Milpurrurru v Indofurn Pty Ltd information

Milpurrurru v Indofurn Pty Ltd
Court	Federal Court of Australia
Full case name	George Milpurrurru, Banduk Marika, Tim Payunka and the Public Trustee of the Northern Territory v Indofurn Pty Ltd, Brian Alexander Bethune, George Raymond King and Robert James Rylands
Decided	13 December 1994
Citation	[1994] FCA 1544
Legislation cited	Copyright Act 1968 (Cth)
Court membership
Judge sitting	Von Doussa J
Area of law
Copyright, Intellectual property

Milpurrurru v Indofurn Pty Ltd (the Carpets Case) was one of three Federal Court of Australia judgments in the 1990s involving the use of copyright law in Australia relating to Indigenous cultural and intellectual property (ICIP), the others being Yumbulul v Reserve Bank of Australia (1991) and Bulun Bulun v R & T Textiles (1998), or "T-shirts case".

The trial was the result of three Aboriginal artists and the estates of five others taking action against Perth import company Infordurn, for using their designs as a basis for carpets which were made in Vietnam and then imported into Australia. After a trial lasting two weeks, Justice Von Doussa awarded damages of A$188,640 in total, for breaches of the Copyright Act 1968 and Trade Practices Act, awarding punitive damages for cultural harm.