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Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
Latest news
Latest news is featured on the home page of IP Australia's website:
http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/
Statistics
https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/about-us/economics-ip
Annual Report
Patent Search System
http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/ols/auspat/quickSearch.do
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Increasingly, IP Australia is using its website as a means of providing an alternative means of public access to these services. Patents can be searched by external clients via AusPat.
IP Australia has implemented a system to support business-to-customer (eServices) data exchange of patents, industrial designs and trade marks transactions. This system provides a platform for IPA customers to interact electronically with our office. As such traditional modes of filing and communication, such as fax, have been decommissioned.
IP Australia has recently implemented a system to support business-to-business data exchange of patents, industrial designs and trade marks transactions with its high volume clients (Patents and Trade Mark Attorneys). This system will be consistent with WIPO electronic filing and National e-commerce standards.
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URLs of web pages of the Office's website for electronic filing of patent applications
http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/get-the-right-ip/eservices/
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide information on business procedures such as: filing, publication, examination and grant procedures related to patents; opposition and appeal procedures related to patents; etc.
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General information
https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/patents
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http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/ols/epublish/content/olsAvailablePatentPDFs.jsp
Examiners Manual
http://manuals.ipaustralia.gov.au/patents/Patent_Examiners_Manual.htm
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URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide a description of information products and services offered by the Office (e.g., patent search service(s) and patent databases), as well as information on how to access and utilise them
https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/patents/understanding-patents/patent-basics
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
Patent application dossier is available through eDossier. This is accessible via IP Australia's front facing search system AusPat.
http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/ols/auspat/quickSearch.do
Bibliographic data is captured and held in an oracle database with Java Interface. Updates occur nightly i.e. on a 24 hourly basis.
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Patent applications are classified into the latest edition of the International Patent Classification. As of 1 January 2006, IP Australia implemented the use of IPC 8 (reformed).
IP Australia no longer reclassifies Australian designated PCT applications at the open for public inspection stage.
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Abstracting, reviewing, and translation of the information contained in patent documents
Examiners redraft applicant prepared abstracts of non-PCT national applications when they are found to be deficient to an extent that they are unable to fulfil fulfill their function. The abstracts of PCT national phase applications are not reviewed as these have been thoroughly evaluated in the international phase.
Other activities
No comment is made here.
III. SOURCES OF PATENT INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE
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Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online – URL), etc.
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Official notices and changes to office procedures are published in the AOJP.
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The supplement to the Australian Official Journal of Patents may be found at:
http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/ols/epublish/content/olsAvailablePatentPDFs.jsp
Information on IP Australia’s Bulk Data Products can be found at:
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Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external collections and databases
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IP Australia uses commercial search tools EPOQUE, STN and GenomeQuest to search databases such as EPODOC, WPI, full text patent databases and many non-patent literature databases. Additionally, many free patent and non-patent literature databases available on the internet are also searched.
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Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to external users, conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
Australian patent specifications are made available through Bulk Patent Specification e-data.
The Office continues to receive foreign patent specifications on CD-ROM and DVD. The following databases and information are available through the IP Australia website:
AusPat (free of charge):
This search system contains bibliographic and status information about patent applications filed in Australia from January 1979. In some cases, details of patents filed before January 1979 are also available. AusPat also contains International Patent Classification information for the majority applications from 1920; IPC version 8 has been applied to applications filed from 1970.
Subscription-based mailing lists:
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Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
See "In House Systems" and above.
Other sources
No comment is made here.
IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
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Word Processing and Office Automation
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Current standard desktop software includes Microsoft Windows 7 with Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus.
Infiniti a document generation tool has been deployed to semi-automate report generation using templates
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(New) techniques used for the generation of patent information (printing, recording, photocomposing, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), etc.)
The Office's publication system provides the following functions:
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- PDF file of the Australian Official Journal of Patents. This covers applications/patents up to 2002;
- Patent certificates and original register entries; and
- Notices for patent applicants or their agents.
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Hardware used to support business processes of the Office
In-house systems (online/offline)
IP Australia has on-line filing facilities for patent applications which allow all new patent applications, as well as all other patent related requests, to be filed electronically. These on-line filings interface directly to IP Australia's electronic case file management system, PAMS, which allows these applications to be processed electronically. The AusPat search system provides public access to a range of the bibliographic data and text of full specifications held in PAMS.
External databases
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IP Australia uses commercial search tools EPOQUE, STN and GenomeQuest to search databases such as EPODOC, WPI, full text patent databases and many non-patent literature databases. Additionally, many free patent and non-patent literature databases available on the internet are also searched.
