Implementation
The recommendations in ALRC 99 are addressed to a wide range of parties and not merely the Australian Government. For this reason, the report contains an implementation schedule listing the action required of different bodies to implement the recommendations in ALRC 99.
The ALRC is aware that a whole of government response to ALRC 99 is being prepared by an interdepartmental committee, coordinated by Biotech Australia.
The Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs is currently conducting an inquiry into the granting of patent monopolies in Australia over human and microbial genes and non-coding sequences, proteins and their derivatives.
In March 2009, the ALRC made a submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs Inquiry into Gene Patents. The ALRC drew on its experience from the ALRC Inquiry into the intellectual property aspects of genetic material and technologies, which culminated in the final report Genes and Ingenuity: Gene patenting and human health (ALRC 99, 2004). The Committee is to report by December 2009.
Recommendation 28–3 states that prior to the implementation of Article 17.4.7 of the Australia-United Staters Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) which deals with obligations in relation to copyright, the Australian Government should assess the need for an exception for researchers engaging in fair dealing for the purpose of research or study in relation to databases protected by copyright. This assessment was undertaken by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs as part of its February 2006 report Inquiry into technological protection measures (TPM) execptions.