Further to our blogs of 27 January 2011 and 4 March 2011, we can now report that The Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Raising the Bar) Bill 2011 passed the Australian Senate on 27 February 2012. The Bill was passed without any changes being proposed. The Bill now awaits a final passage through the House of Representatives before it can be passed as an Act. It is expected that this may occur within the next three or four months.
As a consequence, it would appear that the number of issues we highlighted in our 27 January 2011 blog are about to happen. Patent applicants will face a tougher standard to obtain valid patent rights in Australia, more closely aligned with the standards in other major jurisdictions. Furthermore, a number of procedural issues are being tightened up to remove potential options for patent applicants to exploit procedural delays when prosecuting a application.
We will provide more detailed review of the pending changes in future blogs once the final wording of the Act becomes public.
by Simon Ellis
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