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Administrative management systems (e.g., register, legal status, statistics and administrative support)
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See Section “In-house systems” and “Information products and patent document collections” for this information.
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Equipment used (hardware, including the types of terminal and network used, and software), carriers used
IP Australia’s Head Office has an Ethernet-based LAN providing high speed bandwidth for each user desktop connection. A DMZ-based, ASD approved firewall using IAN ports (Internet IEFT Assigned Numbers) provides the secure means to allow access from internal systems/users to external entities such as the Internet or public/private organisations.
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Existing online thesauri; their structure, presentation and usefulness for computerized searches
No comment is made here.
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
The primary business system is the Unix / Java application PAMS which runs in an environment which includes Sun Solaris, Oracle RDBMS, J2EE, BEA Weblogic, and Objective EDMS. IP Australia is in the process of transitioning its major business applications from the mainframe to our strategic server infrastructure environment.
Full specifications of all non-PCT designated AU-A and AU-B patent specifications are available on the website AusPat.
AusPat is IP Australia's customer facing search system that contains bibliographic and status information about patent applications filed in Australia from January 1979. In some cases, details of patents filed before January 1979 are also available. AusPat also contains International Patent Classification information for the majority applications from 1920; IPC version 8 has been applied to applications filed from 1970.
Updates
Updates to the website information about all non-PCT designated AU-A and AU-B patent specifications occur on a weekly basis.
Updates to the website information about patents bibliographic data occurs nightly.
Storage
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Australian patent specifications are made available through Bulk Patent Specification e-data.
Australian bibliographic data is made available in XML format through the Bulk Data product.
The Office continues to receive foreign patent specifications on CD-ROM and DVD.
Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file
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No comment is made here.
Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
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See "In-house Systems" and "Information products and patent document collections"
Other matters
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No comment is made here.
V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF PATENT INFORMATION
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Collecting, acquisitions, preparation
No comment is made here.
Collection management, preservation
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(No comment is made here – the title above will not appear in the report).
Information services available to the public (including computerized services and search files contained in libraries remote from your Office and patent information posted by your Office on the World Wide Web)
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Publications related to different business procedures and patent information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
IP Australia provides lots of useful links and topics on a wide range of business procedures and patent information external to IP Australia through navigation of our website.
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Office’s initiatives on providing foreign patent information in the local language(s) (e.g., machine translation tools, translation of abstracts)
Use of external software including:
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Recorded versions of informative webinars have also been published. Engineers:
IP Australia has continued to engage with Engineers Australia; Australia’s peak Engineers professional forum. There has been an increased focus on utilising national media channels to disseminate IP educational messages and information.
SMEs:
IP Australia has conducted a number of workshops aimed at helping start-ups and small businesses understand the basics of IP before starting a business. With content focussing on patents and trade marks, as well as general IP management considerations, twenty workshop sessions were hosted around Australia in capital cities and regional centres. Future program enhancements will include refinements to the content to address specific industries such as digital products, or specific business needs such as expansion into international markets including China.
Vocational Education and Training (VET)
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Future managers and leaders look set to be more IP-savvy following IP Australia’s successful bid to have IP included in core units in a new Diploma of Leadership and Management in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector.
Universities
University IP Seminar Series:
The purpose of these seminars is to partner with universities to provide an annual lecture on IP that is entertaining and engaging. As part of IP Australia’s University Research and Commercialisation Plan, a number of initiatives have been identified to increase IP education and awareness within the higher education sector.
One of these initiatives is to deliver a series of TEDx style events with:
• A compelling narrative – a message that people want to share;
• Well-rehearsed engaging presenters who don’t need notes;
• Minimalist, graphically designed slides;
• A live webinar and Q&A Twitter hashtag for the virtual audience; and
• Flexibility to accommodate the needs of the host university.
In 2015, IP Australia partnered with the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) to pilot the TEDx format. This event was a success and provided the impetus for IP Australia to formalise a program of TEDx events as part of the agency’s University Research and Commercialisation Plan. The first of these was held in partnership with the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).
Titled Clever Commercialisation: the value of IP in collaboration, the TEDx event held at UTS aimed to attract researchers, entrepreneurs, business leaders, policy makers and investors to join a conversation about innovation, commercialisation and entrepreneurship. The event was very well received, with a lot of delegate and speaker interaction on IP and collaboration and innovation more broadly.
Videos of each presentation are available on IP Australia YouTube Channel.
Secondary Students
IP Australia has partnered with Questacon and the CSIRO to deliver intellectual property workshops to talented and emerging young entrepreneurs.
