IP Australia is an

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...

agency, responsible for administering

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

law in Australia. The agency manages the registration of

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

trade marks A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a product or service from a particular source and distinguishes it from ot ...

, registered designs and plant breeder's rights in Australia. The agency sits under the

Department of Industry, Science and Resources The Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR) is an Government of Australia, Australian government department operating from 1 July 2022. Formerly known as the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (DISER), the Clima ...

. From 1904 until 1998, the responsible government agency was called the Australian Patent Office (APO), which is now a division within IP Australia. The headquarters are located at Discovery House in

Canberra, Australia Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city, and the eighth-largest Australian city b ...

, with offices in some capital cities. IP Australia has been an International Searching Authority (ISA) and International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA) for patent applications filed in accordance with the Patent Co-operation Treaty since 31 March 1980. Australia is also a member of the Madrid system for trade marks, the Paris Convention for designs and the

UPOV The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants or UPOV () is a treaty body (non-United Nations intergovernmental organization) with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Its objective is to provide an effective system for p ...

for plant breeder's rights.

Statutory basis

IP Australia exercises its authority under a number of Commonwealth laws: * ''Patents Act 1990'' * ''Patents Regulations 1991'' * ''Trade Marks Act 1995'' (except Part 13 which the

Australian Border Force The Australian Border Force (ABF) is a federal law enforcement agency, part of the Department of Home Affairs (Australia), Department of Home Affairs, responsible for offshore and onshore border control, border enforcement, investigations, comp ...

administers) * ''Trade Marks Regulations 1995'' * ''Designs Act 2003'' * ''Designs Regulations 2004'' * ''Plant Breeder's Rights Act 1994'' * ''Plant Breeder's Rights Regulations 1994''

Patent examiners

Patent examiner A patent examiner (or, historically, a patent clerk) is an employee, usually a civil service, civil servant with a scientific or engineering background, working at a patent office. Duties Due to a long-standing and incessantly growing backlog of u ...

s are generally scientists and engineers who do not necessarily hold law degrees but have received legal training in patent law. "A

patent examiner A patent examiner (or, historically, a patent clerk) is an employee, usually a civil service, civil servant with a scientific or engineering background, working at a patent office. Duties Due to a long-standing and incessantly growing backlog of u ...

is hired based on their technical expertise, their professional qualifications and possibly their industry experience. They then undergo training within the office, and we use competency based training. An examiner will take somewhere between 12 to possibly 18 months to become what is called an acceptance delegate. That means they are assessed to be competent to assess a patent application and make a decision about it qualifying or satisfying all of the legislative provisions." une 2009 "If you have not attained the Commissioner of Patents Acceptance Delegation within two years of the date on which you commence duties, you may have failed to meet a condition of your engagement, failed to complete your entry-level training courses and you may lack an essential qualification for the performance of your duties. Consequently, it is likely that immediate action will be taken to terminate your employment." ctober 2010 "APO is pursuing a medium-term strategy of continuing to engage patent examiners so that we can reduce that backlog during a time when our work is a little bit quieter, so that when economic activity picks up again we will be well placed. That is adding to our costs for patent examiners, in particular where we have continued to recruit." une 2009 To be an ISA, APO must have "at least 100 full-time employees with sufficient technical qualifications to carry out searches." CT Reg. 36.1 (i)ref name="Regulations under the PCT">

Notable Australian patents

* On 4 August 1868, Thomas Sutcliffe Mort and Eugene Nicolle filed Victorian Patent 1139 for "

Refrigeration Refrigeration is any of various types of cooling of a space, substance, or system to lower and/or maintain its temperature below the ambient one (while the removed heat is ejected to a place of higher temperature).IIR International Dictionary of ...

". * On 25 March 1885 Hugh Victor McKay filed Victorian Patent 4006 for a " Sunshine Stripper Harvester". * On 13 February 1904 the first Federal Australian Patent Application was filed by Andrew Brown McKenzie for "Improvements in air leak preventative for Westinghouse and like brakes.". * On 21 December 1914 George Julius filed Australian Patent 15133/14 for an " Automatic Totalizator". * On 22 November 1926 Hume filed Australian Patent 4843/26 for the "Spun Concrete Pipe". * On 10 September 1947 George Shepherd filed Australian Patent 136548 pplication 15008/47ref name="Furniture Castors"> for Furniture Castors. * On 2 May 1955 Mervyn Victor Richardson filed Australian Patent 212130 pplication 8770/55ref name="Lawn Mower"> for the Victa lawn mower. * On 22 March 1956 Lance Hill filed Australian Patent 215772 pplication 16938/56ref name="Rotary Clothes Hoist"> for a fold-away handle design for the Hills rotary clothes hoist. * On 6 July 1970

Ralph Sarich Ralph Tony Sarich (born 10 December 1938 in Baskerville, Western Australia) is an Australian automotive engineer, inventor, and businessman who developed the orbital engine and the orbital combustion process engine. Sarich founded the Orbita ...

filed Australian Patent 467415 pplication 30650/71ref name="An Improved Rotary Motor"> for "An Improved Rotary Motor", which later became known as the "

Sarich orbital engine The Sarich orbital engine is a type of internal combustion engine, invented in 1972 by Ralph Sarich, an engineer from Perth, Australia, which features orbital rather than reciprocating motion of its central piston. It differs from the conceptual ...

