The-Gatherer-Volume-7

Volume 7

THE IP OF AUTONOMOUS MINING TACKLING THE COMMERCIALISATION CONUNDRUM

IoT: the ultimate solution?

IS YOUR SHIP SINKING due to trade mark pirates?

agtech special

EDITORIAL TEAM

CEO MESSAGE I am delighted to share the first edition of The Gatherer for 2019 – our regular flagship publication developed to inspire

REBECCA HEMBLING Marketing & Business Development Manager rebecca.hembling@wrays.com.au VICTORIA ROMANO Marketing and Communications Coordinator victoria.romano@wrays.com.au

current barriers to commercialisation, and highlights the important considerations throughout the commercialisation journey. The statistics don’t lie – Peter Caporn’s most read article called for an encore. Peter draws on his previous article regarding patent protection for remote mine site operations, and presents the importance of considering what may already be patented in the mining sector before adopting a processing technology or running a mine site. We hope Peter’s insights encourage you to take action and seek the advice you need – often something you think is not worth patenting may well be an asset that is worth protecting. Finally, this edition is all about AgTech, an exciting sector with endless opportunities created by new technologies, business models and innovation. As 2018 drew to a close, Wrays, along with partners PwC’s Nifty Grants and Sheda, hosted an enlightening panel discussion on how the Internet of Things can improve farming and agriculture. In this article we delve into the opinions and experiences of our experts, who share the current challenges faced by this industry, emphasising the integral role that technology will play to take farming back to the future. Whilst our experts bring a diversity of experiences, the theme of their solution shares a common thread – collaboration, particularly by tech developers, will be critical in ensuring a complete solution is being developed for farmers of the future.

Pioneer, our podcast series for serious innovators, continues to play a role in connecting you with the minds of some of the industries finest. In our latest episode we speak with Stuart McCullough, Director of Woolmark and CEO of Australian Wool Innovation. Stuart discusses leading innovation in the wool and agriculture industry, including the development of technology to improve connectivity between farm and animal. Download this podcast for an inspiring perspective on a global market at https://omny.fm/shows/ wrays-pioneer. In the words of Steve Jobs, “Innovation is saying no to a thousand things.” At Wrays we know that the innovation journey is not always easy; sometimes you have to pivot, edit down and throw away ideas that are no longer working. Yet with these obstacles comes exciting opportunities! We value great minds and revel in working with individuals seeking to make a real difference. I am so excited for what is to come in 2019.

LOUISA TAYLOR-BOND Graphic Designer, Reflect Design louisa@reflectdesign.com.au

CONTENTS 3

our clients and aide them in their continued growth and education. The Gatherer seeks to provide you with the most relevant insights and news into the ever-changing intellectual property landscape, both in Australia and across the globe. In this edition, we will bring you insights, reforms and perspectives across a range of topics, including trade mark pirates, the barriers to commercialisation, autonomous mining, and the exciting AgTech sector - just to name a few. When I say the word pirate, you may conjure up a visual of Johnny Depp with dreadlocks, however Trade Mark pirates and counterfeit products are a widespread issue. Marie Wong discusses the implications of these practices, and the value in lodging a Customs Notice to act as a deterrent to would-be importers. From Vegemite to the cochlear implant, Australia has a rich history of world-leading R&D, yet as a nation we are slow to commercialise. This informative article shares the insights and perspectives presented by our panel at our recent Commercialisation Conundrum discussion forums. The varied advice of Albert Ferraloro, Linda Ginger and Trevor Holmes offers a holistic approach to dealing with the

CONTRIBUTORS

Message from our CEO

In the spotlight with Jennifer McEwan

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PETER CAPORN Principal peter.caporn@wrays.com.au ALEXANDRA CHUBB Special Counsel alexandra.chubb@wrays.com.au ALBERT FERRALORO Principal albert.ferraloro@wrays.com.au

IoT - the ultimate solution?

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18 Is your ship at risk of sinking due to Trade Mark pirates?

20 Tackling the Commercialisation Conundrum 24 The Intellectual Property of Autonomous Mining 28 New restrictions on contractual rights to terminate for insolvency

TIM FRANCIS Principal tim.francis@wrays.com.au

BINDHU HOLAVANAHALLI Associate bindhu.holavanahalli@wrays.com.au

30 The IP Perspective 32 Industry Insider 34 A unique aproach to Patents 35 What’s On 2019

ADRIAN HUBER Special Counsel adrian.huber@wrays.com.au CHRIS JUHASZ Principal chris.juhasz@wrays.com.au ROBERT PIERCE CEO robert.pierce@wrays.com.au MARIE WONG Principal marie.wong@wrays.com.au

