Economic Forum for the Global Competitiveness Report 2008-09 rated Australia's intellectual property (IP) protection in the world’s top 10 and behind only Singapore’s in the Asia Pacific region.
Australia’s IP legislation reflects international best practice, providing business with the comprehensive and enforceable rights needed to operate effectively. Australia is a member of a number of important IP treaties, including the Madrid Protocol, Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and the Patent Cooperation Treaty, and recently ratified the Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trademarks and the Patent Law Treaty, both of which entered into force in March 2009. These latest treaties serve to streamline and simplify processes for trade mark and patent applications in member states, therefore providing significant benefits to local exporters in terms of lower costs, greater flexibility and increased security.
Australia also plays a key role in shaping the increasingly important international IP framework, supporting the development of IP rights in Asia Pacific countries and providing a positive example for its trading partners in the region.
The Fifth Annual BSA and IDC Global Software Piracy Study, which covers piracy of all packaged software that runs on personal computers, found that global losses due to software piracy were US$47.8 billion in 2007, with the Asia Pacific accounting for US$14.1 billion. Despite being one of the largest economies in the region and a heavy user of software, Australia accounted for 3.5% of the total monetary losses attributable to the Asia Pacific. It also had the third lowest piracy rate (pirated software as a percentage of installed software) in the Asia Pacific at 28%, substantially below the regional average of 59%.
Inadequate enforcement or compliance with international IP standards can be a significant barrier for exporters of knowledge-based goods and services, and can result in lower investment in research and development.