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Your organisation’s intellectual property is what differentiates you from other organisations. It is important, valuable and worth protecting. Your organisation’s intellectual property includes the rights it may have in its:
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name
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logo
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the names or logos of any programs or services developed by your organisation
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publications
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training materials
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website design and content
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domain name
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computer applications, programs, or databases it has developed, and
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any ideas, innovations and inventions.
Other people and organisations also have intellectual property rights, and it is essential that your organisation does not infringe those rights, as this can result in legal action. When publicly communicating, always stop and think about whether you are dealing appropriately with the intellectual property of others.
The Guide below is designed to assist people involved in not-for-profit organisations to understand the basics of making and protecting intellectual property, and avoiding infringing the intellectual property of others. It includes information regarding:
- copyright, moral rights, trademarks, patents and designs
- dealing with confidential information
- ownership, protection and infringement of rights, and
- selling and licensing of intellectual property.
Extra resources
General intellectual property
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IP Australia is the government agency that is responsible for administering intellectual property laws in relation to patents, trade marks, designs and in Australia. Their site provides information and resources on each of these areas of intellectual property law.
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The ACC is an independent, not-for-profit organisation that provides information advice and training about copyright.
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The Commonwealth Attorney-General's department is responsible for a range of information laws, including privacy, cyber security and identity security.
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Arts Law is a national community legal service for the arts. It has information resources on a range of arts related issues, including intellectual property law issues. See in particular the legal information section of their website for a range of fact sheets on intellectual property issues.
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Arts Access has developed a guide to legal issues for artists with disabilities which provides easy-to-read information on intellectual property issues
Copyright and moral rights resources
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This is a link to the Home page of the ACC's website which provides a range of plain-language information about copyright laws.
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The Commonwealth Attorney-General's department has responsibility for copyright laws in Australia. This is a link to the main page on their website that provides information on copyright laws.
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APRA collects and distributes license fees for the public performance of registered artists' music.
Trade marks
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This is a link to the trade mark section of IP Australia's website.
Patents
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This is a link to the patent section of IP Australia's website.