post Monday October 8, 2012
In April 2012, Australia’s Advisory Council on Intellectual Property was asked to investigate the effectiveness of the current patenting system. Since the start of the investigation, all public forums, submissions and issue paper evaluations have been postponed, causing much frustration on behalf of the Australian government. Instead of waiting for the Council’s amendments in April 2013, the government is directly modifying its patent system. It is possible that the changes to the Patent Act may cause disparity between the drive for invention and innovation in standard patent procedures.
IP Australia has invited the public to comment on a proposed amendment to the current patenting system, the Patents Act of 1990. The amendment would require patent applicants to pass an ‘inventive step’ in order to raise the threshold of patentability for innovation based patents so they are put on the same level as standards patents. This type of amendment would promote innovation for small and medium sized companies as more high quality patents would be granted.
The amendments will start either on proclamation or 6 months from Royal Assent, whichever is sooner. The alterations will be applied to innovation patent applications that have been filed on or after the start of the amendment. The same goes for patents that have been granted but were filed on or after the start of the new regulation.
Source: POF.com, IP Australia
Image Source: Free Digital Photos
