Last month I looked at Australian and New Zealand patent application filings over the first quarter of 2020 and observed that there were no signs – yet – of any obvious downturn as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. With April now added to the tally, this remains true. So far, there does not appear to have been any significant decline in filings compared to the same period in the past two years, or at least no decline that can be discerned amid the ‘noise’ of normal week-to-week fluctuations. And this is the case across all application types (standard, innovation, and provisional), as well as across applications filed using the services of patent attorneys, and ‘self-filed’ applications prepared and lodged by the applicant and/or inventor themselves.
One thing that is notable, however, is the number of self-filed applications that seem to be related, in one way or another, to the ongoing pandemic. Out of 182 applications filed by self-represented applicants in April (mostly provisional and innovation patent applications), at least 60 – i.e. nearly one third – are directed to protective equipment, purported treatments, social distancing technologies, personal hygiene, and other COVID-related products, based upon their titles.
Below, I provide updated charts of filings, including April 2020, and a list of COVID-themed patent applications filed last month, for your information and entertainment.
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