News & Resources

Australian patent claim interpretation – the preamble – 2 February 2016 Under Australian law, the preamble to a patent claim is limiting. The preamble often indicates the intent of the claimed invention. Whilst there is some diverging authority as to the extent to which an Australian patent claim is limited by a recital of intent […]

A stepwise approach to the innovative step assessment – 2 February 2016 An innovative step is to an innovation patent as an inventive step is to a standard patent. It is a very low threshold that requires departure from the prior art that is ‘real or of substance’. Authority confirms that it is a lower […]

Australian computer implemented invention crashes – 22 December 2015 This article has been archived. For the most up to date information, please contact our software patent attorney. To be validly patented in Australia, an invention must be a “manner of manufacture”. This is the Australian version of the “patentable subject matter” requirement in other jurisdictions. […]

Australian patent examination timelines are technology dependent – 11 December 2015 The Australian patent application process typically entails the issuance of a ‘direction to request examination‘ followed by a request for examination and in turn by a subsequent examination report. As we have previously reported (e.g. here and here), the timing of these events is […]

New Zealand patent applications to be safe from post-acceptance lack of unity attack – 19 November 2015 The New Zealand Patents Act 2013, which took effect 13 September 2014, constituted a comprehensive re-drafting of New Zealand’s patent law. Given the scale of the exercise, it is unsurprising that some of the new provisions had unintended […]

Are Australian design registrations cost-efficient? – 16 October 2015 Design registrations are the Australian equivalents of design patents available in other countries. In theory, they provide protection for the appearance of ‘new and distinctive products’. A recent decision[1] of the Australian Designs Office demonstrates just how limited that protection can be. In a nutshell, a […]