INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

Mr BIGNELL (Mawson) (14:53): My question is to the Minister for Science and Information Economy. Can the minister inform the house about what is being done to help keep intellectual property rights in South Australia?

The Hon. T.R. KENYON (Newland—Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for Recreation and Sport) (14:53): This government is committed to providing support to ensure that the growth of innovation and knowledge-based enterprises in South Australia. Intellectual property protection and commercialisation strategies are fundamental to achieving this outcome. I am pleased to advise the house today that the state government is funding a new $1 million initiative over three years to help South Australia's three main universities seek patent protection for their intellectual property.

Funding through BioSA will provide grants to the commercialisation offices at the three universities: Adelaide Research and Innovation at the University of Adelaide; ITEK at the University of South Australia; and Flinders Partners at Flinders University. These grants will enable these institutions to better protect intellectual property generated by researchers, assisting them to capture and protect emerging technologies generated by their research. It also aims to promote the proactive filing of patent applications and reduce the financial risk in intellectual property protection. This will allow more local innovations to be driven towards successful commercial outcomes here in South Australia, rather than other states or countries reaping the benefits of our local research.

Successful intellectual property protection and commercialisation strategies have the ability to significantly add value to and further build our bioscience industry. This industry has grown significantly since BioSA was established, recording strong employment growth from around 800 to 1,700. In the past 10 years, BioSA has provided $32 million in project grants and this, in turn, has leveraged around $300 million in additional funding.

There is no doubt that building an advanced manufacturing sector capable of competing internationally through innovation and excellence is critically important to driving productivity across the whole economy. This initiative lines up well with the state government's manufacturing green paper released last month, which is an important step towards achieving growth of innovation and knowledge-based enterprises in South Australia.