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Blake Dawson - Ownership and licensing of copyright by States and the Commonwealth: High Court grants leave to appeal

Matthew Baldwin and Georgina Adams of Blake Dawson reports that the Copyright Agency Limited has been granted special leave by the High Court of Australia to appeal the decision of the Federal Court in Copyright Agency Limited v State of New South Wales (2007) 73 IPR 1, which dealt with ownership and licensing of survey plans by the NSW Registrar-General. Accordingn to Matthew Baldwin and Georgina Adams, the appeal will consider whether the Federal Court was correct in holding that the NSW government has an implied licence to do everything that, under the statutory and regulatory framework that govern registered plans, the State is obliged to do with, or in relation to, registered plans.

Blake Dawson - Ownership and licensing of copyright by States and the Commonwealth: High Court grants leave to appeal


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Marie Wong - When must the Crown pay to use copyright material for the services of the State?

Marie Wong, Senior Associate at Deacons, reports that leave to appeal was granted to the applicant in Copyright Agency Limited v State of New South Wales [2007] HCATrans 700 (16 November 2007) over the decision of Copyright Agency Ltd v New South Wales (2007) 240 ALR 249. Marie Wong discusses the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL), which is a declared “collecting society” for the purposes of the Copyright Act and represents copyright owners (such as authors, photographers, publishers and, relevantly, surveyors) and to administer the licensing of copyright works to the general community.

CAL originally approached the Copyright Tribunal for a determination of the terms on which the State of New South Wales could deal with survey plans prepared by members of the Surveyors’ Association. The matter was subsequently referred to the Full Federal Court in order to determine questions of law relevant to the Copyright Tribunal’s determination. Specifically, the Full Federal Court was required to determine who owned copyright in the survey plans and whether surveyors were entitled to receive royalties arising from the State Government’s use of the plans.

According to Marie Wong, the outcome of the High Court appeal may affect how government can continue to deal with third party works submitted to them for specific purposes.

When must the Crown pay to use copyright material for the services of the State?


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