IP Australia Fee Review 2011: Consultation Paper
9 Dec 2011
IP Australia Fee Review 2011 Consultation Paper is now available for public consultation
On 29 September 2011, an official notice was published informing customers of IP Australia's Fee Review.
The key principles of the 2011 Fee Review are:
- Providing an innovation incentive under the IP Rights legislation by keeping fees as low as possible and the fee structure as simple as possible.
- Maintaining consistency with the international system for registering IP Rights and keeping IP Australia’s fees comparable with those of other international offices.
- Creating incentives for customers to utilise lower cost electronic and web-based transaction channels.
- Ensuring a sustainable financial position for IP Australia's operations while also removing cross subsidisation between IP rights expense activity groups.
- Providing for capital investments and depreciation to improve service quality through process improvements and technology enablers.
We have now completed the first stage of the Fee Review process. The key features include:
- A schedule of fees which is intended to be in place for the next four years.
- Anticipated starting date of 1 July 2012 for proposed fee changes to all current services with the exception of new application filing fees. We are proposing 1 October 2012 as the starting date for new application filing fees so as to provide customers with the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the new electronic filing facilities being delivered in mid 2012 and thereby benefit from the lower fees associated with electronic transactions.
- In June 2011 the Government introduced into Parliament the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Raising the Bar) Bill 2011 which will result in the introduction of a new preliminary search and opinion service. Should the legislation be passed, this service and its associated fee will come into effect twelve months after it becomes law. This may occur sometimes after March 2013.
- Designed to encourage electronic transactions which provide for greater efficiency and assure transaction quality.
- Proposed fees remain internationally competitive with other IP offices.
Further information can be found in the consultation paper PDF [337 KB] or consultation paper RTF [1869 KB]
We are currently seeking customer feedback on the proposed fee changes by Monday 16 January 2012.
Customer feedback and comments can be emailed to FeeReview@ipaustralia.gov.au or by mail to:
Fee Review
IP Australia
PO Box 200
Woden ACT 2606
Last Updated: 06/12/2012
