IP Australia Gets Tougher on Patent Applicants

IP Australia has published an Official Notice announcing changes to patent examination practice.  The changes are intended to improve quality and certainty in the validity of granted patents, and are part of IP Australia's ongoing patent reform agenda, which has been progressing through a series of reports and public consultations over the past 18 months.

Many of the proposed reforms will require changes to legislation and/or regulations, however some can be implemented within the existing framework by changes in Patent Office practice.  This announcement therefore signals the commencement of an expected series of reforms.

The initial changes are intended firstly to "raise the bar" in relation to examination for inventive step, and secondly to limit the impact of certain practices relating to the filing of divisional applications, which IP Australia considers to be undesirable.

Changes to the way in which inventive step is assessed have the potential to affect all applicants, while the impact of the current changes in divisional practice will mainly impact on applicants attempting to use divisional filings in order to extend application pendency.

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Tags: Australia, Examination, News, Patent Office

Free Software Activist in Conference Demonstration – of Ignorance

As we reported recently, Richard Stallman – originator of the GNU project, and founder of the Free Software Foundation – is currently in Australia on a speaking tour.

iTNews has reported that Stallman yesterday made an "unexpected appearance" at a presentation by the European Patent Office at the World Computer Congress in Brisbane, toting a placard reading "Don't get caught in software patent thickets".  This no doubt left European Patent Officer Ralf Abbing, whose presentation on "big issues in IP in relation to computing technology" was briefly interrupted, quaking in fear at the prospect of being entangled in dense woodland!

We have, as yet, heard no reports of retaliation by EPO activists at Stallman's presentation later in the day.  We have therefore launched our own minor protest, in the form of the above photograph (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, for those concerned about copyright issues).

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Tags: Australia, Computer programs, News

Yo Ho-Hum – Pirates Sink in Swedish Elections

Back in June of 2009, the Swedish political party Piratpartiet (Pirate Party) gained 7% of the Swedish vote in the European elections, and a seat in the European Parliament, on a platform of fundamental reform of copyright law, abolition of the patent system, and ensuring that citizens' rights to privacy are respected.

Barely 15 months later, in the current Swedish elections, Piratpartiet has seemingly been scuttled, gaining under 1% of the vote, and performing no better than in the 2006 Swedish elections.  This assumes, of course, that we are reading the result tables correctly, given our nonexistent knowledge of the Swedish language beyond "hej", "tack", "smorgasbord", "ABBA", "IKEA" and "bork, bork, bork" (which we secretly suspect may not be actual Swedish).

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Tags: Europe, News

IP Australia to "Sponsor" TV Invention Program Final

IP Australia, the government authority comprising the Patent, Trade Marks and Designs Offices, has today announced that it "is proud to sponsor the Grand Final of the ABC’s New Inventors, 8.30pm Thursday 23 September on ABC1."

New Inventors describes itself thus:

The New Inventors' is all about inventions and inventors.  Each week three totally new, never before seen inventions are demonstrated, examined, prodded, pushed, pulled and occasionally dropped by host James O'Loghlin. Their inventors are then subjected to a barrage of questions by the three member judging panel. At the end of the show the judges choose a winner, who may advance to the show's grand final at the end of the year.

The connection between IP Australia and New Inventors is a natural one, although for patent attorneys it can be either depressing or cringeworthy to watch hopeful inventors parade their unprotected inventions on national television each week!

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Tags: News

Striking or Material Difference in Claim Scope Leaves NZ Applicant Sheepish

Merial Limited [2010] NZIPOPAT 18 (23 August 2010)

Amendment – whether proposed amendment is by way of disclaimer, correction or explanation – whether proposed claims cover subject matter not in substance disclosed in the unamended specification – whether proposed claims are wholly within the scope of the unamended claims

Our New Zealand friends are understandably unimpressed by jokes and innuendo relating to their large sheep population, although they do tend to give as good as they get!  However, it is difficult to resist some passing comment in this case, which involves a request to amend a patent specification that has been under opposition (by up to four parties) for 15 years, after being initially advertised as accepted on 28 March 1995.  Furthermore, the application was filed as a divisional of a patent that was subject to litigation which was ultimately appealed all the way to the Privy Council in London.

And what could be the subject matter of patents of such vital importance that they would justify this level of persistence and expense?

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Tags: Amendments, New Zealand