
UPC v EPO – European Patents
The Unified Patent Court (UPC) will soon offer a more streamlined and cost-effective approach to obtaining patent protection in some countries of the European Union.
Compared with many other countries, a patent search in Australia is relatively straightforward because 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, inventor name and many other more sophisticated methodologies. 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 out your Australian patent search because a few strategies need to be applied to identify the right entity and not miss 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.
The Unified Patent Court (UPC) will soon offer a more streamlined and cost-effective approach to obtaining patent protection in some countries of the European Union.
The Commissioner of Patents at the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand has affirmed the law around patentable subject matter and computer programs “as such” in New Zealand in a recently released decision (3M Innovative Properties Company [2022] NZIPOPAT 5).
Are you developing a health care app? Perhaps it’s the right time to consider protecting the IP in your app.
Australia is in a strong position to continue to exploit developments in intellectual property in Quantum Mechanics. In this Article, Baxter IP Director, Martin Earley, provides an overview of innovation and future applications in this space.