Australia
Patent/IP in Australia
Australia related forum posts
Intellectual Property
For a list of Patent Attorneys, please click on the 'Patent Attorneys in Australia' tab located above.
Intellectual Property, or IP, as it is colloquially called, is characterised as legal protection for commercially precious products of human intellect. There are, generally, three forms of IP: patents, copyrights and trademarks. Although these articles are similar in many ways, they each have individual idiosyncrasies and definitions which make them unique. Perhaps most importantly, there is no physicality to intellectual property. If effectively safeguards an intangible idea or process.
Patents
Generally speaking, patents are granted to inventors for inventions. These can include anything from machinery, tools, processes, chemicals, biotechnology, software, etc.
To qualify for a patent, an inventor must invariably create something that is:
- Of patentable matter
- Unique to patentee
- Merited and can be utilised
- Innovative
- Non-obvious
Under a patent, the patentee reserves the right stop or limit others from utilising and trading the invention. Without explicit permission from the patentee, persons using the patent in any of these ways are infringing, and could be subjected to legal action.
Trademarks
Trademarks are used to denote epithets, logos, symbols, slogans, etc, that are individual to a business and product. Fundamentally, the things that distinguish your product or service from a competitor's. Businesses understandably go to endless lengths to have control over their trademarks. Therefore, any persons found infringing upon them through unlawful use could be subject to legal action.
Famous examples of trademarks are Coca Cola and McDonald's.
Copyright
Copyright gives someone to sell and reproduce a protected product, which is invariably printed work. Things like books, magazines, websites, photographs, music, film and art are common examples of copyrighted work. Copyright denotes five rights of the author, artist, etc: reproduction, distribution, adaptation, performance and display. Use of such materials or works without the explicit permission of the copyright holder is classed as infringement, and persons doing so could be subject to legal action.
Applying for a Patent
You can apply for a patent in Australia either under a Standard Patent or an Innovative Patent. A Standard Patent has life of up to 20 years from the date of application, whereas an Innovative Patent has a longevity of 8 years. Patent terms, other than that of pharmaceutical substances, may not be extended.
You will have to file your product/invention as an Innovative Patent if it is not sufficiently inventive to meet the inventiveness threshold required for a Standard Patent.
Australia subscribes to the both the Paris Convention and the Patent Cooperation Treaty. It is also a member of the 1977 Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Micro-Organisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure.
Applying for a Trademark
Trademarks are overseen by the Trade Marks Act 1995. Applications may be submitted whether or not the mark has been used in respect of both goods and services. The Paris Convention allows a period of grace within which an foreign applicant can apply, yet still retain the priority date of another country. There is no need for the registration of a user license to protect the trademark.
Registration Office
IP Australia
P.O. Box 200
Woden ACT
Canberra
2606
Australia
Telephone: +61 2 6283 2999
Fax: +61 2 6283 2999
