Reference no: EM133005471

LAWS8024 Intellectual Property Law

Question 1

I
Rachel Smith is a famous Australian painter, born in 1935. She started painting as a teenager and gradually became famous around the world. Her art manager Marc Denver runs he personal website www.rachelpaintings.com.au where he uploaded digital photos of her paintings dating 1950 and 1955. She soon found out that when she searches for the title of her paintings in Google, the pictures appear as a Thumbnail in a list of search results. She argues that Google has violated her copyright by making her works accessible to the pubic without her authorisation. She understands that Google is a very profitable business, and believes that Google should pay licensing fees for the use of her works. Please examine what rights have been potentially infringed and whether any of the exceptions could apply. Apart from copyright exceptions, is there any other defence that Google could invoke in this case?

II
In addition, Rachel has used one of her paintings dated 1977 picturing a tree to design a sculpture and moulded one sample of it. She exhibited it in the local art gallery in Sydney and it was sold immediately; the purchaser praised it as an ‘exceptionally original work of art'. She now wants to produce a series of similar sculptures and sell them across Australia and overseas. She heard something about design law and would be interested to know whether she could and should do anything to get her rights in the sculpture registered.

Please provide advice to Rachel whether she could and should register design rights into the sculpture. Can this sculpture be protected under other area of IP law? In your answer please refer to relevant statutory provisions and case law. Please clearly identify legal issues that need to be addressed, analyse them and provide a clear conclusion/recommendation at the end.
Approximate word count for Question 1 is 1000 words (excluding footnotes)

Question 2

Australian Law Reform Commission issued a Report on Copyright in Digital Society... One of the issues discussed in the report is whether additional copyright exceptions are needed to cover ‘text and data mining' activities. Australian Writers' Society thinks no new exception is needed to cover text and data mining activities. They asked you to prepare a brief memo arguing why Australia should not introduce an exception covering text and data mining activities. In this memo, briefly explain what text and data mining is, identify and explain the arguments that speak against introduction of TDM exception, and identify and rebut the arguments that speak in favor of introducing such an exception.

Please conduct independent research on this question. In your answer, please reference relevant national and international legal materials, policy documents and academic literature. Approximate word count - 1000 words (excluding footnotes)

Attachment:- Intellectual Property Law.rar