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About this site
Electronic Business Rules
Electronic Business Rules
In keeping with the Electronic Transaction Act 1999, IP Australia provides businesses and the community
the option of using electronic communications when engaging with us.
Making Payments to IP Australia
Electronic Correspondence
Online correspondence (web)
Your
feedback is important to IP Australia.
To
provide feedback, suggestions
or complaints or if you need assistance
or more information please contact
us.
For information regarding the security of our online services see our Online Security Statement.
Note: IP Australia does not accept file attachments which make use of Digital Rights Management (DRM) file
policy settings.
Making payments to IP Australia
The
following methods of
payment are available:
- Credit
Card (Visa & MasterCard
via our Online Services, Phone,
Fax or Post)
- Direct Debit - Account customers (sales documents only)
- Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)
- Cheques
- Money
Orders
Customers who pay by EFT must be pre approved by IP Australia and should use our EFT
form to do so. If you choose to pay by EFT, it is your responsibility
to make sure your payment includes a reference to the service for which you are paying. This reference
could be either; your IP right application number, the name of your invention, the name of your plant
variety, your IP Australia customer number or any brief description that can help us match your funds
with the service you are paying for.
A Payment Options Form should be included when faxing or posting
credit card payments, cheques or money orders.
You can be assured that appropriate security and handling mechanisms are in place to protect your
credit card details.
Electronic Correspondence
Fax
When
you fax a request to IP Australia,
please ensure that you fax your
request once
only.
Faxes
do
not need to be accompanied by
a paper copy or “Confirmation
Copy”. Doing
so may result in a duplicate payment
being processed. If you need to
split your transmittion as a result
of page restriction limits, ensure
you identify the second batch
of documents as following on from
part 1.
Receipt
of a fax is taken to be the date
and time the entire fax enters
the IP Australia information system
at the Central Office in Canberra,
ACT, Australia. The date and time
of receipt is based on Australian
Eastern Standard/Daylight Savings
Time
(AEST/AEDT) when the final page
of the fax is received.
Email
All email correspondence should be directed to assist@ipaustralia.gov.au.
Please be mindful when contacting IP Australia that email is an unsecure method of communication.
If you are not concerned with who may read the details in your email, then email may be the quickest
and most convenient way to communicate with IP Australia.
Receipt of an email is taken to be the date and time the entire email first enters IP Australia’s information system at the Central Office in Canberra, ACT. It is not the time or the date the email is sent, or the local time or date in the sender’s location. The date and time of receipt is based on Australian Eastern Standard/Daylight Time (AEST/AEDT).
Online correspondence (web)
Trade Marks
This
table lists the ways that requests
to IP Australia can be made for
Trade Marks.
| Trade Marks |
Fax |
Email |
Online/Web |
| Head Start Request / Add classes / Part 2 Fee / New Representation Fee |
no |
no |
yes |
| Apply for Trade Mark |
yes |
no |
yes |
| Reply to examiner’s report |
yes |
yes |
no |
| Opposition correspondence |
yes |
no |
no |
| Request Amendment |
yes |
yes |
no |
| Registration Payment |
yes |
no |
yes |
| Renewal payment |
yes |
no |
yes |
| Request Assignment / Cancellation / Withdrawal |
yes |
yes |
no |
- Accepted image file types are TIFF (.tif), BMP (.bmp), PNG (.png), JPEG (.jpeg) and GIF (.gif).
Note that animated GIF files are not accepted.
- Please ensure there are no spaces in the file name.
- Recommended minimum image size is 227 x 227 pixels to ensure the features of the trade mark can
be clearly identified.
- If you are submitting a series of marks, these should be zipped in a single file. If it is
important that the files are presented in a specific order, the file names should begin with a number
indicating the sequence.
- File attachments should be limited to a maximum of 10Mb (or less for slow connections) to allow
for upload and conversion of the image.
- Sound and moving image file formats are not currently supported. For more information
about these applications, please contact our Customer Support staff.
Patents
This
table lists the ways that requests
to IP Australia can be made for
Patents.
| Patents |
Fax |
Email |
Online/Web |
| Innovation Patent application |
yes |
no |
yes |
| Provisional Patent application |
yes |
no |
yes |
| Standard Patent application |
yes |
no |
yes |
| Standard Patent application via PCT |
yes |
no |
yes |
| Reply to examiner’s report |
yes |
no |
yes |
| Opposition correspondence |
yes |
no |
no |
| Renewal payment |
yes |
no |
no |
| Request Examination |
yes |
no |
yes |
| Request Amendment |
yes |
no |
yes |
| General Correspondence |
yes |
no |
yes |
| Check PCT application status |
yes |
yes |
yes |
- Text can be entered into the Patents form fields up to a limit of 3500 characters per field.
- Accepted file attachment types are TIFF (.tif), JPEG (.jpeg), Adobe Acrobat PDF (.pdf)
and Text (.txt)
- PDF attachments should be compatible to at least Adobe Acrobat v6.0 to ensure general accessibility.
- Images should not be in colour.
- File attachments should be limited to 30mb in size.
- Any data exceeding 1000 pages or 30mb in size should be sent to IP Australia as physical media
(DVD, CD, USB or Paper). However it must be noted that where a patent application is filed
only partly via the IP Australia website or fax and other components of the application are filed
via paper or physical media (eg CD Rom), and these components are received by IP Australia on different
days, the filing date will be determined as follows:
If the part received first is sufficient to establish a filing date, then the application will be
initially allocated a filing date of the date the first part was received. The subsequently
received physical media may be included; if it changes the scope, it falls under additional information.
The applicant must file the additional information within 2 months of the filing date or, if advised
by the office that it is missing, 2 months from the date of the letter from the office.
If the online application is deemed incomplete, the filing date will be the date of receipt of any
missing component.
Plant Breeder’s Rights
This
table lists the ways that requests
to IP Australia can be made for
Plant Breeder’s
Rights.
| Plant Breeder’s Rights |
Fax |
Email |
Online/Web |
| Apply for Plant Breeder’s Right |
yes |
yes |
no |
| Reply to examiner’s correspondence |
yes |
yes |
no |
| Opposition correspondence |
yes |
yes |
no |
| Renewal payment |
yes |
no |
no |
Plant Breeder’s Rights forms are provided in a fillable PDF format which can be emailed, faxed
or mailed to IP Australia. Please refer to the forms for information about requirements for completing
and submitting these forms.
Designs
This
table lists the ways that requests
to IP Australia can be made for
Designs.
| Designs |
Fax |
Email |
Online/Web |
| Apply for registration / publication of a Design |
yes |
no |
no |
| Reply to Pre-registration Formalities Notice (with replacement / substitute representations) |
yes |
no |
no |
| Reply to Pre-registration Formalities Notice (without representations) |
yes |
yes |
no |
| Reply to examiner’s report |
yes |
yes |
no |
| Opposition correspondence |
yes |
no |
no |
| Renewal payment |
yes |
no |
no |
Designs forms are provided as a PDF which can be faxed or mailed to IP Australia. Please refer to
the forms for information about requirements for completing and submitting these forms.
General
| General |
Fax |
Email |
Online/Web |
| Request copies of documents |
yes |
yes |
no |
| General enquiries |
yes |
yes |
yes |
| BASS Request |
yes |
no |
no |
| FOI Request |
yes |
yes |
no |
| Making a complaint or suggestion |
yes |
yes |
yes |
|
