In Australia, inventors seeking patent protection must ensure their inventions are novel and have not been previously disclosed or commercially exploited. However, the concept of secret use can complicate this path to patentability. Under the Patents Act 1990 (Cth), secret use of an invention before filing a patent application may invalidate the...

Reflections from the IPTA Annual Conference 2025 in Brisbane I had the pleasure of attending the Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia (IPTA) Annual Conference 2025, held from 2nd to 4th April at the vibrant W Brisbane hotel. The conference brought together IP professionals from across the country to discuss the latest...

As you may have read in one of my earlier blog posts, phasing out of the Australian Innovation Patent has been on the cards for a very long time. On 26 February 2020, this became reality. The Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill 2019 received Royal Assent. This means that the Bill became law. As such, we are now in an 18-month period to phase out the Australian Innovation Patent. What...

Patent Protection A patent is a temporary monopoly of a maximum of 20 years. The monopoly is granted by the government of a country to the owner of the patent. In return, the owner of the patent has the duty to disclose the invention to the public in a way that a person who is skilled in the technical field can make the invention. This...

Summary A judge at the Federal Court of Australia has held that a digital advertising scheme is patentable. You will find the decision here:Rokt Pte Ltd v Commissioner of Patents  FCA 1988 Background Australian start-up Rokt Pte Ltd filed a patent application for an invention relating to a digital advertising scheme. In particular, the invention is a mechanism by which a user is...

Introduction At the World IP Summit in Amsterdam in October 2018 one of the buzz terms was “open innovation”. The concept is not new. But it seems that more and more global players, such as Facebook, Philips, Lego and Huawei, are effectively using the approach for their benefits. For example, Huawei has established a network of open...

What is a Patent Attorney? Let’s all be clear, the term “attorney” is confusing. It’s the American term for a lawyer. However, an Australian patent attorney is actually not a lawyer.*   What we have in common with lawyers We provide legal services and we have a law degree. Yet, we are not admitted to represent our clients in court or...