Description:
The Intellectual Property (Raising the Bar) Act 2012 (Cth) (the ‘Raising the Bar reforms’) signals a Parliamentary intention to reform in Australian patent law two related grounds of validity; the fair basis of claims in a written description and the adequacy of the written description of the invention as claimed. 1. The reform is variously described in government papers as both raising the standard of validity and harmonising Australian patent validity grounds with their UK counterparts. In this it implies a clear dissatisfaction with the approach taken by the Australian High Court in the two leading cases on point concerning product claims, and a commensurate attraction to a principle in UK law known as Biogen suffi ciency. 2.Fair basis and adequacy of description, and the relationship between them, taken together is quite a diffi cult area of patent law. In part this is because the concepts underpinning the law are intrinsically complex. Also, this law has traditionally served distinct roles in the patents system: (i) facilitating the proper operation of the provisional application, when used, in preserving a priority date earlier than its related complete application; (ii) facilitating the proper operation of priority date rules under the Paris Convention. 3.When relied upon; and (iii) as an internal ground of validity for a complete application or granted patent in all cases. 4. Earlier scholarship of McBratney has explored in some depth the history underpinning what were distinct legal approaches in these three settings. 5. Rightly or wrongly, the law in each three cases has become a largely harmonised set of principles and this essay does not question that long-standing development, which can be traced
Description:
Notwithstanding the tariffication component of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture, import tariffs on farm products continue to provide an incomplete indication of the extent to which agricultural producer and consumer incentives are distorted in national markets. Especially in developing countries, non-agricultural policies indirectly impact agricultural and food markets. Empirical analysis aimed at monitoring distortions to agricultural incentives thus need to examine both agricultural and non-agricultural policy measures including import or export taxes, subsidies and quantitative restrictions, plus domestic taxes or subsidies on farm outputs or inputs and consumer subsidies for food staples. This paper addresses the practical methodological issues that need to be faced when attempting to undertake such a measurement task in developing countries. The approach is illustrated in two ways: by presenting estimates of nominal and relative rates of assistance to farmers in China for the period 1981 to 2005; and by summarizing estimates from an economy-wide computable general equilibrium model of the effects on agricultural versus non-agricultural markets of the project's measured distortions globally as of 2004.
Description:
Research Question/Issue: This paper frames the debate on corporate governance convergence in terms of the morality underlying corporate governance models. The claims and arguments of moral relativism are presented to provide theoretical structure to the moral aspects of corporate governance convergence, and ultimately the normative question of whether convergence should occur. Research Findings/Results: The morality underlying different models of corporate governance has largely been ignored in the corporate governance convergence literature. A range of moral philosophies and principles that underlie the dominant corporate governance models are identified. This leads to a consideration of the claims and arguments of moral relativism relating to corporate governance. A research agenda around the claims of descriptive and meta-ethical moral relativism, and which ultimately informs the associated normative argument, is then suggested. Theoretical Implications: The application of moral relativism to the debate on corporate governance convergence presents a theoretical structure to the analysis and consideration of its moral aspects. This structure lends itself to further research, both empirical and conceptual. Practical Implications: The claims and arguments of moral relativism provide a means of analyzing calls that are made for a culturally or nationally “appropriate” model of corporate governance. This can assist in providing direction for corporate governance reforms and is of particular relevance for developing countries that have inherited Western corporate governance models through colonialism.
Prospective application of a five-step regulatory assessment model to a proposed federal sperm donor registry in Australia: Is it in the public interest?
Description:
It has been proposed that a nationally mandated donor registry be established in Australia to provide data for estimating the possible number of inadvertent half-sibling matings resulting from the multiple use of anonymous donors in donor insemination and to assist identity-release donors and their donor-inseminated children to establish contact. A five-step regulatory assessment model, as described by Johnson and Petersen in 2008, was applied prospectively to the proposed donor registry to identify public interest issues. The resultant issues concern the public ethical interest in child welfare; the public health interest in avoiding genetic abnormalities/disease; public socio-political and legal interests in avoiding inadvertent consanguineous relationships; public ethical and health interests in avoiding identity issues in the donor-inseminated child; and public socio-ethical interests in providing nationally mandated, comprehensive records of donor insemination outcomes. These results provide a basis for further discussion in regard to donor insemination legislation at the federal level.
