Government Intellectual Property

Information on legislation applicable to intellectual property; Government intellectual property policy and best practice guidelines; and encouraging innovation by Government employees.

Government intellectual property policy and best practice guidelines

The department works to promote and implement the effective management of intellectual property by Government agencies. It also facilitates the commercialisation of this intellectual property in conjunction with the business community.

Western Australian Government resources are utilised in many innovative and creative activities aimed at finding new and improved solutions to meet the State’s needs. These activities may involve the development of new technologies, the application of existing technologies, scientific research, or other creative endeavours.

At the same time valuable intellectual property assets may be generated including patentable inventions, copyright material, new plant varieties, valuable trade secrets, registered designs or trademarks.

The results of the innovation or creativity may be able to be used by public and private sector organisations in Australia or overseas or by the Western Australian community. This provides opportunities for the intellectual property to be utilised or commercialised for the benefit of Western Australians.

For more information refer to the following:

Government Intellectual Property Policy and Best Practice Guidelines (PDF 1.1 MB)

Review of the Western Australian Government Intellectual Property Policy 2012 (PDF 777 kb)

Encouraging Innovation by Government Employees - Procedures for the payment of monetory rewards to innovative Government Employees

The Encouraging Innovation by Government Employees - Procedures for the payment of monetory rewards to innovative Government Employees (PDF 176 kb) have been developed to provide direction to Government Agencies in the payment of monetory rewards to innovative Government employees under the Government Intellectual Property Policy 2003.

Applicable legislation

The following legislation is applicable to intellectual property. For your convenience links have been provided to State Law Publisher (www.slp.wa.gov.au/) for State legislation and the Australasian Legal Information Institute (www.austlii.edu.au/) for Commonwealth legislation: