Complaints & IP Notices

1. Designated Contact

Our designated contact for receipt of intellectual property complaints is reachable by email at info@medicalcentre-au.org. Please use the subject line Copyright notice for takedown requests, Copyright counter-notice for counter-notifications, Trade mark concern for trade mark complaints, and Defamation concern for defamation complaints. We process all notices submitted in good faith that include the recommended elements set out below.

2. Filing a Copyright Notice

If you believe content on medicalcentre-au.org/ infringes a copyright you own or are authorised to enforce, send a written notice to the designated contact. The notice should be sent in plain text or PDF.

3. Recommended Elements of a Notice

To enable us to act quickly, we ask that notices include the elements that broadly correspond to DMCA § 512(c)(3), which work well for Australian Copyright Act notices too:

1. Signature of the copyright owner, or a person authorised to act on the owner’s behalf (electronic signature is acceptable).
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed — a specific work, or, if multiple works at the site are covered, a representative list.
3. Identification of the allegedly infringing material — sufficient to permit us to locate it (full URLs to the specific page or pages on medicalcentre-au.org/, not the homepage).
4. Reasonably sufficient contact information — your name, Australian address, telephone number, and email.
5. A good-faith statement that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
6. An accuracy statement — that the information in the notification is accurate, and that you are authorised to act on behalf of the owner of the exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

4. Counter-Notice

If your content was removed in response to a copyright notice and you believe the removal was based on mistake or misidentification, you may file a counter-notice. A counter-notice should include:

• Your signature
• Identification of the material that was removed and the location at which it appeared before removal
• A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification
• Your name, Australian address, and telephone number
• A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the Australian courts (in particular, the Federal Court of Australia for copyright matters) or, where the dispute is purely intrastate, the courts of New South Wales, and that you will accept service of process from the person who submitted the original notice

If we receive a valid counter-notice, we will forward it to the original complainant. If the original complainant does not file a court action within 10-14 business days of receipt of the counter-notice, we may restore the removed material.

5. Repeat-Infringer Policy

medicalcentre-au.org/ maintains a policy of terminating in appropriate circumstances the access of users (including contributors and commenters) who are repeat infringers of copyright.

6. Knowingly False Notices

7. Fair Dealing Under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth)

The Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) provides several fair-dealing exceptions to copyright infringement, including:

• Section 40 — research or study
• Section 41 — criticism or review
• Section 41A — parody or satire
• Section 42 — reporting news
• Section 43 — professional advice by legal practitioner (and patent attorneys)
• Section 44 — provision of judicial proceedings or reports of such proceedings
• Section 200AB — flexible dealing for libraries, educational institutions, and persons with a disability

8. Commonwealth Copyright and Creative Commons Licensing

Australian Government works — including most Department of Health and Aged Care, Services Australia, AHPRA, TGA, ACSQHC, NHMRC, and ABS publications — are subject to Commonwealth copyright under section 176 of the Copyright Act 1968. The Australian Government has adopted an Open Access and Licensing Framework (AusGOAL) and much Commonwealth material is made available for re-use under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) licences. We rely on CC BY 4.0 where the relevant Commonwealth publication has been so licensed.

State governments operate variant licensing arrangements. Where the state has chosen Creative Commons licensing for a particular publication, we comply with the specific licence terms. Some specific publications (for example, certain NHMRC clinical guidelines) carry separate licence terms; where this is the case, we comply with the specific licence rather than rely on the default Commonwealth framework.

9. Trade Mark — Australian Statutory Body Names and Nominative Use

We use the names of Australian statutory bodies and individual practices nominatively — for example, “Medicare,” “Services Australia,” “AHPRA,” “the Medical Board of Australia,” “the TGA,” “the NHMRC,” “ACSQHC,” “RACGP,” “ACRRM,” “AGPAL,” “GPA Accreditation Plus,” “NSW Health,” “Victoria Department of Health,” “Queensland Health,” and individual practice names — to identify the body or practice our entry covers. This is nominative use, permitted under Australian trade mark law where the use is in accordance with honest practices in industrial or commercial matters under the Trade Marks Act 1995 (Cth). The Trade Marks Act includes specific defences for descriptive use (section 122) including use in accordance with honest practices, use to indicate kind or quality, use for the purposes of comparative advertising, and use by a person who would be entitled to the use of the trade mark.

Medicare is a registered trade mark used by Services Australia. The “M for Medicare” device is a registered trade mark. We do not display these marks on this site; we use the word “Medicare” descriptively to identify the Australian universal healthcare scheme.

If you are the rights holder for a referenced trade mark and you believe our use is outside the honest-practices defence, email us with subject line Trade mark concern — we respond within 5 business days.

10. Uniform Defamation Acts Framework

Our content is editorial reporting on Australian medical-centre administrative details — addresses, telephones, opening hours, bulk-billing status, services offered, accreditation procedures. We rarely have occasion to publish defamation-relevant content; when we do reference Commonwealth officials, regulators, or practice staff in their official capacity, we attribute statements to the official record and we correct factual errors when shown they are factual errors.

Defamation in Australia operates through a uniform Defamation Act model law adopted by each state and territory in substantially the same form, with significant amendments effective from 1 July 2021 across most jurisdictions and from 2024 in some others. Key features include:

• Section 4 (serious harm threshold) — the statement must have caused or be likely to cause serious harm to the reputation of the person (introduced by 2021 amendments)
• Section 25 (contextual truth)
• Section 28 (absolute privilege)
• Section 29 (fair report of proceedings of public concern)
• Section 30 (qualified privilege) and the new public-interest defence
• Section 31 (honest opinion)
• Section 32 (innocent dissemination)
• Section 38 (mitigation of damages)

Section numbers refer to the Defamation Act 2005 (NSW), which is the model law adopted with state variations as the Defamation Act 2005 (Vic, Qld, SA, WA, Tas, NT) and the Civil Law (Wrongs) Act 2002 (ACT). Australian Government officials, senior clinicians, regulators, and College officers acting in their official capacity may be considered public figures for honest-opinion purposes where the comment concerns institutional conduct, and material on the public record concerning their official conduct may be the subject of fair comment / honest opinion. Where the statement concerns a private figure, we are particularly careful with sourcing.

If you believe a statement on the site is factually incorrect, email us with subject line Defamation concern or Correction. Provide the page URL, the specific statement, and the source you believe shows it is incorrect. We respond within 7 business days. A Concerns Notice under the uniform Defamation Acts triggers our offer-to-make-amends procedure.

11. What We Cannot Help With

• We cannot remove information about your medical care from My Health Record or from Services Australia systems — you must contact Services Australia, your GP, or your specialist directly, with an APP 12 access request under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)
• We cannot remove information about you from AHPRA’s public registers — AHPRA is its own APP entity and its registers are operated under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law
• We cannot remove a TGA adverse-event report — the TGA operates its own framework under the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989
• We cannot remove accurate content drawn from public Department of Health and Aged Care, AHPRA, TGA, NHMRC, ACSQHC, or state-government publications under their respective licences
• We cannot represent you in litigation against any third party — consult an Australian Legal Practitioner admitted in your state or territory
• We cannot file complaints on your behalf — the route is the practice, then the state or territory complaints commissioner; for fitness to practise, AHPRA
• We cannot remove your name from search engine results — that is a matter for the search engine under APP 12 and APP 13 and the relevant Australian case law on online removal

12. Contact

For copyright notices: info@medicalcentre-au.org with subject line Copyright notice.
For counter-notices: subject line Copyright counter-notice.
For trade mark concerns: subject line Trade mark concern.
For defamation concerns or Concerns Notices: subject line Defamation concern or Correction.