ROBERT PIERCE CEO T +61 8 9216 5115 robert.pierce@wrays.com.au

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O ver the years,

design registration can be obtained in a matter of months. It can provide an immediate tool for taking action against competitors who are copying a product. In my experience, if a product is successful, those wanting to take advantage of that success will copy the product very closely. This is where a design registration can swing into action and be used to stop that copying. However, the design registration must be examined and certified by IP Australia before it can legally enforced. Q: We have seen giant companies, such as Apple, having issues securing their brand in China, what is the best strategy to trade mark your brand in certain countries and what advice would you give someone looking to scale globally? The laws in some countries only provide trade mark rights to the first person who registers a trade mark. These countries are called ‘first to file countries’. This is in contrast to countries like Australia, New Zealand and the USA, where trade mark rights generally attach to the person who first uses a trade marks, although such rights may be limited by restricted geographical use of that mark, for example to certain states or territories. I would therefore advise anyone who is wanting to sell their product globally to draw up a plan in relation to the protection of their brand internationally with one of the key strategies being to register their brand in first to file countries as a matter of priority.

product or publicise it, to see what likely forms of IP protection may be suitable and if they can test the water beforehand prior to commencing the protection process. It is also prudent for the start-up to develop an IP strategy early on which should be in line with their business strategy which plans for the allocation of funds at the most appropriate times for IP protection. Q: As a representative on the Anti-counterfeiting Committee (Australian branch) of the Asian Patent Attorney Association (APAA) how important is anti-counterfeiting to APAA and how do you see this Committee! APAA does recognise that anti-counterfeiting is a serious problem for trade mark owners in the Asian region, especially luxury or popular brand owners, and regularly keeps abreast of legislative changes or case law developments in each member country. Reports on a particular topic from the Committee of each member country are tabled and discussed at APAA’s annual meeting. Q: Do you think design registration is sometimes overlooked? I most definitely do! It unfortunately registration can provide speedy and cost-effective protection for a product and can provide a back-up to patent protection. Design registration will protect the visual appearance of a product or part of a product in terms of its shape, configuration, pattern or ornamentation. Patents usually take about 4 – 5 years to obtain whereas issue continuing in the future? This will be my first year on the is often regarded as the “poor relation” of patents. But design

Jennifer has advised numerous Australian and overseas entities

from a broad range of industries including engineering, chemical, food and beverage, publishing,

dairy, pharmaceutical, telecommunications,

cosmetics, toys, education and agriculture, and she

particularly likes working with growing businesses and private companies. Q: We see many start-ups going to market prior to considering or protecting their IP, at what stage in the journey should businesses protect their brand and how important is this protection to SMEs? It is understandable from a financial perspective that a start-up may wish to test the waters commercially before laying out what might be significant mind that by doing so, it could well jeopardise the nature and extent of IP protection it might subsequently be able to obtain for the product. For example, sale or public disclosure of a product and when that might have occurred would impact on whether it is possible to still obtain valid patent protection or design registration. Many countries have absolute novelty requirements which means that if a product is sold or disclosed publically prior to commencing the protection process, valid protection may not be obtained. It is essential that a start-up obtain advice very early on, and before they commercialise their expenditure on IP protection. However, they need to bear in

IN THE SPOTLIGHT WITH JENNIFER MCEWAN

Jennifer specialises in trade mark law and consumer protection. With over 30 years of

experience as an attorney, the world of trade marks is never dull for Jennifer. As we live

in a world surrounded by brands and their messages, Jennifer confided that her love for

trade marks continues given it is the most visual, and arguably, the most commercially

important and powerful of all intellectual property.

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A s we all know, the global food industry is at a crossroad. There are so many challenges to be faced - rising population, climate change, globalisation of food sources, distrust in the authenticity of food and a rising demand by consumers for a more nutritious, locally grown and sustainable solution. It’s also the dawn of a new era in global agriculture with access to new technologies such as machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, artificial reality, 3D printing and more. This presents significant possibilities for technology developers, farmers, distributors and others along the supply chain. These immense opportunities created by new technologies, business models and innovation, are also supported by an ecosystem in the agtech arena that didn’t exist even three years ago. In this article, we explore the experiences and opinions of those leading the charge and making change for a positive and sustainable future across Australia’s paddocks.

IOT – THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION?

As we survey the global food supply chain, looking for environmental, social and financial solutions, we are turning more and more to IoT to provide the answers.

ENVIRONMENTAL

SOCIAL

FINANCIAL

Technologies to measure things like soil moisture so we can optimise water usage and elements such as nitrogen, greatly reducing the run off of that into rivers. We can track pest pressure at a level of specificity we’ve never seen before and are able to respond in a targeted way.

Connect global supply chains all the way from consumer to producer, creating a more personal connection with the person who’s growing the food. The broader social impact being delivered by IoT solutions is also far unlike what we’ve ever seen before – where in countries such as India, Samsung are providing free smart tablets and IoT is being developed by people with real problems.

Track the ROI on new tech developed, especially when the right problems are being solved for someone who is prepared to pay for it. The additional promise of IoT in agriculture is that we can produce more for less with fewer inputs and greater profitability.

IoT: the ul t imate solut ion?

