Australian Standard Patents
General Information
| Deadline | When a deadline falls due on a weekday or holiday, you may file by the next working day after the deadline without any loss of rights. |
| Applicant | Inventor (s) or the assignee of the inventor (s); the assignee may be one or more individuals or a company. Two or more parties may apply jointly. |
| Publication | Patent specifications and any documents filed in support of the application which are not subject to legal privilege, are open to public inspection 18 months after the earliest priority date. |
| Third-party Observations | Assertions by third parties as to the lack of novelty and/or inventive step of the invention may be filed at the Patent Office at any time between publication and acceptance of the application. |
| Examination | May be requested at any time, but must be requested either within five years from the date of filing of the complete specification in Australia (or International Filing Date for a PCT application), or within two months of the Patent Office issuing a direction for examination, whichever date is the earlier. |
| Re-examination | The application/patent can be re-examined on the request of any party, or on the initiative of the Patent Office, at any time after the acceptance of the application. |
| Acceptance | The application must be in order for acceptance within 12 months of the date of issue of the first examination report; this period can be extended under specified circumstances. |
| Opposition | Must be filed within three months of the publication of acceptance of the application. |
| Term | 20 years from the date of filing the complete specification (or the International Filing Date in the case of PCT Applications). |
| Maintenance/renewal Fees | To maintain either a pending application or a granted patent, annual maintenance fees must be paid from the fourth anniversary of the filing of the complete specification (or from the International Filing Date in the case of PCT applications). The grace period is six months, subject to payment of an additional monthly fee. |
| Not Patentable |
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| Novelty | Absolute novelty i.e. novel with respect to anything made available to the public in any form, anywhere in the world, before the priority date, subject of the following exceptions:
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| Inventive Step | Applications are examined for inventive step/obviousness, based on the prior art base and the common general knowledge of a person skilled in the art. |
| Deposit of Micro-organisms | A sample of the microorganism must be deposited with an authorised depository institution before or on the filing date of the specification, in accordance with the provisions of the Budapest Treaty. The name of the institution at which the deposit was made, and the registration details of the deposit, must be incorporated into the specification before the application becomes open to public inspection. Further, before the application is accepted, the applicant must file copy of the receipt for the deposit together with a verified English translation if applicable. |
| Marking | Not compulsory, but failure to do so is likely to affect the ability to claim damages or an account of profits for any infringement. The recommended marking is: "Aus. Pat. No. + Patent number". |
| Supplementary Protection Certificates | Available for pharmaceuticals, with a maximum possible extension of five years. |
Filing Requirements — Non-PCT
Minimum Requirements for Filing Date |
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| 1. Applicant | Full legal name, nationality, and address. |
| 2. Inventors | Full legal name, nationality and address of the or each inventor. |
| 3. Specification | English language only: description, claims and abstract, together with sequence listings if appropriate, preferably in editable format (Microsoft Word 2010 compatible,.doc/.docx/.txt). There is no limit to the number of claims, but extra claim fees apply for every claim over 20 at acceptance. The abstract preferably should be no longer than 150 words. The abstract forms part of the specification, in relation to determining the extent of the disclosure. |
| 4. Drawings | The drawings must be line drawings in black-and-white and the drawing sheets must be numbered "sheet number/total number of sheets". |
| 5. If Convention prioirty is claimed | Convention priority country, date and application number. A certified copy of the Convention priority document is not required unless specifically requested by the examiner. |
Additional Formal Requirements |
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| 6. Notice of Entitlement (may be signed by Agent) | If the application is filed in the name of a person or legal entity other than the inventor (s), then a notice of entitlement must be filed setting out the manner in which the right to apply for the patent was transmitted from the inventor (s) to the applicant. |
| 7. Request for Examination | Examination may be requested at the time of filing the application (this is recommended and is lower in cost) or at any time up to the 5th anniversary of the Australian filing date. Examination must be requested within two months of an official Direction to request examination. |
| 8. Translation | A verified translation of the Convention priority specification must be filed only if requested by the examiner. |
Filing Requirements — PCT AU National Phase
Minimum Requirements for Filing Date |
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| 1. PCT Application Number | |
| 2. Applicant (if different) | Full legal name, nationality and address. |
| 3. Translation | Into English (if applicable) |
| 4. Amendment | If the PCT specification was amended under Art. 19 and/or Art. 34, a copy of these amendments must be supplied at the time of filing in Australia. |
Additional Formal Requirements |
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| 5. Entitlement (may be signed by Agent) | Details of the manner in which rights to the invention were transferred from the or each inventor to the applicant in the priority country. If the transfer was by virtue of a contract of employment, this may simply be stated. If the transfer was by virtue of assignment, the date of the assignment is required. If the applicant in the priority country is not the same as the Australian applicant, details of the manner in which rights to the invention were transferred from the priority country applicant to the Australian applicant. |
| 6. Request for Examination | Examination may be requested at the time of filing the application (this is recommended and is lower in cost) or at any time up to the 5th anniversary of the International filing date. Examination must be requested within two months of an official Direction to request examination. |
| 7. Verified Translation | If PCT specification is not in English. |