Both the Australian and New Zealand governments have announced that they will join with a number of other countries (including the USA, Japan, Switzerland, Canada, Korea, Mexico and the EC) to develop an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) as part of an international effort to curb the trade in counterfeit goods and pirated works. It is …
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Attached as a schedule to the judgment of Heerey J in Black & Decker Inc v GMCA Pty Ltd (No 3) [2008] FCA 932 handed down yesterday was an outline of the Federal Court’s new procedure for the management of patent cases to be implemented on a trial basis. The procedure is directed to narrowing …
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In Futuretronics.com.au Pty Limited v Graphix Labels Pty Ltd (No 2) [2008] FCA 746, the Court awarded only nominal damages of $10 pursuant to s115(2) of the Copyright Act 1968, having regard to the failure of the Applicant to show any economic loss flowing from the Respondent’s infringement of copyright. However, after noting that the …
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The most significant aspect of the recent Full Federal Court decision in Ranbaxy Australia Pty Ltd v Warner-Lambert Company LLC [2008] FCAFC 82 is the discussion of false suggestion and in particular, representations made in both the specification itself and during prosecution. In this case, the patentee was found to have made representations that the …
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On Friday 23 May 2008, the High Court rejected an application for leave to appeal the decision of the Full Federal Court in Colorado Group Limited v Strandbags Group Pty Limited [2007] FCAFC 184. While leave was not granted, the Court suggested that there may be some uncertainty about the correctness of the Full Court’s …
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On Friday 16 May 2008, the High Court rejected DuPont’s application for special leave seeking to appeal a finding of the Full Federal Court that ICI was not estopped from defending patent opposition proceedings brought by DuPont. The opposed patent was a divisional application, the parent of which had previously been held invalid by Branson …
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Dr Francis Gurry has been nominated by WIPO’s Coordination Committee to be the WIPO’s next Director General. Dr Gurry is an Australian national, who studied law and commenced practice here before joining WIPO in 1985. The General Assembly needs to formally appoint him at its next meeting in September. The WIPO announcement is here.
From 1 June 2008, IPONZ will be streamlining the patent applications acceptance process. The current acceptance process includes an examiner issuing an examination report indicating that the application is in order for acceptance and then a Notice of Acceptance is issued by IPONZ some time thereafter. In the new process, the examiner will issue the …
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The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) Rules have been amended to allow Member States acting as a Receiving Office or as a Designated Office to provide restoration of a priority claim up to two months beyond the 12 month Paris Convention deadline for international patent applications filed on or after 1 April 2007. Under the amended …
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IPONZ has reviewed its practice with regard to raising objections under s17(1) of the Patents Act 1953. Following this review, IPONZ will continue to raise objections under s17(1) where it appears that the use of the invention would be contrary to morality for New Zealand society as a whole or for a significant section of …
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