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Official notices: Designs notices 2002 - 2005
OFFICIAL NOTICE
Surrender of Design Registrations
14 November 2005
The following Official Notice is about Surrender of Design Registrations to be published in the AOJD on 22 December 2005.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Amendments to Registered Designs at Examination
14 December 2005
The following Official Notices are about Amendments to Registered Designs at Examination to be published in the AOJD on 22 December 2005.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Designs Act 2003 Amendments to Registered Designs at Examination
16 November 2005
The following Official Notice is about Designs Act 2003 Amendments to Registered Designs at Examination to be published in the AOJD on 8 December 2005.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Official Journal Dates for 2006
16 November 2005
The following Official Notice is about 'Official Journal Dates for 2006' to be published in the AOJD on 8 December 2005.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Trade Marks and Designs Hearing Sessions 2006
16 November 2005
The following Official Notices are about 'Converted Designs' and 'Expunged Design Registration' to be published in the AOJD on 24 November 2005
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Trade Marks and Designs Hearing Sessions 2006
2 November 2005
The following Official Notice is about 'Trade Marks and Designs Hearing Sessions 2006' to be published in the AOJTM on 10 November 2005
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
2005 Christmas Holiday Close Down
21 October 2005
The following Official Notice about the '2005 Christmas Holiday Close Down' to be published in all IP Australia journals on 10 November and 8 December 2005.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Designs Act 2003: Emerging Issues
6 October 2005
The following Official Notice is about the 'Designs Act 2003: Emerging Issues' to be published in the AOJD on 13 October 2005.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Designs Act 2003: Converted Designs
23 September 2005
The following Official Notice is about the 'Designs Act 2003: Converted Designs' to be published in the AOJD on 29 September 2005.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Expunged Design Registrations
7 September 2005
The following Official Notice about 'Expunged Design Registrations' will be published in the Australian Official Journal of 15 September 2005.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Amendments to Registered Designs at Examination
7 September 2005
The following Official Notice about 'Amendments to Registered Designs at Examination' will be published in the Australian Official Journal of 15 September 2005.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Designs Act 2003: Converted Designs
24 August 2005
The following Official Notice about 'Designs Act 2003: Converted Designs' will be published in the Australian Official Journal of 1 September 2005..
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Review of the 'Right to Repair' or 'Spare Parts'
exclusion under the Designs Act 2003
18 August 2005
The following Official Notice about the 'Review of the 'Right to Repair' or 'Spare Parts'
exclusion under the Designs Act 2003 will be published in the Australian Official Journal of
Designs on 1 September 2005.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Designs Act 2003: Converted Designs
12 August 2005
The following Official Notice about 'Designs Act 2003: Converted Designs' will be published in the Australian Official Journal of Designs on 18 August 2005.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Designs Act 2003: Converted Designs
1 August 2005
The following Official Notice about 'Designs Act 2003: Converted Designs' will be published in the Australian Official Journal of Designs on 4 August 2005.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Designs Act 2003: Converted Designs
1 July 2005
The following Official Notice about 'Designs Act 2003: Converted Designs' will
be published in the Australian Official Journal of Designs on 7 July 2005.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Appointment of the Patent and Trade Marks Attorneys Disciplinary Tribunal
4 May 2005
The following Official Notice about appointment of the Patent and Trade Marks Attorneys Disciplinary Tribunal will be published in the Australian Official Journals of Patents, Trade Marks and Designs of 12 May 2005
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Cessation of Paid Advertising in IP Australia's Official Journals Effective 26th May 2005
27 April 2005
The following Official Notice about cessation of paid advertising in the Official Journals will be published in the Official Journal of Patents and Trade Marks - 5 May 2005; and Designs - 12 May 2005
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Designs Act 2003: Converted Designs
6 April 2005
The following Official Notice about Designs Act 2003 Converted Designs
will be published in the Australian Official Journal of Designs 14 April 2005.
 Designs Act 2003: Converted Designs
 Designs Act 2003: Converted Designs
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Amendments to the Patents, Trade Marks and Designs Regulations
1 April 2005
The following Official Notice about Amendments to the Patents Regulations
1991, the Trade Marks Regulations 1995 and the Designs Regulations
2004 will be published in the 3 Australian Official Journals of Patents,
Trade Marks and Designs of 14 April 2005.
