About Intellectual Property
Protecting your IP
Copyright Protection
Copyright protects the way that thoughts are expressed on paper, in electronic form or in other reproducible ways, such as broadcasts, artistic works, plays, musical compositions etc. Only the copyright owner or someone with their permission can reproduce the copyrighted material.
Copyright protects the expression of an idea, not the idea itself. For example, two researchers can publish the same research conclusions but each will own the way in which they have expressed their conclusions. Also, the researchers will own the written form of their ideas but others may own the publication in which it appears.
The Copyright Act 1968 provides for copyright protection. In Australia a “©” copyright logo is not required to afford copyright protection but the logo, the owner's name and the date of production is required to ensure copyright protection internationally. In Australia, copyright protection is automatically conferred when the idea is recorded and the protection can last as long as the lifetime of the owner plus fifty years.
Generally, unauthorized use of the copyright material will cause a copyright infringement unless an exclusion applies. The fair dealing section of the Act allows a certain amount of copying or reproduction without infringing copyright.
Copyright owners also have “moral rights” which ensure that they have the right of:
- integrity of authorship (i.e. someone cannot add their name as an author of your work without permission or amend your work so that the context is changed and still maintain you as the author);
- the right of attribution of authorship (i.e. where your work is reproduced it must be attributed to you); and
- the right against false attribution (i.e. someone cannot put another person's name as the author or your copyright material).
Sometimes, in research agreements, a Client may ask you to waive your moral rights. This often occurs where you are asked to prepare a report for the Client as part of your contract. The Client may want to extract aspects of your report and use it in their own organisation's material without attribution. In many cases this may be a reasonable request but in some cases it may be an onerous request. Seek advice from the Manager of Innovation and Commercialisation (MIC) for your Faculty if you would like advice on copyright and moral rights.