From 25 January 2016 IP Australia has commenced a trial of a pre-examination notification process. Under this process, which will initially be applied to 900 pending patent applications, a ‘Pre-Examination Processing Notice’ is sent out approximately two months before the application is referred to an examiner. This provides the applicant with an opportunity to make any last-minute amendments to the application prior to the commencement of examination.I think that this is a positive initiative by IP Australia that coud be of great benefit to (some) applicants and examiners alike. The Australian system of examination differs from many others – such as the US, Europe, Japan and China – where a new response deadline (of typically between three and six months) is set each time an examination report is issued. In Australia, an acceptance deadline is set, providing a single fixed period within which all objections to the grant of a…
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