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 …
>> Read more
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 …
>> Read more
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 …
>> Read more
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 …
>> Read more
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 …
>> Read more
A new search system for Australian patents, called AusPat, is now in production as the Australian Patent Office’s official source of online data. The prior Patsearch and PATADMIN search systems should no longer be required. Click here for AUSPAT.
The Age newspaper has reported an IP expert as saying Australian innovators are failing to capitalise fully on their research by not having a proper intellectual property strategy. Click here to read the article online.
The case of Les Laboratoires Servier v Apotex Pty Ltd [2008] APO 11 (11 April 2008) provides a useful summary of the principles applied by the Commissioner of Patents in determining a request for dismissal of a patent opposition. Following is an excerpt from the Abstract of the decision: Some general principles that flow through …
>> Read more
Where a patentee offers to surrender their patent under section 43, then the patentee should file a patent form 46 (regulation 107) ensuring that reasons are provided for the offer of surrender. The offer of surrender will be acknowledged by IPONZ in a letter to the patentee. The offer will be advertised (regulation 107) in …
>> Read more