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THE FUTURE OF AGRICULTURE – A 2050 VISION

ARE WE GOING BACK TO THE FUTURE?

It certainly seems that way. When looking at all these benefits and attributes brought about by IoT, we can see that what it’s really enabling is for the agriculture sector to take a ‘back to the future approach’ – shifting the landscape and taking the production of food and the food supply chain, back to what it was like before globalisation. What do we mean by that? Before supply chains were globalised and herd sizes grew from 50 to 500, people had a real and direct connection with the land. It was the time of the subsistence farmer where it was less about making a profit and more about ensuring a productive food supply all year round – good quality, in abundance, and all whilst caring for the environment.

He also looks down on his balance sheet and he’s pleased to know that he’s sold 10 head of cattle overnight. The cattle’s been bought by a restaurant in China who wants that specific type of breed and a particular cut. He won’t release the cattle until they are ready, but now there’s a Chinese owner who has visibility through a webcam that can see the exact animals they’ve bought. He’s able to connect to nano- satellites to power all of his IoT devices across his farm and he can correlate all his data. He is very thankful for these cheap, abundant satellites that are all floating around above him and he’s very, very thankful that he can also get much more detailed data when necessary by flying his multi-spectral drone around his property. Whilst this may sound a little far- fetched for some, the promising fact is that all these technologies are already available. They’ve all been built and are in the process of scaling or have sent their technology around the world. The challenge is how the developers and others in the ecosystem can collaborate rather than compete –bringing together the technology to achieve a unified solution for the end user.

In the eyes of Cal Foulner – the future of the agriculture sector is exciting. “When the farmer walks out of his bedroom in the morning, he has a cup of tea in his hand, he pulls out his iPad rather than his notebook and he thinks, “What a time to be alive.” He notices his daughter, who is a recent graduate and has come back on farm, hasn’t woken up yet. So he quickly runs back inside and bangs on her door. She comes out looking a bit hungover, but she’s a real asset to the business despite being a social butterfly because she not only has an ag science degree, she also has a computer science degree which is very handy these days. He pulls out his one app - not his 25 apps for 25 different solutions - opens it up and sees the dashboard of his farm. He looks down his notifications. He notices that in one of his paddocks, there’s an anomaly. So he flies his drone down while he has his second cup of tea. He learns what looks like a certain pest has got into one of his paddocks so he thinks, “Jeez, I’ll need to go and do something about that.” So, he drags his notification into his to do list. He’s just about to write down in his to do list, ‘order some more herbicide,’ but he realises his system has automatically ordered it for him and it’s going to be delivered tomorrow.

CAL FOULNER Founder, Beanstalk

Cal Foulner is Co-founder and Director of Beanstalk agtech, a venture building business operating at the intersection of the fast-evolving agtech and agriculture sectors in Australia and across Asia. Cal and his team work to support the commercialisation of agtech startups and help farmers and agribusinesses innovate by scouting best in class technology and facilitating tech trialling and adoption.

IOT IN AN AGRICULTURAL CONTEXT IoT are connected devices, such as environmental

8|The Gatherer For example, climate and weather conditions can be monitored with very high precision, increasing the farmer’s potential for a more successful yield. Smart Tags on cattle allow the exact control of livestock movements. Smart collars and the creation of virtual fences will even ensure that stock won’t leave the paddock alleviating the need for fences. Equipment, water tanks and grain silos can be precisely monitored from a phone in real-time. sensors that collect and transfer data to be analysed in the cloud. This ubiquitous data exchange and analysis assists with decision making and enables new applications and business models. IoT is revolutionising the way assets are managed in farming and agriculture, including the automation of growing processes, monitoring weather conditions with precision, and control of livestock movements. Post the farm gate, produce can be tracked using IoT and block chain technology, ensuring food transparency and provenance. Did that marble scored steak that I ate last night actually come from the farm where the farmer massaged the meat, as they said, or did it come from a less salubrious location?

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LEADING THE CHARGE

We’ve also got new channels evolving that are putting pressures on existing channels. Australian household food purchases have been dominated through conventional retail for the past 50 or 60 years. That’s now under a lot of pressure. We’re eating out of home much more, probably a 25% increase in the last seven to eight years. That’s substantial. And there are other channels growing, like meal kits and home deliveries, which are soaking up the growth that used to make 800 or 900 supermarkets an easy thing to do. It’s not easy anymore. And a lot of that pressure is flowing further back up the chain. How does technology such as IoT affect the food supply chain? Although there is a continual need for better collaboration between technology providers in adding value along the supply chain. The connectivity of IoT allows anyone in the supply chain to communicate for the avocado grower to easily communicate the credibility of their provenance story. Now they can. Extend that into the export markets of Southeast Asia and China and it’s probably worth 10 times what it is locally. with anyone else. Ten years ago, it simply wasn’t possible

When you get consumed in areas such as innovation, you can miss the fact that you’ve left the door open somewhere and someone can replicate what you’re doing. Not underestimating the value of understanding your market is key. Quantifying the size of the prize for a new innovative venture is a highly attractive piece of information to bring to discussion about raising capital.