". * On 3 November 1977 The University of Melbourne filed Australian Patent 519851 pplication 41061/78ref name="A Prothesis to Simulate Neural Endings"> for "A Prothesis to Simulate Neural Endings", invented by I. C. Forster. This became known as the " Cochlear Bionic Ear". * On 7 May 1982 Arthur Ernest Bishop filed Australian Patent 552975 pplication 15178/83ref name="Rack and Pinion Steering Gear"> for "

Rack and pinion rack and pinion is a type of linear actuator that comprises a circular gear (the '' pinion'') engaging a linear gear (the ''rack''). Together, they convert between rotational motion and linear motion: rotating the pinion causes the rack to be d ...

Steering Gear". This became known as the "Bishop Steering Gear". * On 6 July 1982 Norport Pty. Ltd filed Australian Patent Application 85668/82 for "Yacht Keel With Fins Near Tip", invented by

Ben Lexcen Benjamin Lexcen Order of Australia, AM (born Robert Clyde Miller, 19 March 1936 – 1 May 1988) was an Australian yachtsman and marine architect. He is famous for the winged keel design applied to ''Australia II'' which, in 1983, became the fir ...

. This became known as the "

Winged keel The winged keel is a sailboat keel layout first fitted on the 12-metre class yacht '' Australia II'', 1983 America's Cup winner. Design This layout was adopted by Ben Lexcen, designer of '' Australia II''. Although Ben Lexcen "had tried the wi ...

" and was used on Alan Bond's

Australia II ''Australia II'' (KA 6) is an Australian 12-metre-class America's Cup challenge racing yacht that was launched in 1982 and won the 1983 America's Cup for the Royal Perth Yacht Club. Skippered by John Bertrand, she was the first successf ...

yacht during its successful challenge to the America's Cup in 1983. * On 13 October 1986 Norman Thomas Jennings filed Australian Patent Application 35064/71 for "Pelletted Poultry Manure Fertilizer" that later became more commonly known as "Dynamic Lifter". * On 19 July 1991, CSL Limited and

The University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone universities, an i ...

filed Australian Patent 651727 pplication 23666/92ref name="Papilloma Virus Vaccine"> for " Papilloma Virus Vaccine", invented by

Ian Frazer Ian Hector Frazer (born 6 January 1953) is a Scottish-born Australian immunologist, the founding Chief Executive Officer, CEO and Executive Director, Director of Research of the Translational Research Institute (Australia). Frazer and Jian Zh ...

and Jian Zhou. This vaccine for cervical cancer is known as " Gardasil" or "

Cervarix Cervarix is a vaccine against certain types of cancer-causing human papillomavirus (HPV). Cervarix is designed to prevent infection from HPV types 16 and 18, that cause about 70% of cervical cancer cases. These types also cause most HPV-induced ...

". * On 27 November 1992, the

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency that is responsible for scientific research and its commercial and industrial applications. CSIRO works with leading organisations arou ...

filed Australian Patent 666411 pplication 51806/93ref name="A Wireless LAN"> for "A

Wireless LAN A wireless LAN (WLAN) is a wireless computer network that links two or more devices using wireless communication to form a local area network (LAN) within a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, campus, or office building ...

", invented by John David O'Sullivan, Graham Ross Daniels, Terence Michael Paul Percival, Diethelm Ironi Ostry and John Fraser Deane. * On 11 August 1995, Myriad Genetics, Inc. filed Australian Patent 686004 pplication 1995033212ref name="In vivo mutations and polymorphisms in the 17q-linked breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility gene"> for "In vivo mutations and polymorphisms in the 17q-linked breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility gene", invented by Donna M Shattuck-Eidens, Jacques Simard, Mitsuru Emi, Francine Durocher and Yusuke Nakamura. The patent claims the human

BRCA1 Breast cancer type 1 susceptibility protein is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''BRCA1'' () gene. Orthologs are common in other vertebrate species, whereas invertebrate genomes may encode a more distantly related gene. ''BRCA1'' is a ...

gene. This patent provided the opportunity to test the legal validity of gene patents in the US. The US court held that composition patents were invalid, essentially because they are products of nature. This patent has yet to be tested in Australia. * On 24 May 2001, John Michael Keogh filed Australian Patent 2001100012 for "Circular Transportation Facilitation Device". This was, in simple fact, the

wheel A wheel is a rotating component (typically circular in shape) that is intended to turn on an axle Bearing (mechanical), bearing. The wheel is one of the key components of the wheel and axle which is one of the Simple machine, six simple machin ...

. IP Australia was awarded an

Ig Nobel Prize The Ig Nobel Prize () is a satirical prize awarded annually since 1991 to promote public engagement with scientific research. Its aim is to "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think." The name of the award is a ...

in 2001 for granting this patent for one of the world's oldest known inventions. The patent was thereafter revoked on 30 August 2001.

Operational issues

Innovation patents

In 2001, the Australian Patent Office within IP Australia introduced a system that immediately granted "innovation patents" for applications which pass a formalities test. Innovation patents are aimed at providing protection for short market life products. To demonstrate the absurdity of the system, an innovation patent application was filed for the

and granted automatically by IP Australia. The applicant, lawyer John Keogh, was awarded an

(a satirical award within the fields of

STEM Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, part of a word respon ...

for things that are unusual, imaginative or goofy) for his patent of the wheel.

References and notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ip Australia

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

1998 establishments in Australia Government of Australia