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This is the principal forum for consultation, discussion and information exchange on IP matters with the attorney profession and industry.
IP Summit
To commence next year, the IP Summit will be an annual event which draws together attendees from industry, academia, the IP profession and government to discuss and share information on IP issues of strategic importance.
Executive Visits Program (EVP)
The EVP was established to provide engagement opportunities between IP Australia’s Executive and senior representatives from industry associationsand private enterprise IP rights filers. By engaging proactively with these stakeholders, through IP Australia initiated consultations, the agency can demonstrate its commitment to seek out views and opinions on IP matters of strategic importance.
Indigenous Stakeholder Engagement
IP Australia has continued to deliver its indigenous engagement program through the highly successful Dream Shield banner. However, a revised indigenous engagement plan has been developed during 2015/16 that has resulted in closer cooperative ties with peak indigenous business support agencies. In addition, improved penetration of IP educative messaging via the increased use of digital media channels has been endorsed for 2016 and beyond.
State -based Events
State-based events targeted a diverse range of business and industry sectors including SMEs, students, researchers and exporters.
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Additionally, the agency is currently trialling trialing the inclusion of ‘meta-data’ within the individual correspondence files. This initiative was developed from customer feedback (specifically from IP Professionals) as a response to their requests with efforts to completely streamline electronic correspondence concerning their IP Rights.
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Certified copies of Australian patent applications for use as priority documents in foreign applications are provided in paper form. Priority documents on which Australian applications are based are required in paper form. Priority documents can also be provided in electronic form using the WIPO DAS service.
Medium allowed for filing applications
IP Australia has on-line filing facilities for patent applications which allow all new standard patent applications and innovation patent applications to be filed electronically. IP Australia also accepts applications filed in paper form.
Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to patent information
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- WIPO Work Sharing Seminar (Singapore February 2015). IP Australia presented on the use of WIPO CASE and mechanisms in Australia for challenging patent validity;
- WIPO CASE National Workshop to facilitate work sharing – (Indonesia April 2015);
- WIPO CASE National Workshop to facilitate work sharing – (Philippines May 2015);
- Patent Information Users Group (PIUG) – (Chicago May 2015). IP Australia’s Patent Analytics Hub was asked to present on the topic of “The use of patent analytics for informing public policy decisions in Australia”;
- WIPO Regional Workshop on Free and Open Source Tool for Patent Analysis (Philippines November 2015);
- National Workshop on Patent Law (Vanuatu, November 2015). IP Australia presented at this workshop which focused on multilateral Legal Frameworks and Patent Grant Procedures and
- OECD IP Statistics for Decision Makers (Vienna, November 2015), this annual event is the peak conference on the use of data, statistics and economic evidence in IP policy.
Vancouver Group
The Vancouver Group (VG) was established in 2008 and is made up of the IP Offices of Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.
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Other improvements include scalable security, more shareable document types and better notification services.
Patent process mapping among IP offices
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IP Australia is leading the Group B+ work stream towards achieving work sharing, specifically mutual-exploitation, within Group B+ through the use of Information Technology (IT).
Single Economic Market
In 2009, the Prime Ministers of Australia and New Zealand agreed to accelerate efforts towards trans-Tasman regulatory integration as part of the Single Economic Market (SEM) agenda. The SEM IP outcomes include a single trans-Tasman regulatory framework for patent attorneys, and single trans-Tasman patent application and examination processes. These aim to provide increased efficiencies and potential cost savings for inventors and users of the IP system in both countries.
Under the proposed single examination process (SEP), patent applications for the same invention will be examined by a single examiner in either country. The regime will take account of the separate national laws and will lead to separate patents in Australia and NZ. SEP will reduce duplication, leading to savings in time and money for patent applicants.
The single application process (SAP) will make applying for patents more efficient. Under the SAP, applicants will be able to file applications for national standard patents or PCT national phase entry with either IP Australia or with IPONZ, pay a single fee and provide a single address for service, and have these applications take effect in both countries.
Note: On 13 July 2016 a Select Committee of the New Zealand Parliament recommended that the SAP and SEP elements of the New Zealand Bill not be passed. IP Australia is waiting for the New Zealand Parliament to decide whether or not to accept the recommendation.
RPET
RPET is a modern, comprehensive and intensive competency based online training program which is based on IP Australia’s existing training framework, with a focus on search and examination according to the PCT standards. A Virtual Learning Environment provides access to online RPET resources, enables remote and real-time delivery of training (via virtual classrooms) as well as collaboration among participants located in different countries and across different time zones.
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URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that:
Provide information on legislation related to patents
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