IP Insights
Our attorneys regularly provide their thought leadership and advice around some of biggest questions surrounding IP. We've compiled a selection of topical articles specifically for IPBC Australasia 2022 attendees.
Speculation – a lurking danger in academic publication
Inventors are often under the misconception that their own words or actions cannot affect their ability to obtain patent protection for an invention.
Here, we discuss how an earlier statement made by an inventor may render an invention obvious and thus not patentable.
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Critical importance of common general knowledge in Australian patent law
We explain the significance of common general knowledge (CGK) in the patentability of inventions in Australia and the evidentiary processes that are adopted as a result.
What is GSK? CGK is the technical background knowledge and experience which is available to the hypothetical skilled worker in a particular...
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The European Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court
After many years in the making, a significant new system of patent rights and litigation is expected to come into effect in April 2023, and particularly by virtue of the new Unitary Patent (UP) and Unified Patent Court (UPC).
What is the Unitary Patent? The Unitary Patent will be granted by the European Patent Office (EPO) as a single...
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Cracking the code – How to claim software R&D through the RDTI program
The Research and Development Tax Incentive (RDTI) has been in place since mid 2011. As software development was hardly in its infancy at that stage, you would be forgiven for thinking that the program would adequately deal with the unique nature of this work. Sadly, this was not the case, and software activities became infamously troublesome to claim.
While there are many issues associated with claiming software based activities under the RDTI, the biggest one surely lies in AusIndustry’s definition of a core activity...
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New and improved Australian registered designs vs commonly used foreign regimes
On 10 March 2022, the Designs Amendment (Advisory Council on Intellectual Property Response) Act 2021 came into force in Australia, enacting some welcome changes to the industrial design registration system.
Here we look at how the new Australian model compares to some of the foreign regimes commonly used by Australian rights owners.
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Search me?! The differences between patentability and infringement patent searching
Patentability search, freedom-to-operate (FTO) search, novelty search, infringement search, clearance search, prior art search...what’s in a name?
We discuss the differences between patentability and infringement searching and some commonly held misconceptions.
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Trade mark protection is a driver for growth for SMEs
In January 2022, IP Australia published its Intellectual Property Rights and Enterprise Growth Report. It sets out the results of a study of small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and the role of IP rights.
We summarise the key points from the report which reveal that SMEs were more likely to experience high growth in employment and turnover after filing for IP rights.
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