Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick is pleased to announce that from January 2025, we will have Helen McFadzean, a lead principal in our Electronics, Physics, and Information Technology team located in Brisbane. “We are very excited to announce our upcoming office opening in Brisbane. The new Brisbane office will add to our existing offices in Melbourne, Adelaide …
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IP Australia has recently proposed several updates of the Australian Registered Designs system. The proposed updates include allowing certification of design registrations for display screens, graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and icons. This will remove a current anomaly with the system, whereby design registrations can be obtained for display screens, GUIs and icons, but these registrations …
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We are pleased to announce that Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick has been recognised as a Diversity Council of Australia (DCA) Inclusive Employer for 2024-2025. This is POF’s second time applying for and receiving inclusive employer recognition after being awarded the status for the first time in 2021 – 2022. To achieve this recognition, POF participated in the …
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In mid-2023, IP Australia sought public comments on proposals to expand the Australian registered designs system to allow for the protection of virtual designs, partial designs and incremental designs. A link to our earlier article discussing these proposed changes is provided here. Thirty-six (36) submissions were received by IP Australia from a range of stakeholders, …
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IP Australia is changing some of their fees to ensure the costs of administering intellectual property rights are adequately covered. The new fees will come into effect at 12am AEDT, 1 October 2024. A list of the fee changes can be viewed here. One of the most significant updates is to how excess claim fees …
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It is well understood that a patentee cannot receive both damages and an account of profits for the same act of infringement of its patent. A choice must be made. However, as happened in the recent decision of Australian Mud Company Pty Ltd v Globaltech Corporation Pty Ltd (No 5) [2024] FCA 58, a patentee …
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Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick is thrilled to announce the elevation of Duncan Joiner to be a Principal of the firm. Duncan has been a member of the Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick Engineering team for many years and is primarily involved in drafting and prosecuting patent applications in Australia and around the world for both local and international clients. …
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What constitutes a ‘scandalous’ trade mark is not set in stone and adapts with society as the decision in Kristopher Preston [2024] ATMO 103 demonstrates. The Trade Marks Act allows an application for a trade mark to be rejected if the trade mark is determined to relate to ‘scandalous matter’[1]. It was under this provision …
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Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick is grateful to have a team of unique, inspiring and talented individuals. For the past 8 years, we have been led by our Managing Principal, Ross McFarlane, however, it is with mixed emotions that we announce Ross McFarlane’s retirement from Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick effective 30 June 2024. Ross began his professional career …
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The Trade Mark class headings in Schedule 1 of the Trade Marks Regulations have been amended by the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Regulator Performance) Regulations 2024 to conform with the 12th edition of the Nice Classification, an international classification system now used by most countries. Most classes have been affected by the amendments, some in …
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