What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs on how to protect their products? There are so many things an entrepreneur needs to be on top of – business planning, innovating, providing a consistently quality service/product and maintaining a competitive advantage. It’s difficult to be good at all those things at once and I think that some of those things are best championed by an external view.

service delivery through ‘Freshlogic Analytics’. Businesses can get a tailored view of a fuller set of market information which includes access to Tableau software analysis engine to generate category specific insights and 24-7 system access giving them flexible and timely market insights. What are some of the major trends happening that will shape or change the food supply chain? Today, consumers are far more discerning on value, to the point where they simply won’t return if they’re disappointed. There’s also a desire to be more across the whole picture, for example, understanding where a food item comes from and how it’s produced. This opens an opportunity for accurate, meaningful and well told stories around provenance as a valuable marketing investment. The other thing that’s clear is consumers are in a hurry, they’re not planning ahead, and they’re paying for convenience. If you look back over the last 10 years, once various levels of convenience have found their way into the delivery of food they rarely get traded off. They stay, and they get paid for. Smaller portions are willingly paid for at substantial premiums because they’re easy and they suit the frequency of shopping that they’re doing, which is around four times a week for an average household.

How did Freshlogic come to be? We started with a focus on fresh food and how it’s distributed. This stemmed from experience working in food retail where I realised how difficult it is to get meaningful information in fresh food supply chains. Over a period of 12 years, we have built tools to inform us and allow us to map what’s happening in fresh food supply chains. People now come to us wanting to know where the value is added, where it can be captured, what the demand signals are, and the best distribution channels. How would producers and businesses use your service? One of the things we do is size markets and delve into the detail of a category. For example, the retail fruit and vegetable market in Australia is about $14 billion. Tomatoes are substantial $1.1 billion category of within that market. But nearly $450 million of that is smaller, snacking tomatoes. That’s a product that didn’t exist 15 years ago, has been managed well and has been effectively grown to a larger scale by capturing a substantial convenience premium. People who invested to understand the category, were guided on where to invest, and added and captured substantial value. That’s a good example of the sort of thing that we’re proud to be able to support. We’ve improved our

MARTIN KNEEBONE Managing Director, Freshlogic

Martin Kneebone brings a detailed understanding of fresh food markets as a result of experience in research, analytics and interpretation of all parts of the food supply chain. His company Freshlogic is a Melbourne based specialist provider of market insights to stakeholders involved in fresh food production and marketing across Australia and SE Asia. Freshlogic’s ability is enabled by a set of unique research and analysis capacities designed expressly to provide commercial insight into fresh food markets.

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Conducting thorough customer validation is emphasised to avoid these pitfalls. As part of our six month programme, we bring our entrepreneurs to Melbourne for monthly, one week sprints. Then they return to where their customer base is and use this time to generate active sales or future sales commitments, letters of support and really test the appetite in the market. We also have an early adopter programme for farmers to provide early feedback and trial early products. How do you foster collaboration between the start-ups you work with and industry? Oftentimes teams with the technology skills, computer science or engineering backgrounds may not know what the issues are in agriculture. They may have what is seemingly a good idea, but they’re not immersed in the industry to understand the nuances of the problem. We help them make connections with mentors from agribusiness and farmer representative groups to help refine their strategy and make sure they’re putting all their effort in the right direction for their customer. SproutX itself is invested in making wise strategic partners for our core business and our startups. A big issue for a new company is getting product in front of customers. To address this we have a distribution partnership in Ruralco Holdings Limited, who have 600 rural retail stores across Australia and are a tremendous enabler for agtech innovation.

How are some of the companies you’ve invested in using IoT technologies? IoT sensor and software startups make up about a third of our portfolio so far. One example that is currently operating in the market is Tie Up Farming. They are an integrated farm management platform that uses IoT to accurately predict yield on farms. This allows the farmer to better manage retail contracts (by avoiding over- or under- promising), organise transport requirements and minimise waste on farm. Combined with crop-specific algorithms, the suite of sensors consider in-field growing conditions as well as losses in the packing shed, to predict yield at high accuracy. At the end of the day, it’s no good for a farm business to have surplus if they can’t transport it or find a buyer before the product spoils. It pays to have as much information as possible. How do you make sure that what’s out there are solving the right problems? We invest $40K for 8% equity in approximately 10 companies each year. These companies must meet certain criteria set by an investment panel. Because we invest private equity, everyone has got skin in the game to prove that what they’re doing is wanted by the market.

JULIA WAITE Head of Operations, SproutX

Julia Waite is the Community Operations Manager at SproutX, an accelerator program and venture capital fund for food and agtech startups. In this role she supports the entrepreneurial community in Australia, and seeks to grow collaborative ties between the agri-RDCs, inventors and producers. Originally from Perth WA, Julia’s background is in agriculture and spatial sciences. She has previously worked in policy with the Victorian Farmers Federation, and with a GIS firm in the United States.

