Australia Removes Disclosure Requirements for Patent Applications
BAZPAT: I am pleased to report that we have seen the light…
On 17 October 2007, the Governor General made Regulations commencing on 22
October 2007, terminating the disclosure requirements in Australia.
The relevant Regulation will read as follows:
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“If:
(a) under subsection 45 (3) of the Act, an applicant was required
to inform the Commissioner of the result of a documentary search by or
on behalf of a foreign patent office in relation to a patent request;
and
(b) the applicant did not inform the Commissioner of the result
before 22 October 2007; and
(c) the latest of the following dates had not occurred before 22
October 2007:
(i) the day 6 months after the documentary search is completed
within the meaning of regulation 1.3A;
(ii) the day 6 months after the applicant asked for the examination
in accordance with section 44 of the Act;
(iii) if the patent request and complete specification relating to
the application were accepted (whether before or after 22 October
2007) ― the day 3 months after the notice of acceptance was published
in the Official Journal under paragraph 49 (5) (b) of the Act;
the documentary search is prescribed (so that information need not be
given to the Commissioner).
(3) If:
(a) an applicant asked, in accordance with section 44 of the Act,
for an examination of the patent request and complete specification
relating to the application for a standard patent; and
(b) the applicant asked for the examination on or after 22 October 2007;
all documentary searches by, or on behalf of, a foreign patent office
are prescribed (so that information need not be given to the
Commissioner).”
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My take of this is that if you have not yet filed search results and
are under an obligation to do so, ie, they have become available to
you, you just need to go through (c) (i) to (iii) to see if the
latest date is not after October 22.
So, if you have search results that you received…