Tim Churches <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Note also that there are special provisions in the Patents Act regarding > the use of patents by the Crown (which means both C'wealth and > State/Territory levels of govt and govt agencies and anyone working in > the service of the Crown i.e. subcontractors to govt etc). Basically the > Crown can use any patent without having to seek permission to do so, and > there is a special tribunal which then determines appropriate > compensation - which I gather is related to the apparent strength and > novelty of the patented idea.
The foregoing is not quite right - the govt negotiates compensation with the patent holder - retrospectively if necessary, and if no agreement can be reached over compensation for use of a patent, then it has to be resolved in a suitable court of law. However, the patent holder cannot refuse permission for the govt to use a patented idea on the basis of inadequate compensation - the govt can name the price, essentially. At least that's what it seems to say in Chapter 17 in http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/pa1990109/ Tim C _______________________________________________ Gpcg_talk mailing list [email protected] http://ozdocit.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpcg_talk