SproutX is doing its small part to fill the very early stage investment gap to keep skilled teams developing their product. We’re in small cheque size, high risk game. What’s your advice to start-ups on protecting their IP? Think about your IP and your brand early. For example, Twitter has a world trademark on the term “vine” through ownership of the now- defunct video streaming platform, Vine. You can imagine for a startup in the wine industry, avoiding this word is forcing them to be creative with their company names! It’s important to think early about these things before you establish an initial presence with a brand you can‘t continue with into the wider market.

and use a particular IoT service. As devices aren’t interoperable between coverage platforms, their choice may preclude them from buying products that operate on a different platform in the future. (ed’s note: wireless networks to connect low-power objects that need to be continuously on and emitting small amounts of data). Adjusting to the decision making timelines required by big corporates and Australian venture capital can also be a strain on the capex runway of early stage entrepreneurs. This is especially true when they may not be paying themselves a wage.

Not only are they an invaluable financial sponsor, they are an incredible strategic partner for agtech teams with prototypes and minimum viable products. What are some of the other challenges in the adoption of these new technologies? Some of our companies coming into the market now are coming up against barriers to trust of farmers. Originating rightly so from previous over-hype under delivering technology solutions that flooded the market in the very early days of apps and sensor solutions. Another challenge is fragmented connectivity for IoT devices creating “islands” of coverage, and limiting sales potential for the startup. For example, a pastoral company may invest in infrastructure for LoRaWAN or Sigfox coverage in order to buy

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There’s limited commercial value in it so it gets turned back into the soil as a waste product. With improved monitoring and measurement and real time decision making, there’s big opportunity there. IoT can also be used for more predictive disease modelling. The conditions of the day has a big impact on what pest or disease might attack a farmer’s Vines in the following days. It’s being aware of that and saying, “Hang on, based on the conditions, do I act, don’t I act, or is the season actually going to deal with it itself?” How important is industry collaboration for you? Collaboration is essential. With APIs being far more accessible that is a good common meeting ground that provides the capacity to bring a lot of information together. For us, we’re dealing with soil information, weather information, satellite imagery, as well as on-farm collected data and trying to bring them it all together for analysis. Then you’ve got the collaboration on the hardware. We need to look at the different brands and how they’re connected to different connectivity sources and then how that links together. If a farmer has invested in brand X for all their irrigation, but then the pump manufacturer doesn’t talk with the hardware measuring soil moisture, you’ve got a problem. We need to make sure that as we go forward there’s an openness and inter-operability between different hardware and software providers.

Number two, ensure that you clear the market and understand the landscape. Who else is doing something out there that’s similar, or maybe the same, as what you’re doing? The last thing you want on your day of launch, or just after the day of launch, is a nasty cease and desist letter on your doorstep that prevents you from getting to market. And number three, ownership and asserting your intellectual property rights over your invention, over your idea, over your brand to ensure that nobody else can come in and step on your territory and misappropriate your idea or your invention.

How do you use IoT in your soil advisory business? How soil performance is monitored hasn’t changed for the last hundred years, until now. IoT provides visibility into soil’s changing behaviour and characteristics, whereas it was previously viewed as something quite static. In fact, there’s a whole lot of dynamic factors that change throughout the season. The climate is changing above the farm, so it’s hot, cold, wet, dry, and that affects how the soil behaves. If we can get visibility throughout the year on what the climate is doing and what the soil is doing in real time, we can start to make real time decisions rather than waiting to collect harvest and yield data at the end of the season and saying “Oh, that’s a bit like 2008, I reckon we should manage it this way.” How do you think IoT can improve outcomes for farmers? First, there are skinny margins in agriculture. You need the volume to make profits based on slim margins. Any sort of edge that IoT can provide that could either save an expense in the field or help a farmer make better decisions is only going to make things better. Depending on seasonal pressures, a large proportion of some horticultural crops – up to 40 to 60% - does not leave the farm gate despite being a good, edible product overall, because of a certain blemish or some other quality issue.

How do you think the industry can get more farmers embracing IoT?

Speaking of protection, what are the top three pieces of IP advice you would give to a business planning to commercialise their innovation? Number one is confidentiality. Ensure that you have clear confidentially agreements around your idea when you’re talking to investors, collaborators, or others who are going to help you develop your prototype. This ensures someone else doesn’t run away with your idea or that you don’t destroy the novelty and your ability to patent your invention if you tell the world about it without that NDA or confidentiality agreement in place.

