The Intellectual Property Office of Australia (IP Australia) released its annual report focused on the changing trends in patent applications across the country. When the number of submitted patents is taken into account, it seems that gambling and alcohol companies were the most significant innovators in Australia, with these giants practically dominating other private businesses and research institutions in the country.
According to IP Australia, the results of the aforementioned report likely reflected the importance of the two aforementioned industries for the domestic market and demonstrated how operators protected their intellectual properties.
Experts report that the latest decline in local patent filings happened because the record levels driven by the Covid-19 pandemic have been corrected, and a law was changed in 2022. However, a persistent dependence on foreign technological innovation has once again drawn calls for a new approach. While the country remained a net importer of technology, its domestic innovations remained mostly in the gambling and alcohol sector.
As the IP Australia report states, the leading retailer of alcoholic beverages, and hotel and poker machine operator Endeavour Group Limited, was first, with a total of 116 trademark filings, followed by 112 trademark filings made by Aristocrat Gaming, a slot machine and casino game developer. Aristocrat Gaming also led the pack in the most submitted patents, surpassing the national scientific research agency CSIRO, as well as other operators in the energy and software industries in Australia.
The only non-gambling or alcohol entry in the top 4 was Pharmacor, an Australian pharmaceutical company, which made 63 trademark filings, while Sportsbet – another popular betting company – had 44 new trademarks registered.
Australian Gambling Giants Have the Necessary Resources to Patent Their Innovations
The latest report of the Intellectual Property Office of Australia implies that the growth in patent filings for the local gambling sector is likely due to the rising popularity of various forms of online gambling and sports betting in Australia. A large number of these submissions have been associated with new machines and gambling technologies, such as mobile betting applications and online gambling platforms. On the other hand, alcohol companies were mostly focused on new brewing processes and alcoholic beverages.
The Chair of Intellectual Property at Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne – Professor Andrew Christie – noted that the quick growth of these industries hinted about their importance to Australia’s domestic market and highlighted their ongoing drive to remain competitive and innovative. He also believes that such patent and trademark filings did not necessarily demonstrate innovation and could only be a means to protect the brands of such companies.
Professor Christie analysed the results of the study for InnovationAus, a technology-oriented media outlet, saying that gambling operators could be producing various gaming machines featuring minimal differences in presentation and/or gameplay. However, the competitive industry environment requires them to insure every product against potential violations of copyright, which eventually resulted in a massive number of trademark filings.
Considering the fact that the gambling industry in Australia has been quite active lately, increased competition means that the sector is likely to continue to grow. On the other hand, unlike various education and health organisations, large gambling operators have the necessary resources to make sure they patent their innovations, which is why the gambling industry continues to hold an advantage over other sectors.
- Author
Daniel Williams
