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Australia’s ‘Generic’ Implementation of an Abstract Idea is not Patentable, but Does Prior Art have Anything to Do with It?

By Mark Summerfield on September 15, 2019

On Friday the 13th of September 2019, an expanded five judge panel of the Full Bench of the Federal Court of Australia handed down its much-anticipated judgment in the appeal by Encompass Corporation Pty Ltd against the finding of a single judge that its computer-implemented method for displaying information gathered from multiple sources was ineligible for patenting under Australia’s ‘manner of manufacture’ subject matter test: Encompass Corporation Pty Ltd v InfoTrack Pty Ltd[2019] FCAFC …

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Patent Attorney Survey – A Primer on Statistical Analysis (and Pizza)

By Mark Summerfield on August 11, 2019

In my articles presenting results of the attorney survey that I conducted earlier this year, I provide statistical measures – notably p-values – of the significance of certain results, such as whether particular subsets of patent attorneys are more or less satisfied with various aspects of their employment than others. It is, I believe, important that readers with an interest in these results have a clear understanding of what these statistical measures mean (and,…

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Patent Attorney Survey Part 2 – How Life Within Listed Groups Compares with Privately-Owned Firms

By Mark Summerfield on August 11, 2019

In this article, I am going to look at responses to the second section of the survey of trans-Tasman IP professionals (primarily patent attorneys) that I conducted earlier this year. This part of the survey addresses various aspects of job satisfaction and the working environment, including ‘happiness’, professional support, and opportunities for career development and advancement. In particular, I will compare the responses across groups defined by firm structure (i.e. ‘listed group’ firms versus…

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Australian SMEs Show a Growing Preference for Smaller Patent Attorney Firms

By Mark Summerfield on June 24, 2019

Back in February, I published data which indicated that Australian patent attorney firms within listed groups, and perhaps larger firms in general, appear to have been losing share in the market for Australian patent applications filings to smaller, privately-held firms. In this article I will take a closer look at this trend, by focusing specifically on filings by Australian-resident applicants, breaking firm size and corporate structure down into more precise groups, and looking at the…

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The Patent Office is Granting Time Extensions to Australia’s Grace Period for Filing After Self-Disclosure

By Mark Summerfield on June 9, 2019

The Australian patent law and regulations provide applicants with a 12-month ‘grace period’, enabling an application to be validly filed following an inadvertent, or intentional, act of self-disclosure of an invention. As most readers will doubtless be aware, this is significant because in the absence of such provisions, any disclosure – such as publication or public use – of an invention before securing a priority date becomes prior art that can be used to invalidate…

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Patent Attorney Survey Part 1: Respondent Demographics

By Mark Summerfield on May 27, 2019

As many readers will already be aware, between mid-March and April I conducted a survey with the objective of gaining some insights into how members of the trans-Tasman IP profession (primarily patent attorneys) are faring in the face of a challenging market and substantial structural changes within the profession. Over the coming weeks I will be publishing a number of article reporting on the results of the survey. This is no small task, in…

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Chinese Applicants Are Bypassing Local Patent Attorneys to Obtain Australian Standard Patents

By Mark Summerfield on May 14, 2019

According to IP Australia records, somewhere in this unprepossessing block of apartments in suburban Canberra is the Australian ‘office’ of not one, but at least 47 Chinese companies, which collectively filed 164 standard patent applications between the beginning of January and the end of April, 2019 (link to Google Sheet with full listing). In each case, it further appears that expedited examination of the application was requested at filing. A number of the…

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IP Australia Launches 2019 Annual IP Report on World Intellectual Property Day

By Mark Summerfield on April 25, 2019

World Intellectual Property Day is celebrated each year on the 26th of April. This year, the theme is ‘Reach for Gold: IP and Sports’. To read more about World IP Day 2019, and to explore how ‘innovation, creativity and the IP rights that encourage and protect them support the development of sport and its enjoyment around the world’, feel free to head on over to the website of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). …

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Competition Regulator OK With QANTM/Xenith Merger, But Notes That Group Firms ‘Lack Incentive to Compete’

By Mark Summerfield on March 26, 2019

Last Thursday, 21 March 2019, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) completed its public review of the proposed merger of QANTM IP Limited (ASX:QIP) and Xenith IP Group Limited (ASX:XIP), which commenced back in January. The outcome of the review was ‘not opposed’, i.e. the competition regulator found no basis to object to the proposed merger under the ‘substantial lessening of competition’ test established by section 50 of the…

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Survey – How Is Life As a Trans-Tasman Patent Attorney?

By Mark Summerfield on March 16, 2019

Update: As of 2 May 2019, the survey is closed. I received 247 responses, which was a fantastic outcome. I am grateful to all who took the time to complete the survey, including many who wrote extensive comments in reply to the open questions. I have commenced analysing the results, and will report via a number of articles over the coming weeks. This article will be updated with links as new reports are published. Original Post:…

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Australia’s ‘Generic’ Implementation of an Abstract Idea is not Patentable, but Does Prior Art have Anything to Do with It?

Patent Attorney Survey – A Primer on Statistical Analysis (and Pizza)

Patent Attorney Survey Part 2 – How Life Within Listed Groups Compares with Privately-Owned Firms

Australian SMEs Show a Growing Preference for Smaller Patent Attorney Firms

The Patent Office is Granting Time Extensions to Australia’s Grace Period for Filing After Self-Disclosure

Patent Attorney Survey Part 1: Respondent Demographics

Chinese Applicants Are Bypassing Local Patent Attorneys to Obtain Australian Standard Patents

IP Australia Launches 2019 Annual IP Report on World Intellectual Property Day

Competition Regulator OK With QANTM/Xenith Merger, But Notes That Group Firms ‘Lack Incentive to Compete’

Survey – How Is Life As a Trans-Tasman Patent Attorney?

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