A lot of agtech is chasing that disruptive technology. For the

farmer and farm advisor, it needs to be enabling before it’s disrupting. I feel like there’s a need to build trust first, help the farmers do what they’re doing better, we don’t need them to be doing something different just yet. Potentially there is, but it’s just building that stepping stone. Do you see new business models developing where IOT is provided as a service, rather than famers outlaying the cost and management themselves? Yes there is a space. Especially on larger farms, to get the visibility you need to make meaningful decisions, there is indeed a large capital expenditure. Farmers need to deal with and work out the best strategy to address cost, such as leasing plans or writing the cost off against their farm. There is a position for someone else to come in between and provide that service. The biggest issue to work out is who owns the data. What’s one piece of advice you would give emerging agtech companies? Figure out the core element of what you’re trying to do and really hone in and make sure it’s the bit that excites you, gets you out of bed in the morning, and really drives you and is a true solution for the end user. And then you’ve got to work out how you’re best going to protect and market that.

EDWARD SCOTT Partner, Field Systems

Edward Scott is a soil systems scientist involved in the Australian agricultural industry and a Partner at Field Systems, the South Australian soil technology, land management and field advisory consultancy. Originally from a grazing property on the Fleurieu Peninsula of SA, Ed is very active in agribusiness, rural industry development and the scientific pursuit of soil management. Within Field Systems he has developed patents for soil algorithms in precision agriculture and soil amelioration for nitrogen management in cropping systems.

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We already have lots of producers, why grow vertical farms indoors? We’re the farmers in the city. We started out a couple of years ago solving two key problems for cafes and restaurants - waste and freshness. As a result, we developed the Farmwall, a small scale indoor farm that operates on aquaponic principles and can grow a range of micro greens and herbs inside the venue that you harvest as needed. It’s efficient in its use of water and electricity and is designed to fit within the design of the venue. We believe there is a lot of value to growing our food within our living environments, greening up the space and creating an element of wellness to the people around it. We found a lot of different pockets where growing food in the city can create value so that selling it and eating it becomes the cherry on the cake. We’re on a mission to transform our city into a food producing ecosystem, so we believe we can grow a lot of food in the city while also adding value to our lives, our buildings and our environments. And hopefully with the help of IoT make the city a lot more sustainable by implementing the Farmwall mindset more than the actual unit.

What role does IoT play? While we started out focusing on cafes and restaurants, we’ve realised people are hungry to learn more about how to grow food themselves. Then comes the big but: they don’t have the time or the knowledge. There is a huge opportunity for technology and for IoT to educate people as well as help them grow food in their premises and their own environments without needing all the knowledge or the responsibility. You can have your food grow at home but you can go to India for three weeks and come back and it’s ready to pick. And you can manage and follow the journey of your produce, whether it’s in your home or office, on your phone. How do you protect your product? We’re more about implementing different technologies and different systems across the city. Farmwall is our flagship brand and a visual representation of how the food ecosystem can work. It’s also a mindset. We can apply a similar mindset and technology on larger scales as well. We’ve got a trademarked brand and we invest a lot of time and effort and funds into creating and positioning it so it’s strong and will protect our market position. The Farmwall product itself is in constant development. So we have a patent strategy where we file for smaller items within the whole system and over time when they all come together further down the track, it will create a stronger fire wall.

GEERT HENDRIX Founder and CEO, Farmwall

Geert Hendrix is the founder and CEO of AgTech startup Farmwall — designing urban farming technology and experiences in Australian cities. Geert is leading the Farmwall team on their mission to transform cities into food producing ecosystems. The companies flagship design is the Farmwall, a small scale vertical farm that grows fresh produce indoors in a beautifully designed natural ecosystem. Their custom designed urban farms grow food in under-utilised space, paired with experiential community engagement.

For example, we’re collaborating with Sonaray, an LED technology company, to incorporate lights into our vertical farms. We’re also working with big corporates and developers like Mirvac to create green food producing infrastructure in our buildings. There is a trend within corporates where they are developing teams to report directly to the CEO that are working like start-ups within the corporate businesses.

We are able to work with one corporate just because they have an innovation team that enabled them to bypass most of the corporate structures and we were able to work very quickly, very closely and with minimal budgets to proof and validate our concept. We’re also based in the Melbourne Innovation Centre, which is a cluster collaborative of businesses and art. They’ve helped us a lot with their expertise and the network within that.

How important is collaboration for you? There’s a lot of knowledge required in what we’re doing and collaboration is essential. If we don’t have the technology ourselves we find people that can help us, and as we’re building a brand and creating direction in the market, we’re able to leverage our exposure for the parties to come on board.

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then the goods will be forfeited and destroyed. If a claim for release is made by the importer, then the brand owner will have a further 10 working days to commence legal action against the importer. If legal action is not commenced, for example because the brand owner determines that the particular shipment is not worth pursuing through the Courts, the goods will be released to the importer. However, the opportunity to obtain details of the importer, information about the quality and quantity of goods being imported in a particular shipment, and an insight into trading channels, may still provide a brand owner with useful information for targeting priority monitoring and enforcement areas in the event that proceedings are not commenced for a particular shipment. The Final Word Lodging a Customs Notice can act as a deterrent and hindrance to would- be importers of infringing products, as well as provide a useful mechanism for identifying and monitoring the activity of importers of infringing goods, and taking action against them before goods enter the Australian marketplace. Equivalent notification and border seizure schemes are also available for brand owners with registered trade marks in overseas countries. If your brand has been affected by counterfeiting, or to ensure you’re protected, speak to your attorney about Customs Notices and monitoring and advising on infringing activity.

