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Google Inc. has just lost a case on appeal to the Full (Appeal) Court of the Australian Federal Court in relation to the use of misleading "AdWords®" in Google® search results.

The Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Raising the Bar) Act 2011 received Royal Assent on Sunday 15 April 2012, and is a major reform of the Patents Act 1990. Most of the provisions will take effect from 16 April 2013. However the exemptions to infringement for experimental purposes and for the regulatory approval of non-pharmaceutical products take immediate effect, and became law on 16 April 2012. The aim of these infringement exemptions is to encourage follow-on innovation.

The recent case of Bell v Steele discusses the actions available for groundless threats of legal proceedings, where the complainant has no ground for making a threat and where no legal proceedings are commenced.

After many months of delay, the Raising the Bar Bill is finally before the House of Representatives and we are conscious that it is likely to be passed any day now.

FB Rice is pleased to announce that Charles Berman, Brett Lunn, Jenny Petering, Paul Whenman, Damian Slizys and John Hogan will be attending the FICPI World Congress & ExCo held in Melbourne.