Competition Law, IP & Personality Rights (LAWS70208)

Intellectual property rights support innovation through the grant of (usually time-limited) property rights to creators and inventors, along with certain protections for those responsible for developing and using trade marks. Personality rights acknowledge and protect rights of individuals and groups over their personal image and identity. Both types of rights – which broadly speaking are geared to fostering human creativity and invention, on the one hand, and human dignity and flourishing, on the other hand – enjoy a shifting and uneasy relationship with competition law which is geared (by and large) to fostering competitive markets and consumer welfare. The question, then, is how to ensure that in their conception, design, interpretation and application these laws can be drawn on to effectively balance interests to produce optimal human and social outcomes.

This subject examines the interface of competition law, intellectual property and personality rights in Australia and comparable jurisdictions. The subject will include case studies in topical areas such as big data, digital platforms, AI invention, file-sharing and online search.

Principal topics include:

• Theorising the interface of competition law, intellectual property, and personality rights
• Regulatory approaches and law reform
• Intellectual property rights under statutory and common law regimes
• The protection of personal data under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (supplemented by the consumer protection provisions of the Australian Consumer Law) and common law regimes
• Basic competition principles of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)
• The interface of the above laws – balancing interests
• Comparable United States and European regimes and the interface between competition law, IP and personality rights under those regimes
• Topical case studies