Description:
It has been proposed that a nationally mandated donor registry be established in Australia to provide data for estimating the possible number of inadvertent half-sibling matings resulting from the multiple use of anonymous donors in donor insemination and to assist identity-release donors and their donor-inseminated children to establish contact. A five-step regulatory assessment model, as described by Johnson and Petersen in 2008, was applied prospectively to the proposed donor registry to identify public interest issues. The resultant issues concern the public ethical interest in child welfare; the public health interest in avoiding genetic abnormalities/disease; public socio-political and legal interests in avoiding inadvertent consanguineous relationships; public ethical and health interests in avoiding identity issues in the donor-inseminated child; and public socio-ethical interests in providing nationally mandated, comprehensive records of donor insemination outcomes. These results provide a basis for further discussion in regard to donor insemination legislation at the federal level.
Description:
Purpose – Ethnographic studies of cyber attacks typically aim to explain a particular profile of attackers in qualitative terms. The purpose of this paper is to formalise some of the approaches to build a Cyber Attacker Model Profile (CAMP) that can be used to characterise and predict cyber attacks. Design/methodology/approach – The paper builds a model using social and economic independent or predictive variables from several eastern European countries and benchmarks indicators of cybercrime within the Australian financial services system. Findings – The paper found a very strong link between perceived corruption and GDP in two distinct groups of countries – corruption in Russia was closely linked to the GDP of Belarus, Moldova and Russia, while corruption in Lithuania was linked to GDP in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine. At the same time corruption in Russia and Ukraine were also closely linked. These results support previous research that indicates a strong link between been legitimate economy and the black economy in many countries of Eastern Europe and the Baltic states. The results of the regression analysis suggest that a highly skilled workforce which is mobile and working in an environment of high perceived corruption in the target countries is related to increases in cybercrime even within Australia. It is important to note that the data used for the dependent and independent variables were gathered over a seven year time period, which included large economic shocks such as the global financial crisis. Originality/value – This is the first paper to use a modelling approach to directly show the relationship between various social, economic and demographic factors in the Baltic states and Eastern Europe, and the level of card skimming and card not present fraud in Australia. Acknowledgements: Paul A. Watters and Robert Layton are funded by IBM, Westpac, the State Government of Victoria and the Australian Federal Police.
Description:
Children live in different contexts of protection and vulnerability when exposed to domestic violence. The negative impacts for many children are consistent and widely acknowledged. However, the implication that this requires men who use violence to address their fathering has been slower to emerge. This article draws from 69 in-depth qualitative interviews with men, women, and workers across four men's behaviour change programmes in rural Victoria, Australia. Particular attention is given to men's attitudes to their fathering and the formal and informal consequences they experienced as a result of their violence and its impact on their fathering. Although most men came to recognize that their violence impacted their children, they failed to make the connection that the involvement of statutory child protection services in their lives was a direct consequence of their abusive behaviour. This article explores this disconnection by fathers who use violence, their attitude to the involvement of statutory child protection services, and identifies the implications for social work practitioners in addressing this issue.