international dialogue on improving IP processes to better protect IP rights holders and prevent counterfeiting. As the holder of a registered trade mark (or, in some cases, a notifiable copyright), brand owners can file a Notice of Objection with Australian Customs (Customs Notice), putting Australian Customs on notice of the details of your registered trade mark(s) (ie, trade mark registration number, mark, goods covered, expiry date) or other IP rights. Once filed, a Customs Notice will remain valid for 4 years and can be renewed and updated for so long as a trade mark remains registered. All current Customs Notices are publically available from the Australian Customs website. Brand owners can also notify Australian Customs of the names and details of any particular known importers likely to be importing infringing counterfeit goods into Australia, including the dates and details of particular shipments due to arrive. What happens after filing a Customs Notice? Once a Customs Notice has been filed, Australian Customs can seize incoming goods that bear an infringing trade mark, such as counterfeit goods. According to the last Australian Customs and Border Protection Service Annual Report (published for 2014- 2015), Australian Customs made 1,789 seizures of counterfeit goods, involving 561,045 items, estimated to have a retail value of more than $23 million, over this period. If goods are seized pursuant to a Customs Notice, the importer and brand owner will be notified in writing. If the importer does not make a claim for the release of the goods within 10 working days of the notification,

review their registered trade mark portfolios and protection strategy with the assistance of a trade mark professional and obtain advice on what to protect and where. Trade mark protection should be continually reviewed and updated as new product lines are introduced and brands are updated, refreshed or phased out. Secondly, in addition to securing relevant trade marks in appropriate countries, brand owners should be proactive in considering and utilising the various options and tools available to them to leverage the value of having secured registered trade mark protection. Although registered trade marks do serve an important deterrent purpose, there is less value in simply holding a trade mark if you don’t take steps to preserve and enforce it. Whilst litigation through the Courts can often be a costly exercise if unable to be resolved early, there are also other effective tools available for assisting trade mark owners in the protection of their brand and marketplace reputation. One such tool is the filing of a Customs Notice, which can provide a relatively low cost and effective tool for stopping infringing imports of imitation goods at the border, with the assistance of border police and customs officials. What is a Customs Notice? The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service operates a customs seizure scheme to prevent the importation of counterfeit goods into Australia. The legislative framework was further improved in favour of brand owners in 2013 when border reforms arising from the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Raising the Bar) Act 2102 were introduced, and there is continuing domestic and

IS YOUR SHIP AT RISK OF SINKING DUE TO TRADE MARK PIRATES?

A Customs Notice can be a low cost and effective enforcement tool to stop infringing imports at the boarder.

Indeed, over the last few years, there have been recurring reports via the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries and local media of large shipments of counterfeit automotive parts bearing the trade marks of popular car brands being intercepted en route to Australia (such as via Dubai, Asia and Europe), as well as seizures at the Australian border. In an entirely different sector, counterfeit wines and spirits are now an increasing problem for those trading in the alcoholic beverage industries, although more so for local producers exporting their products to countries such as China. So how do we combat Counter Counterfeiting in Australia and Overseas? Firstly, a comprehensive and up- to-date trade mark portfolio and registration strategy is critical to combating pirating and counterfeiting. If necessary, brand owners should

Counterfeiting is a widespread issue that involves the manufacture and distribution of goods using another person’s name or trade mark without their permission. The implication of such practices has the potential to affect brand owners across many industries – from manufacturers of traditional branded luxury goods items, to those across the automotive, pharmaceuticals, software, entertainment, toys, food and wine industries. Counterfeit products are often manufactured overseas using lower quality components or workmanship, leading to cheap imitations which can affect a brand owner’s reputation, goodwill and bottom line. Even worse, poor quality or defective counterfeit products can result in health or safety risks to consumers.

MARIE WONG Principal

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THE COMMERCIALISATION CONUNDRUM

W e are fortunate to be home to world- class research institutions, modern ICT infrastructure, and a well-educated workforce. We rank in the top 10 among OECD member nations for total expenditure on R&D, Australian research findings are regularly cited in many of the world’s leading publications, and Australia is rated fifth in a ranking of the world’s top 200 universities by five key subject fields. There is so much going for us, and yet as a nation we are slow to commercialise. While many of the above examples were based on Australian research breakthroughs they were commercialised overseas, meaning many millions of dollars weren’t realised in the Australian economy. Wrays wants to see more home-grown innovative companies become world leaders. Members of our team and broader network have been exploring how innovators can use a combination of traditional methodologies and data science to rapidly and accurately guide commercialisation decision-making. WHAT’S HOLDING US BACK? Complacency After 27 years of economic growth, could it be that we’ve not suffered ‘real’ economic hardship? Have we lost the fire in our belly? Too hard Innovation doesn’t have to change the world, it can be incremental such as streamlining a process to remove cost, changing a business model, or finding a new market. Ask yourself these three questions: –– How can I remain relevant to my customers?

