Applications

A first application will often be filed as a Provisional Patent Application, which will provide twelve months priority protection in most countries of the world if filed in Australia. This “protection” is only in connection with the priority date and a Provisional, as such, does not provide the right to stop others from exploiting your invention. Patent rights are only valid when a patent has passed the statutory requirements under the Patents Act.

The importance of obtaining a “priority date” is that this  establishes the “date of any Patent that is subsequently filed based upon this priority date”.

This means that after the priority date has been established, you can both commercially exploit and publicly expose the Innovation or Invention.

The tests applied to Innovation Patent applications as compared to a Standard Patent applications and you should seek advice before relying upon these brief notes.

The Australian courts are currently insisting on a very high level of conformance with respect to the requirements under the Patent Act for a valid patent and adherence to the detail of the law is very important indeed if any patent application is to result in a substantially valid patent grant.