OFFICIAL NOTICE
Free Trade Agreement between Australia and the United States of America
3 February 2005
The following Official Notice regarding the Free Trade Agreement between Australia and the United States of America will appear in the Australian Official Journal of Patents, Australian Official Journal of Trade Marks and Australian Official Journal of Designs on 3 February 2005.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Status of Proceedings before the Federal Court
5 January 2005
The following Official Notice regarding Status of Proceedings before the Federal Court will appear in the Australian Official Journal of Patents, Australian Official Journal of Trade Marks and Australian Official Journal of Designs on 13 January, 2005.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
2005 Edition of IP Australia's Customer Service Charter
23 December 2004
The following Official Notice about the 2005 Edition of IP Australia's Customer Service Charter will be published in the AOJP, AOJTM and AOJD of 6 January 2005
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Time Periods and 'local' holidays
17 December 2004
The following Official Notice about Time Periods and 'local' holidays will be published in the AOJP and AOJTM of 23 December 2004 and AOJD 30 December 2004
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Transaction Details Notice
3 November 2004
The following Official Notice about Electronic Funds (EFT) Transaction Details will be published in the Australian Official Journal of Patents of 11 November 2004, the Australian Official Journal of Trade Marks of 11 November 2004 and the Australian Official Journal of Designs of 18 November 2004
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Dates for IP Australia Christmas Holiday Closedown 2004
28 October 2004
The following Official Notice about IP Australia 2004 Christmas Closedown will be published in the Australian Official Journal of Designs on 4 November and 2 December 2004.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Public Access to Designs Database (Desadmin)
3 September 2004
The following Official Notice will appear in the Designs Official Journal on 9 September, 2004.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Hobart State Office Relocation
23 August 2004
The following Official Notice will appear in all Australian Official Journals on 2 September, 2004.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Recording the address of applicants from Taiwan
23 July 2004
The following Official Notice will appear in all journals on 29th July, 2004.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Commencement of the Designs Act 2003
8 June 2004
The following Official Notice will appear in all journals on Thursday 17th June, 2004.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Designs Act 2003
Converting a Design Application
8 June 2004
The following Official Notice will appear in all journals on Thursday 17th June, 2004.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Professional Standards Board for Patent and Trademark Attorneys - 2004 Examinations
8 June 2004
The following Official Notice will appear in all journals on Thursday 17th June, 2004.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
New lodgement schedules for bulk filings
26 May 2004
The following Official Notice regarding Best Practice File Guidelines will appear in all journals on June 3, 2004.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Fake Agencies
12 May 2004
The following Official Notice regarding fake IP Agencies will appear in all
journals May 20.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Designs Act 2003
Numbering System
23 April 2004
For many years the Designs Office has issued and published Application and Registration Numbers of the following format:
| Application | nnnnn/ccyy (eg 04321/2002) |
| Registration: | NNNNNN (eg 156,345) |
Due to the implementation of the Designs Act 2003 (new Act) changes to the way in which the above numbering formats have been used will take effect as of 17 June 2004 in relation to designs applied for and registrations under the new Act.
The numbering system in relation to designs applied for and registrations under the Designs Act 2003 will continue the existing number formats, except that:
i) specific number ranges within current formats will be used; and
ii) there will be no Application Numbers, instead there will be Design Numbers.
| Format: | nnnnn/ccyy | NNNNNN |
| Current Example: | Application
04321/2002 | Registration
156,345 |
| New Act Example: | Design
12345/2004 | Registration
300,345 |
The 1 in the first position of the new act Design Number and the 3 in the first position of the Registration Number identify them as being under the new Act and are distinct from their counterparts under the Designs Act 1906 (current Act).
Applications and registrations under the current Act will continue to have their current number formats and ranges. Any design application under the current Act which is registered after 17 June 2004, unless it is converted to an application under the new Act, will be issued a design registration number from the current Registration Number range.
Due to provisions in the new Act relating to the filing of multiple designs within a single application, numbers previously used in reference to a design application will now be used in reference to a design, and be termed Design number. For a design application containing one design the Design Number will be the reference, for design applications containing multiple designs, each design will be allocated a separate Design Number.
For more information, please contact:
Victor Portelli, Registrar of Designs
Phone: 02 6283 2093
E-mail: victor.portelli@ipaustralia.gov.au
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
WIPO Workshops for Mediators in Intellectual Property Disputes
19 April 2004
The following Official Notice will appear in all Official Journals of the week April 29, 2004
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Commencement - Designs Act 20036 February 2004
The Designs Act 2003 received Royal Assent on 17 December 2003.
