A recent appeal decision by a Full Bench of the Federal Court of Australia has clarified what is meant by the requirement for a patent specification to be framed with ‘reasonable skill and knowledge’, finding that this is a collective responsibility that arises among everybody involved, including inventors, patent attorneys, and any other corporate managers or intermediaries.  Under Australian law, this requirement arises in relation to the effect of amendments on the rights of a…

Back in July, I reported the commencement of a process of consultation on an Exposure Draft of legislation – the proposed Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill (Productivity Commission Response Part 2 and Other Measures) Bill 2018 – intended to introduce a number of further reforms to Australia’s intellectual property laws, including abolition of the innovation patent, introducing an ‘objects clause’ into the Patents Act 1990, and (again) raising the standard of inventive step. …

On 19 October 2018, the Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia (IPTA) filed an interlocutory application seeking leave to intervene in the appeal (no. NSD734/2018) by Encompass Corporation Pty Ltd against the decision of a single judge of the Federal Court of Australia in Encompass Corporation Pty Ltd v InfoTrack Pty Ltd[2018] FCA 421.  This appeal is of particular significance because it is to be heard by an expanded…

The Commissioner of Patents has been added as an ‘interested person’ to the parties involved in the appeal (no. NSD734/2018) by Encompass Corporation Pty Ltd against the decision of a single judge of the Federal Court of Australia in Encompass Corporation Pty Ltd v InfoTrack Pty Ltd[2018] FCA 421.  As I reported back in June, the case involves a pair of innovation patents owned by Encompass, which survived attacks based on…

The law relating to patent-eligibility of computer-implemented inventions – and its practical application by the Australian Patent Office – is currently a mess.  As I have noted recently, over the past few years disproportionate resources have been devoted by both applicants and the Patent Office to disagreements over whether or not particular inventions are patentable according to the ‘manner of manufacture’ test required by the Australian law.  In just the past three years, there…

IP Australia incorporates the Australian Patent, Trade Marks, Designs, and Plant Breeder’s Rights (PBR) Offices, the core ‘business’ of which is to provide services to their ‘customers’ in respect of the administration and registration of Australian IP rights.  Indeed, IP Australia may be seen as a significant ‘exporter’ of such services considering that, for example, over 90% of applicants for Australian patent rights are foreign residents, as are over 50% of applicants for design registrations…

The Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Productivity Commission Response Part 1 and Other Measures) Act 2018 (the ‘PC Part 1 Act’) received Royal Assent, and thus passed into law, on 24 August 2018.  Following an initial consultation, which confirmed (in case any confirmation was required) that the proposal to abolish the innovation patent system remained controversial, it had an easy passage through the two houses of the Australian Parliament after the corresponding provisions were dropped …