Australia has a pre-grant patent opposition system. That is to say, once an application has passed examination and been accepted for potential grant as a patent, there is a period (of three months) during which anybody may oppose the grant. The subsequent opposition proceedings – if they run their full course – consist of a
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The Major Australian Client at the Centre of David and Goliath Legal Battle Between Patent Attorney Firms
As some readers may be aware (I have previously mentioned it only in passing) a firm in the IPH Limited (ASX:IPH) group – the market cap of which is A$1.56B at publication – is once again taking legal action against a recently-established firm and its founders, all of whom are former…
Intellectual Property is Integral to AI Regulation, and Getting it Wrong Will Hand More Power to Big Tech
Governments around the world are considering how they can – and should – regulate the development and deployment of increasingly powerful and disruptive artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Australia is no exception. On 1 June 2023, the Australian government announced the release of two papers intended to help ‘ensure the growth of artificial intelligence technologies (AI)…
Recent Trends in the Trans-Tasman Patent Attorney Profession
As regular readers of this blog – and watchers of the Australasian patent attorney profession in general – are well-aware, we have witnessed over recent years a significant upheaval in the profession, including three public listings of attorney firm groups and a series of acquisitions and mergers. The result of this (so far) is that…
High Court’s Failure Exposes the Festering Eligibility Sore in Australia’s Patent Laws
In a keenly-awaited – and thus hugely disappointing – ‘decision’, the High Court of Australia has failed to satisfactorily resolve the question of whether patent claims directed to electronic gaming machine (EGM) technology developed by Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Ltd are directed to patent-eligible subject matter: Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Patents…
Eligibility of Computer-Implemented Inventions Behind Unprecedented Numbers of Patent Office Rulings
Once upon a time – not so very long ago, in fact – it was rare for the Australian Patent Office to issue a formal published ruling on the patent-eligibility of claims submitted for examination. Indeed, ex parte decisions (i.e. those involving only the applicant and the Office) were generally in the minority, and most…
Aristocrat’s EGM Inventions Set for Showdown in the High Court
On 10 March 2022, the High Court of Australia granted Aristocrat’s application for special leave to appeal the decision of a Full Bench of the Federal Court, which found its claims directed to an Electronic Gaming Machine (EGM) implementing a new ‘feature game’ to be ineligible for patenting under Australia’s ‘manner of manufacture’ test…
Attorney Code of Conduct Passes ‘Health Check’ with Flying Colours
The Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Board (TTIPAB) has published a report, and its response, on a Health Check of the Code of Conduct for Trans-Tasman Patent and Trade Marks Attorneys 2018 [PDF, 2.05MB]. The Report was prepared by Professor Andrew Christie, who was commissioned by the Board to conduct the review, commencing in July 2021. …
Upcoming Online Conference on ‘Inventorship in Patent Law’
On Monday 16 May 2022 the European Patent Office (EPO) is running an online conference on ‘Inventorship in Patent Law’. It commences at 1.30pm Central European Summer Time (CEST), which is 9.30pm on the east coast of Australia (AEST), 9.00pm in South Australia, and a positively civilised 7.30pm in Western Australia. It is, unfortunately,…
DABUS Exited with Fatal Exception: Human Agency Required in Development of an Invention
In a decision handed down on 13 April 2022, a panel of five judges of the Federal Court of Australia (‘Full Court’) overturned last year’s controversial ruling by Justice Jonathan Beach, determining that the (alleged) ‘AI inventor’ DABUS cannot be named as an inventor for the purposes of applying for a patent in Australia,…