Consistent with the provisions of the Designs Act 2003, the Act will commence on:
All proceedings as of 17 June 2004 will be under the Designs Act 2003 and the transitional provisions relating to actions under the Designs Act 1906.
Further information relating to the implementation of the Designs Act 2003 will be available via the IP Australia website, ipaustralia.gov.au
Contact: Victor Portelli, Deputy Registrar of Designs, (02) 6283 2093
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Design Classification
Edition 8 of the International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification)11 December 2003
Background:
For some time the Designs Office has classified Australian design applications according to the Seventh Edition of the International Classification for Industrial Designs (IDC 7).
The Eighth Edition of the International Classification for Industrial Designs (IDC 8) will be in force as of 1 January 2004.
Practice:
All applications filed up to and including 31 December 2003 will continue to be indexed in IDC 7.
All applications filed on or after 1 January 2004 will be indexed according to IDC 8.
At this stage, it is not anticipated that the Designs Office will "re-classify" any of the back-file of design records currently retrievable using IDC 7 classes, to bring them into IDC 8.
Note:
Information concerning the nature and extent of the changes from IDC 7 to IDC 8 and implications for searching the Designs Office databases subsequent to 1 January 2004 will be provided on the IP Australia website, www.ipaustralia.gov.au, in the near future.
Contact:
Victor Portelli
Deputy Registrar of Designs
Phone: (02) 6283 2093
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
IP Australia Christmas Holiday Close Down
25 December 2003 - 1 January 2004
27 November 2003
IP Australia's Certified Agreement provides for a Christmas close down period between Christmas Day
and New Year's Day. This means that the majority of IP Australia's staff will be on leave
for the period 25 December 2003 until 1 January 2004 inclusive. Please note that Friday 2 January 2004
has not been declared a public holiday and is not covered by the Christmas 'Close Down' provisions
and will be business as usual.
However 30 and 31 December are not public holidays for the purposes of the Patents, Trade Marks or
Designs Acts. This means that all deadlines that fall due on the 30 and 31 December will still
need to be met by customers.
In order to provide essential services to our customers on the days of 30 and 31 December, minimum
staffing will be maintained. State Offices will remain open during this period to receive applications,
payments and other documents and to provide searching facilities. Our Customer Service Number
02 6283 2999, will also be available to answer enquiries.
However all processing and examination work will occur outside of this period.
To assist us to deal with urgent matters, customers are requested to send all non-urgent work outside
of the Christmas close down period.
Where critical deadlines fall due on a day during the Christmas close down (25th December 2003 to
1st January 2004), customers are requested to undertake necessary action prior to the
Christmas close down. Some examples of these critical deadlines include:
the 21-month finalisation date for patent examination;
to respond to place a design application in order for registration;
urgent requirement for a certified copy;
the end of the 6 month period in which a person may file an application for registration of a trade
mark in Australia and claim a right of priority from an application they filed overseas in a convention
country for the same trade mark;
final date for acceptance of a trade mark;
the end of the 15 month period in which a request for deferment of acceptance of a trade mark
application may be made.
If this is not possible and customers need to take action on 30 or 31 December, our Customer Service staff will be available to assist on 02 6283 2999.
If you have any specific enquiries regarding the close down period please contact:
| Patents |
Dave Herald |
Phone 02 6283 2324 |
| Designs |
Victor Portelli |
Phone 02 6283 2093 |
| Trade marks |
Joanne Rush |
Phone 02 6283 2972 |
| General |
Jodi Lawler |
Phone 02 6283 2681 |
Customers are also reminded of IP Australia's contact details. All business correspondence should
be via these means. It is especially important to use these numbers over the Christmas close down
period, as other numbers may not be staffed.
| Telephone enquiries |
1300 651 010 or
(02) 6283 2999 |
| Facsimile |
02 6283 7999 |
| E-mail |
assist@ipaustralia.gov.au |
| Correspondence |
PO Box 200
Woden ACT 2606 |
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Consultation on proposed amendments to the Patents, Trade Marks and Designs
Regulations - Convention countries
18 September 2003
Schedules 4, 10 and 2A to the Patents, Trade Marks and Designs Regulations,
respectively, currently list the Convention countries by name. These Schedules
require updating every time a country joins the World Trade Organization (WTO)
or accedes to the Paris Convention, which imposes unnecessary costs on government.
