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Vol 7 No 1 - Roger Williams University School of Law

Vol 7 No 1 - Roger Williams University School of Law

Vol 7 No 1 - Roger Williams University School of Law

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51(xviii) <strong>of</strong> the Constitution with respect to ‘Copyrights,patents <strong>of</strong> inventions and designs, and trade marks’. It is<strong>of</strong> the essence <strong>of</strong> that grant <strong>of</strong> legislative power that itauthorizes the making <strong>of</strong> laws which create, confer, andprovide for the enforcement <strong>of</strong>, intellectual propertyrights in original compositions, inventions, designs, trademarks and other products <strong>of</strong> intellectual effort.77The majority explained that an appropriate approach to theinterpretation <strong>of</strong> section 51(xviii) was that <strong>of</strong> Judge Higgins inAttorney-General for NSW v. Brewery Employes Union <strong>of</strong> NSW(“the Union Label Case”):78Higgins J observed in that case that trade marks were“artificial products <strong>of</strong> society” and that whilst “we are toascertain the meaning <strong>of</strong> ‘trade marks’ as in 1900,” trademarks usage in 1900 “gives us the central type; it doesnot give us the circumference <strong>of</strong> the power” with respectto trade marks provided for by s 51(xviii). The centre <strong>of</strong>the thing named—trade marks—was to be taken with themeaning as in 1900 to find the circumference <strong>of</strong> thepower. However, it would be “a mistake to treat thecentre as the radius.”79In line with Judge Higgins’s approach, the majority explainedthat the broad term “intellectual effort” embraced a variable,rather than a fixed, constitutional criterion and that the“origination” or “breeding” required respectively by the VarietiesAct and the Breeder’s Rights Act involved sufficient “intellectualeffort” to enliven the power.80Judge Kirby, in a separate judgement, advocated an approachdifferent from the majority regarding interpretation <strong>of</strong> the term“patents <strong>of</strong> inventions”:The power conferred by s 51(xviii) is a very broad one.The metes and bounds <strong>of</strong> the power are not to beascertained in my respectful view, by an understanding <strong>of</strong>what fell within the class <strong>of</strong> “copyrights, patents <strong>of</strong>inventions and designs, and trade marks” in 1900.77. Id. at 160; see Grain Pool, [2000] H.C.A. 14 at para. 17.78. (1908) 6 C.L.R. 469, 610-11 (Austl.).79. Grain Pool, [2000] H.C.A. 14 at para. 19.80. Id. at para. 42.

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