In its 2020 IP Report, IP Australia introduced a novel measure of patent application filing intensity to identify top applicants – namely, the number of ‘original’ applications filed, excluding any divisional applications.  For the uninitiated, divisional applications are patent applications that are based on subject matter that is ‘divided out’ from previously filed applications (typically termed ‘parent’ applications), as distinct from ‘original’ applications that comprise new content filed for the very first time.  I…

In 2020, the number of standard patent applications filed in Australia fell by 1.8%, to 29,240 from 27,786 in 2019.  Much of this decline can be attributed to domestic applicants, which filed around 10% fewer applications in 2020.  On the other hand, Chinese applicants filed nearly 20% more applications in 2020 than in 2019, falling only 48 applications short of the number filed by Australian applicants.  US residents remained the top users of the Australian…

One of the great resources provided by IP Australia is its AusPat online patent data service.  AusPat enables users to search for Australian patents and applications using a range of options and search fields, view numerous data items for each application, and access most incoming and outgoing correspondence via eDossier.  In my view, it is one of the best available systems for online access of national patent data.  For example, in comparison with the USPTO’s…

On 14 December 2020, Pizzeys Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys – a firm in the stable owned by listed company IPH Limited (ASX:IPH) – filed suit in the Federal Court of Australia against former Pizzeys principals William Bennett and Martin Richardson, along with the new firm they have established, RnB IP (collectively ‘RnB’).  The lawsuit alleges that Bennett and Richardson lured lucrative US law firm clients away from Pizzeys, in breach of non-compete,…

Back in September I reported that an application naming an ‘artificial intelligence’ going by the name DABUS (‘Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience’) as inventor had been filed in Australia.  The application – no. 2019363177 – was derived from an international application filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), and names Dr Stephen Thaler, the developer of DABUS, as applicant.  The Australian Patent Office issued a formalities report, objecting that the application…

Recently, I wrote about the decision of the High Court in Calidad Pty Ltd v Seiko Epson Corporation [2020] HCA 41, with particular focus on the Court’s finding, by a 4-3 majority, that the first sale of a patented product exhausts the patentee’s exclusive rights in that product.  In this article, I will look at the other aspect of the Court’s decision, namely its finding (again by 4-3 majority) that Epson printer ink cartridges…