Description:
This article focuses on a research project conducted in six jurisdictions: England, The Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Venezuela, and Brazil. These societies are very different ethnically, socially, politically, economically, historically and have wildly different levels of crime. Their policing arrangements also differ significantly: how they are organised; how their officers are equipped and trained; what routine operating procedures they employ; whether they are armed; and much else besides. Most relevant for this research, they represent policing systems with wildly different levels of police shootings, Police in the two Latin American countries represented here have a justified reputation for the frequency with which they shoot people, whereas at the other extreme the police in England do not routinely carry firearms and rarely shoot anyone. To probe whether these differences are reflected in the way that officers talk about the use of force, police officers in these different jurisdictions were invited to discuss in focus groups a scenario in which police are thwarted in their attempt to arrest two youths (one of whom is a known local criminal) by the youths driving off with the police in pursuit, and concludes with the youths crashing their car and escaping in apparent possession of a gun, It might be expected that focus groups would prove starkly different, and indeed they were, but not in the way that might be expected. There was little difference in affirmation of normative and legal standards regarding the use of force. It was in how officers in different jurisdictions envisaged the circumstances in which the scenario took place that led Latin American officers to anticipate that they would shoot the suspects, whereas officers in the other jurisdictions had little expectation that they would open fire in the conditions as they imagined them to be.
Description:
In this article, the author provides an overview of the Australian GST rules relating to cross-border supplies. The author analyses the situation at the moment, and the recently approved changes to the GST rules relating to supplies from non-resident suppliers to Australian consumers that will enter into effect on 1 July 2017. To complete the overview the author explains the GST rules relating to supplies from Australia to a non-resident recipient.
Description:
The Knowledge Discovery from Databases (KDD) technique called 'association rules' is applied to a large data set representing applicants for government-funded legal aid. Results indicate that KDD can be an invaluable tool for legal analysts. Association rules discovered identify associations between variables that are present in the data set though are not necessarily causal. Interesting rules can prompt analysts to formulate hypotheses for further investigation. The identification of interesting rules is typically performed using an objective measure of 'interesting' although this measure is often not sufficiently accurate to eliminate all uninteresting rules. In this article, a subjective measure of interestingness is adopted in conjunction with the objective measures. This leads to the ability to focus more accurately on those rules that surprise the analyst and are therefore more likely to be interesting. In general, KDD techniques have not been applied to law despite possible benefits because data is often stored in narrative form rather than in structured databases. However, the impending introduction of data warehouses that collect data from a number of organizations across a legal system presents invaluable opportunities for analysts using KDD.
Description:
The Knowledge Discovery from Databases (KDD) technique called 'association rules' is applied to a large data set representing applicants for government-funded legal aid. Results indicate that KDD can be an invaluable tool for legal analysts. Association rules discovered identify associations between variables that are present in the data set though are not necessarily causal. Interesting rules can prompt analysts to formulate hypotheses for further investigation. The identification of interesting rules is typically performed using an objective measure of 'interesting' although this measure is often not sufficiently accurate to eliminate all uninteresting rules. In this article, a subjective measure of interestingness is adopted in conjunction with the objective measures. This leads to the ability to focus more accurately on those rules that surprise the analyst and are therefore more likely to be interesting. In general, KDD techniques have not been applied to law despite possible benefits because data is often stored in narrative form rather than in structured databases. However, the impending introduction of data warehouses that collect data from a number of organizations across a legal system presents invaluable opportunities for analysts using KDD.
Description:
Purpose – Cybercrime has rapidly developed in recent years thanks in part to online markets for tools and credentials. Credential trading operates along the lines of a wholesale distribution model, where compromised credentials are bundled together for sale to end-users. Thus, the criminals who specialize in obtaining credentials (through phishing, dumpster diving, etc.) are typically not the same as the end-users. This research aims to propose an initial methodology for further understanding of how credentials are traded in online marketplaces (such as internet relay chat (IRC) channels), such as typical amounts charged per credential, and with a view to preliminary profiling, especially based on language identification. Design/methodology/approach – This research proposes an initial methodology for further understanding of how credentials are traded in online marketplaces (such as IRC channels), such as typical amounts charged per credential, and with a view to preliminary profiling, especially based on language identification. Initial results from a small sample of credential chatroom data is analysed using the technique. Findings – The paper identified five key term categories from the subset of the 100 most frequent terms (bank/payment provider names, supported trading actions, non-cash commodities for trading, targeted countries and times), and demonstrated how actors and processes could be extracted to identify common business processes in credential trading. In turn, these elements could potentially be used to track the specific trading activities of individuals or groups. The hope in the long-term is that we may be able to cross-reference named entities in the credential trading world (or a pattern of activity) and cross-reference this with known credential theft attacks, such as phishing. Originality/value – This is the first study to propose a methodology to systematically analyse credential trading on the internet. Acknowledgements: This work was supported in part by the Australian Federal Police, Westpac Banking Corporation, IBM, the State Government of Victoria and the University of Ballarat.
