Many Australian taxpayers – this one included – may be surprised to learn that we are collectively donating A$18 million for ‘trade facilitation to support the Least Developed Countries’ (LDC’s) in their endeavours to reduce or eliminate tariffs and ‘non-tariff barriers’ in order to benefit through global free trade.You might have thought that our government would be loudly promoting this magnanimous gesture, but in fact we might not have found out about it if the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) had not issued a
And we might not even have noticed the WIPO media release if it had not been kindly pointed out on the always-on-the-ball IPKat blog earlier this week.
The IPKat, and the WIPO release, both inform us that this is part of ‘a A$16 million contribution announced at the 8th World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference’.
So, armed with this clue we went in search of further information about our significant financial contribution to global free trade and IP capacity-building…
Starting on Boxing Day – when many of us will be relaxing at home, and recovering from Christmas festivities, one of our colleagues at 
The opening gambit in the Australian arm of the global dispute between Apple and Samsung finally drew to a close earlier this month, neatly typing up a few loose ends in what must surely be the biggest Australian patent story in recent memory. The stage is now set for the main event – full trials on infringement and validity of various Apple and Samsung patents – during the course of next year.
In an otherwise unremarkable decision, directing the correction of a trivial error in the claims of a patent owned by Garford Pty Ltd, Justice Yates in the Federal Court of Australia has noted, in passing, a possible oversight in the drafting of the Australian 
The Australian Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, has announced changes to the governments Commercialisation Australia program which will make the grants more affordable and accessible to Australian businesses developing new products, processes or services.
The Canadian Federal Court of Appeal has issued its decision in the dispute between Amazon.com and the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) over whether Amazon’s ‘1-click’ ordering system comprises patent-eligible subject matter in Canada. And, contrary to the position argued by the Commissioner of Patents, the court has held that CIPO should be ‘open to the possibility that a novel business method may be an essential element of a valid patent claim’, i.e. that there is no blanket prohibition of the patenting of ‘business methods’ under the Canadian patent law.
On 23 November 2011, the Australian Government finally 
In a tale of two pending patent applications filed by the sole named inventor Dr Robert Alexander, one has been found rightfully to belong to his employer, The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH), while he will be allowed to keep the other for himself, according to a Hearing Officer (Delegate Karen Ayres) in the Australian Patent Office.
On Wednesday this week we attended IP Australia’s ‘IP Forum’ event in Melbourne, Fighting the War on Patents.
Generic pharmaceutical manufacturers Sigma Pharmaceuticals (Australia) Pty Ltd, Alphapharm Pty Ltd and Generic Health Pty Ltd will be free to sell in Australia their own versions of an "extended release" formulation of antidepressant drug venlafaxine hydrochloride (marketed by Wyeth as EFFEXOR-XR), after a Full Bench of the Federal Court of Australia upheld their appeal against a decision issued a year ago by 
We have written previously on this blog about ‘patent analytics’, patent ‘landscapes’ and ‘theme maps’ (see 
Updated: We originally reported that the appeal would be heard by Chief Justice Keane, along with Justices Dowsett and Yates. The 
In the New South Wales registry of the Federal Court of Australia this morning, Justice Foster heard lawyers for Samsung present their initial submissions in their attempt to secure a hearing before a Full Bench of the Federal Court of Australia appealing against the injunction granted by 
News Limited’s national daily paper, The Australian, is reporting this morning that Apple has written to Queensland-based e-commerce provider eTail Solutions – which is associated with online retailer 
In this recent Patent Office decision, Delegate Dr S.D. Barker was required to consider a delay by the opponent, Twister B.V., in serving a Statement of Grounds and Particulars of opposition upon applicant TransLang Technology Ltd, which arose due to slow delivery by Australia Post. Specifically, the Statement was mailed by the opponent’s attorneys from the Sydney CBD on Wednesday, 6 April 2011, in order to meet a deadline for service upon the applicant – whose attorneys were also located in the Sydney CBD, about three blocks away – of Thursday, 7 April 2011.
The drug 
As we reported briefly yesterday, Apple has been successful in obtaining a preliminary injunction barring Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 from the Australian market. The full written decision of Justice Annabelle Bennett has now been published (link above), enabling us to look at the court’s reasoning in greater detail.
