01 April 2012

A Sneak Peek at IP Australia’s New Online Services Portal

Portal Bookends from ThinkGeek.comWhen IP Australia released its Consultation Paper setting out details of proposed fee changes, it simultaneously revealed plans to expand online services, with some fees to be reduced when transactions are conducted online rather than via traditional payment channels (see IP Australia Proposes – Mostly – Modest Fee Increases).

Filing Services Coming Mid-Year

Many thanks to Paul Dobson at IP Australia for letting us know about an update to the video, and providing a replacement link.

Paul also informed us that the eServices Portal will be supporting trade mark registration payments this month (not filings, as originally reported), and that filing for all IP rights is expected to be supported by mid-2012.
It now seems that a new IP Australia ‘eServices Portal’ may be launched before the end of April, with the first services to be made accessible via the portal being IP rights (patents, trade marks, designs and plant breeder’s rights) renewals, and trade mark registration payments.  Although it is already possible to file patent and trade mark applications online, this is currently done through separate interfaces.  The longer-term plan appears to be to bring all online services within the single eServices Portal.

Once the portal launches, it will be possible for individuals and organisations to register for access to online services.  Registration will provide users with a username and password to access an account which will retain many commonly-required details, such as name, address and other contact information.  The account will also hold a history of past transactions, available for review.

A FIRST LOOK AT ONLINE RENEWAL PAYMENTS

Over the past few days, IP Australia has started to upload instructional videos to its YouTube channel.  If you can stand being instructed, in excruciating detail, how to enter a username and password into a web form, and click on a ‘submit’ button, you can have a look at how renewal payments will work through the eServices Portal.  Overall, it appears that the service will be quite simple and efficient to use, allowing multiple rights to be renewed, across all of the types of rights administered by IP Australia, in a single transaction.

The renewals demonstration video is below:

PRE-REGISTER NOW!

IP Australia is currently accepting requests for pre-registration with eServices.  As explained on the eServices page of their web site:

If you would like to register your organisation for eServices please send an email to preregistration@ipaustralia.gov.au with the following information:
  1. The contact details for your nominated administrator(s) and any registered users including:
    1. Individual full name
    2. Email address (preferably an individual address)
    3. Contact phone number; and
    4. If you would like them to be an administrator or a general user of eServices
Organisations that have applied for pre-registration will be sent an email with user and access detail to their nominated email address on the day that eServices is released.

Before You Go…

Thank you for reading this article to the end – I hope you enjoyed it, and found it useful.  Almost every article I post here takes a few hours of my time to research and write, and I have never felt the need to ask for anything in return.

But now – for the first, and perhaps only, time – I am asking for a favour.  If you are a patent attorney, examiner, or other professional who is experienced in reading and interpreting patent claims, I could really use your help with my PhD research.  My project involves applying artificial intelligence to analyse patent claim scope systematically, with the goal of better understanding how different legal and regulatory choices influence the boundaries of patent protection.  But I need data to train my models, and that is where you can potentially assist me.  If every qualified person who reads this request could spare just a couple of hours over the next few weeks, I could gather all the data I need.

The task itself is straightforward and web-based – I am asking participants to compare pairs of patent claims and evaluate their relative scope, using an online application that I have designed and implemented over the past few months.  No special knowledge is required beyond the ability to read and understand patent claims in technical fields with which you are familiar.  You might even find it to be fun!

There is more information on the project website, at claimscopeproject.net.  In particular, you can read:

  1. a detailed description of the study, its goals and benefits; and
  2. instructions for the use of the online claim comparison application.

Thank you for considering this request!

Mark Summerfield

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