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The Differences between Australian and New Zealand Designs Law
Registered designs are a relatively cost effective and underutilised form of IP protection. Registered designs protect the aesthetic or visual features of a product, in […]
Australian Patent Search
It is quite straightforward to search patents in Australia compared to many other countries as IP Australia offers a sophisticated patent database and patent search system to the general public – called AusPat. AusPat covers Australian patent records right back to 1904.
Australian patent searches can be carried out by patent number, applicant name and inventor name. Generally speaking, if you need to find a patent or patent application on the basis of a name, it is best to have an Australian patent attorney carry it out as there are a few tricks to identifying the right entity and not missing relevant search results.
If you are trying to determine whether your new idea is patentable in Australia, ironically, an Australian patent search is probably not going to give you the correct answer. The reason for this is that for a new idea to be patentable, it must be novel in light of all published documents worldwide, and not just in Australia. For information on worldwide novelty searches, please click here.