Description:
Two basic legal models have evolved to tackle the problem of unlawful P2P distribution: safe harbour and graduated response. This article will discuss the two models, with a focus on the American safe harbour regime and the French graduated response regime. Also considered is the open question of what will occur in Australia in the aftermath of the High Court's denial of ISP liability in Roadshow Films v iiNet.
Description:
In Australia there is no federal legislation limiting the use of donor sperm. However, it is important to place limits on the multiple use of sperm donors to reduce the risk of inadvertent half-sibling mating between the offspring of anonymous donors and to control for the consequences of contact between identity-release donors and their donor-inseminated offspring. A nationally mandated donor registry should be established to enable, first, the calculation of updated variable values for use in the development and implementation of a predictive model to estimate the probability of half-siblings mating and provide policy-makers with empirical evidence to inform the setting of anonymous donor limits; and secondly, the linking of identity-release donors to their donor-inseminated offspring and an investigation into the psychosocial consequences of that linking so as to be able to implement suitable donor limits as well as management strategies and support systems for these new "extended families" within the donor insemination network.
Description:
In Australia there is no federal legislation limiting the use of donor sperm. However, it is important to place limits on the multiple use of sperm donors to reduce the risk of inadvertent half-sibling mating between the offspring of anonymous donors and to control for the consequences of contact between identity-release donors and their donor-inseminated offspring. A nationally mandated donor registry should be established to enable, first, the calculation of updated variable values for use in the development and implementation of a predictive model to estimate the probability of half-siblings mating and provide policy-makers with empirical evidence to inform the setting of anonymous donor limits; and secondly, the linking of identity-release donors to their donor-inseminated offspring and an investigation into the psychosocial consequences of that linking so as to be able to implement suitable donor limits as well as management strategies and support systems for these new "extended families" within the donor insemination network.
Description:
Despite significant transgressions during encounters with Indigenous peoples and marginalised groups, all six state police organisations in Australia espouse the principle of minimum force and identify service and crime prevention as paramount in community interaction and intervention. This article offers some insight and perspective of police talk and thinking about the potential use or avoidance of force. The four Victoria Police focus groups, when confronted by the specific police use of force scenario, speak of the adrenalin rush and the need to achieve results, if reasonable and necessary by force, but also of the desire to control the situation and follow proper police procedures. Officers support ‘Safety First’ principles that advocate a cautionary and suspicious approach to the scenario combined with rational and methodical tactics rather than emotional responses. The reflective talk of individual officers about the hypothetical situation parallels actual behaviour when police collectively and visibly confront public disorder. Control and containment of the situation—whether the scenario or a major crowd disturbance—are paramount while time, in the form of acting slowly and adopting a low-key approach, can be seen as assets in achieving objectives. In both the scenario and police planning for collective action, a readiness to threaten force, rather than actually employ it, appears central to police thinking. Police justification of non-coercive tactics in certain situations can be revealing about their thinking processes in justifying force in other circumstances.
Description:
Our research indicates that while inadequate financial literacy is a contributing factor to financial hardship, other factors such as inadequate income are important. We find no significant relationship between 'sex' and 'financial literacy'. Our study also indicates that financial counsellors play an essential role in the provision of appropriately targeted financial advice and education.]