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Butterworths Intellectual Property Collection (Book Review) [1998] JSPL 6; (1998) 2 Journal of South Pacific Law

BOOK REVIEW

BY MOHAMMED L. AHMADU

LECTURER
SCHOOL OF LAW
UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC

Title: Butterworths Intellectual Property Collection

Published by Butterworths: Australia (1998)

ISBN: 0 409 315753

pp: 630

This book is a collection of legislation and treaties governing intellectual property rights in Australia. The book is made up of two parts. The first deals with the Copyright Act 1968, Designs Act 1906, Circuit Layouts Act 1989, and Trade Marks Act 1995. Other legislation featured in this part are the Patents Act 1990 and the Plant Breeders Rights Act 1994.

The second segment of the book deals with the Berne, Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and World Intellectual Property Organisation (Copyright) Treaties. The work would have been more useful for deeper academic study and research if it included commentaries and case annotations to the various laws included in it. However, there are occasional editor’s notes to clarify points or guide the reader.

What has been lacking in this instance has been covered in other senses by the book in that it provides a useful legal map to all major intellectual property laws in Australia today. By bringing together the diverse pieces of legislation in a co-ordinated fashion, the book would go along way in simplifying the reader’s inquiry into the existence or otherwise of any of the laws compiled in the book.

By including the Circuit Layout Act 1989, the book has gone a step further to introduce readers to the urgent need to protect integrated circuits in Australia. This area of protection has been neglected by most protection systems.

I am optimistic that with the emerging trends to tackle intellectual property matters in Island states, the text would certainly be welcomed in the South Pacific region as an important source of information and guide to the laws regulating intellectual property rights in Australia.