Computermate Products (Aust) Pty Limited v Ozi-Soft Pty Limited

Computermate Products (Aust) Pty Limited sought special leave to appeal from a decision of the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia. The dispute concerned the importation of computer games into Australia, which embodied copyright works in the form of computer programs. The applicant argued that the importation was not unlawful under section 37 of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), which prohibits the commercial importation of foreign-made articles embodying copyright works without the licence of the copyright owner. The goods in question were genuine products, manufactured abroad with the copyright owner's authority and sold in overseas markets without restriction on resale or trade destination.

The central legal issue before the High Court was the interpretation of the phrase "without the licence of the copyright owner" within section 37 of the Copyright Act. Specifically, the court had to determine whether the circumstances under which the applicant acquired the computer games in the United Kingdom demonstrated the existence of a licence from the copyright owner to import and sell the embodied computer programs in Australia. This issue was critical as its resolution determined the outcome of the proceedings, which had resulted in injunctive relief against the applicant.

The Full Court of the Federal Court had applied this Court's previous decision in *IPEC v Time-Life* (1977) to find against the applicant. In *IPEC*, the High Court considered a similar situation involving genuine imported goods and held that the sale of goods abroad, even without express restrictions, did not automatically confer a licence to import those goods into Australia where copyright subsisted. The applicant sought special leave to appeal to re-examine this construction of section 37, arguing that the facts of the present case warranted a reconsideration of the *IPEC* decision.