In an announcement published on 31 October 2013, IP Australia has indicated that within a few months it will no longer be accepting communications via email, fax, or via hard copy to the current Australia Post Lodgement Points. Nor will it be accepting over-the-phone payments.Specifically, the ‘assist’ email (i.e. ‘assist@ipaustralia.gov.au’) and phone payment service will cease in around February 2014, while fax and Australia Post Lodgement Points will no longer be available after a date in around June 2014.
IP Australia considers that these services and communications channels will no longer be required once the eServices platform is fully operational – which is currently scheduled to be by the end of this year. Additionally, IP Australia is promising that it is ‘implementing a number of supporting infrastructure changes which will support continued access to the eServices platform even during planned maintenance and unscheduled outages.’
Personally, I think this is all very positive. I sometimes wonder who, exactly, is still using fax transmission (other than the Japanese, who seem strangely wedded to it). On the odd occasion I do receive a fax (as I did from a firm in the US the other day) I cannot help thinking that it probably came from a multi-function machine which could just as easily have scanned the document directly to a PDF email attachment – assuming it was not already available to the sender in electronic form.
The only benefit of fax over email is that you get a confirmation of transmission, although my experience is that this is not the same thing as a guarantee of actual delivery! Standard internet email, of course, is a ‘best effort’ service which offers no guarantee of delivery, and is therefore not at all suitable for transmission of documents which absolutely must be received in order to meet a statutory deadline.
As for the Australia Post Lodgement Points, these were established in 2009-2010, when IP Australia closed its capital city sub-offices. The ability to lodge documents in person, and receive a stamped receipt confirming the official filing date, may give some people a sense of added security. However, it is an option which is only available to those within easy travelling distance of a lodgement point, and is of absolutely no assistance outside of business hours.
The eServices portal is in improvement on all of the existing lodgement mechanisms. You are connected directly to IP Australia’s servers, and are able to upload documents in real time over a secure (SSL/TLS) connection. You get an immediate confirmation of receipt as an assurance of the filing date. The service is available 24/7. Of course there is potential for technical problems (e.g. a major internet outage), but no delivery method can offer a 100% guarantee – even couriers are sometimes involved in traffic accidents!
Back in September 2010, I wondered whether
… once IP Australia has facilities enabling all transactions to be completed electronically, it will be possible to do away with state-based services altogether, along with all associated ‘official closures’? Even with the provision of a state lodgement facility in Darwin, the current system discriminates against clients located outside of the state and territory capital cities. In a country the size of Australia, this is hardly acceptable in this day and age …
That is one prediction I will be pleased to see fulfilled.
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:
- a detailed description of the study, its goals and benefits; and
- instructions for the use of the online claim comparison application.
Thank you for considering this request!
Mark Summerfield
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