IP Australia: Trial aims to Speed Up Patent Examination

At the beginning of 2016, Intellectual Property Office of Australia (IP Australia) has begun trialing a new pre-examination process (PEP), which can lead to earlier finalization of patent applications. Currently, before examination takes place, the patent administration team of IP Australia will conduct searches and produce foreign examination reports first, which help examiners to compare inventions to others to determine whether the patent applications meet patent requirements. Through the trial, patent applicants will be contacted two months before their applications are to be reviewed. They will be provided with the results of the foreign examination reports and given the opportunity to make any final amendments to their applications before official examination begins. This allows applicants to better address issues discovered through the foreign examination reports, thereby making their applications stronger and undergo fewer examination rounds. Consequently, their patent applications can then be finalized earlier. The trial is being run with over 1000 selected applications. Outcomes of the trial will be evaluated at the end of the financial year.

 

Source of Information

https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/about-us/news-and-community/news/trial-aims-speed-patent-examination

 

Keywords: IP Australia; Patent Examination; Speed Up; Trial