Prepare a report on the various types of methods available in Australia to protect intellectual property.
Consider that you are an intellectual property expert consultant that has just been contracted to advise a technology-based startup company in Geelong. The company is developing a new type of electronic credit card device that promises to be innovative and have potential for global sales. (The device stores information from multiple credit and debit cards on one single credit-card sized electronic wearable watch-sized device eliminating the need for a user to carry multiple cards or even any cards at all.)
Most of the company's proprietary technologies are the result of its own research and development efforts in the last 12 months. They have a working prototype but have yet to implement any measures to protect their intellectual property. Up until now, all of the R&D effort to produce their intellectual property has been undertaken by their own employees here at their offices in Geelong.
The company plans to initially outsource the production of its devices to a small manufacturing company based in Taiwan. In about three years time it expects that it will need to switch its manufacturing outsourcing to a large-scale manufacturer based in either South Korea or Japan. Initially the company plans to sell its device in Australia and the United States with the marketing and sales launch planned for 18 months' time. Later on it plans to expand sales of the product to another 100 countries worldwide.
Although there appears to be no similar device available on the market that compares to this company's working prototype there are some rumours in the industry that at least two major corporations, one based in the United States and one based in Japan, may be developing their own devices that will have similar features. However little else is known about these potentially-competitive efforts by others at this time and your client is confident that the most significant single innovation in their device is the special (and secret) manufacturing process that they have developed (that makes the device tamperproof and thus "hacker proof" so as to protect the security of the stored data). It is unlikely that anyone else has similar knowledge of this newly developed process or will be able to develop it in the foreseeable future.
Although the company is currently operating by the rather dull name of Bellarine Techno Pty Ltd, it has hired a team of marketing consultants who are developing a new company name and a brand name for their device. The company's owners have ambitions for Bellarine Techno Pty Ltd. to become "the next Apple Inc." of high-tech consumer products and so intend to build a valuable and respected company reputation and brand.
Your task is to prepare a report for your client, Bellarine Techno Inc., on the various forms of intellectual property that are most relevant to this company and why they are most relevant. You are also to recommend a brief and concise strategy recommendation on how they should protect their intellectual property - both now and for the foreseeable future. The strategy's main items should include what to protect, what countries to protect it in, how to protect it, and when to seek protection (for each what, where, and how).
Prepare a written report using an appropriate academic writing style and to include a list of references. Refer to Deakin's Guide to Assignment Writing and Referencing, available online from Student Life, for assistance on appropriate report styles and referencing.