Too risky Not innovating because of a risk avoidance mindset is a false premise. Technology, pace of change, increased competition, and globalisation means there is a far greater risk our current businesses will not survive. Government responsibility Is the Australian government killing us with kindness? Many countries leading the World Economic Forum Global Innovation Index receive no government assistance to innovate. There is no hard data whether investments and tax payer dollars are being well directed, and it raises the question whether government or business should be the instigator of innovation. Fear of failure In some countries, such as the US, failure or bankruptcy is considered part of the journey from which to learn rather than being a career killer as it is in more risk adverse Australia. The good news is companies can now use data science to validate business models and cases and reduce both fail rates and investment risk. Commercialising IP In Australia, only 4.7% of higher education research is funded by industry, far below the performance of the top five nations which gain 16.8% of their academic research funding from business. The Australian Government has introduced new incentives to change this and we encourage all businesses to consider working with universities to fast-track their innovative efforts. Where to start? Businesses often lack the knowledge of what the commercialisation path looks like and who to involve.

Australia has a strong history of world-leading R&D and commitment to innovation. Refrigeration, heart pacemaker, black box flight recorder, ultrasound, cochlear implants, spray on skin, WIFI, and the bionic eye all came out of Australia. And let’s not forget Vegemite, the Hills Hoist, the wine cask the box kite and Australian Rules Football too!

–– How can I be more competitive? –– How can I grow my business?

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WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY

ALBERT FERRALORO Principal, Wrays Intellectual Property Specialist

THREE STEPS TO GROWING YOUR IDEAS

IMPORTANT OPERATIONAL AND BUSINESS QUESTIONS –– Do you have the right leadership team to successfully take the business forward? –– How will you source and secure funding to support growth plans? –– Will you attract the right people to join the team when scaling the business, both in terms of technical ability and cultural fit? –– How will you handle business development and marketing? –– Do you have the right plans in place to build strategic relationships with partners, suppliers and distributors? –– What are you doing to recognise and manage IP issues and safeguard the organisation’s valuable IP assets? KEY IP CONSIDERATIONS IP often represents the greatest proportion of an organisation’s asset value. The adoption of some simple IP management principles and practices can help businesses ensure they are well positioned to make the most of their creative endeavours. –– Consider protection options at the right time. If this is done in the wrong order, opportunities to secure exclusive rights can be compromised or lost. –– Ensure your IP assets are understood, suitably safeguarded and managed so you can identify and capture new innovations as they are developed. –– Consider how IP rights can be used to support the commercial aims of the business. For example: –– Keep competitors at bay –– Attract business and potential collaborative partners –– Support capital raising activities –– Licensing and royalty-based income. –– The ability to protect your own innovations and solutions does not guarantee your ability to market or use your products. Get advice to understand what third party IP rights exist and what restrictions or roadblocks they may place on your own technical and commercial activities.

“Being apathetic towards IP can result in business and revenue opportunities not being realised, and organisations being exposed to commercial risks and challenges which could have been avoided.”

A roadmap enables you to see what is ahead and develop an understanding of the validation metrics that can be tested along the path. Your roadmap should identify: –– key phases of the commercialisation process –– business model –– funding sources –– what expertise you will need, such as IP advisors, commercial lawyers, market research, branding, technology developers, industrial designers –– an anticipated budget of expenditure –– the timeline By developing this roadmap, you can then develop a total business case that identifies the size and value of the potential market v the anticipated costs and build a cost v benefit risk analysis to make informed business decisions. DEVELOP THE COMMERCIALISATION ROADMAP

BE AGILE IN YOUR THINKING

THINK GLOBALLY

What you ‘think’ your innovative idea will look like is usually not quite what the market will need, want and value. Enter the project with a ‘learning’ mindset. Your project success is based on the level of penetration you make in either an existing market (a sustaining innovation that improves a current product) or creates an entirely new market (disruptive innovation). Learning as you proceed through the commercialisation process is the single greatest metric you can have. Ensuring agile development processes are embedded in your methodology will not only assist in building what customers will value, but also save you both resources and wastage.

While your initial innovative thought may be solving a problem or doing a job that you identify through your own market contact, understand that intellectual property is transferrable globally. You do not need to be a multinational to become a global distributor, therefore enter your commercialisation project thinking about ALL the markets it can touch.

LINDA GINGER Board member Growth Science & Non-Executive Director of UniQuest Marketing Strategist

“The risk not to innovate is potentially far greater. Given the pace of change there is far greater risk your current business will not survive.”

TREVOR HOLMES Managing Director, Advivo Innovation Commercialisation Partners Commercialisation Specialist

“Validate your market opportunity before going all in. High fail rates can be reduced by better understanding your market.”

For more information please contact:

ALBERT FERRALORO Principal

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