In order to remove this need for frequent regulatory change we propose to
delete these Schedules and amend the relevant provisions in the Patents, Trade
Marks and Designs Regulations. Rather than referring to the list of countries
in the relevant Schedule, the new provisions would define the Convention countries
by reference to Members of the WTO and countries that are parties to the Paris
Convention. Related provisions in the Trade Marks and Designs Regulations dealing
with the Bangui treaty, the Benelux Convention, the European Community treaty
and the Hague Agreement will not be changed.
To provide easy access to the list of Convention countries and ensure its
currency we have made a list of the Convention countries available on the IP
Australia website at:
http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/resources/international_convention.shtml
This list will be regularly updated to reflect new memberships of the WTO
and accessions to the Paris Convention.
We seek your comments on this proposal.
Please send written comments to Ms Kerry Sillcock by fax on (02) 6281 7247
or by email at Kerry.Sillcock@ipaustralia.gov.au by Friday
17 October 2003.
Enquiries: Kerry Sillcock (02) 6283 2291
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
CLAIM FOR CONVENTION PRIORITY - European Community Design Applications
14 August 2003
The Designs Office has received the first application for design registration
which claims convention priority based on an earlier European Community Design
application.
This notice is to advise the Designs Office practice regarding such priority
claims.
Background:
The European Council of Ministers adopted Community Design Regulation EC
6/2002 on December 12, 2001 to provide a harmonized Industrial Design protection
system across the European Union (EU). The Office for Harmonization
in the
Internal Market - Trade Marks and Designs (OHIM) has been accepting applications
for registered community designs since January 1, 2003.
Article 34 of the Regulation states that an application for a registered Community
design shall be dealt with in its entirety, and for the whole area of the Community,
as a national design right of the Member State. Article 39 states that an application
for a registered Community design which has been accorded a date of filing
shall, in the Member States, be equivalent to a regular national filing.
All the Member States of the EU are listed as Convention countries in Schedule
2A of the Australian Designs Regulations.
Practice:
The Australian Designs Office will take the requirements of Sub-regulation
7A(1) as being met if a notice of claim for convention priority is based
on a European Community registered design application.
The application need only specify the European Community, nomination of a
country within the European Community is not required. The ‘Country’ code
for the European Community is EM.
[Note: priority claims based on applications under the Benelux Convention
are similarly taken to meet the requirements of Sub-regulation 7A(1), code
BX.]
The Designs Office will work towards including specific provisions in the
legislation relating to priority claims based on either a Benelux or a European
Community Design application, in line with Sub-regulations 21.29(3) and (4)
of the Trade Marks Act 1995.
Contact: Victor Portelli, Deputy Registrar of Designs, (02) 6283 2093
OFFICIAL NOTICE
Faxes - No Confirmation Copies
24 April 2003
This notice is to request practitioners not to file ‘confirmation’ copies
of faxes sent to IPAustralia.
When facsimile technology first became common, there were many concerns about
the longevity of the facsimile copy having regard to the limitations of the
various printing technologies then used. This lead to the practice of always
supplying the paper original of any document faxed to the Office (often referred
to as the ‘confirmation copy’).
The longevity of paper copies of faxes has long ceased to be a cause of any
concern. Furthermore, as record management systems become electronic, the longevity
of the fax record is no longer dependant upon the paper copy of the fax (if
indeed one is actually produced.) Accordingly, the need for a confirmation
copy has long ceased.
Furthermore, where a document is faxed to IPAustralia with a confirmation
copy being filed in the usual way, some significant difficulties can arise.
In particular, because the document will enter the processing systems at different
times and locations, there is a real possibility that the confirmation copy
will be acted upon as an action in its own right – with obvious duplication
of effort and resulting confusion about what is happening. This situation has
been growing in frequency over several years.
Accordingly, practitioners are requested NOT to file confirmation
copies of any documents faxed to the Office – unless IPAustralia asks
for the original to be filed.
If for some reason the faxed copy of a document is deficient in some manner,
IPAustralia will ask for the original document to be filed. Situations where
IPAustralia might ask for the original to be filed are:
- the faxed copy of the document fails to meet the usual formality requirements;
or
- there is some special reason why the original document is required on
the file (e.g. in certain circumstances, statutory declarations; copies
of Design representations)
A common practice is for a practitioner to file an urgent office action by
fax, and to file the original at a State Office as a vehicle for any associated
fee payment. This practice gives rise to considerable confusion with the processing
of the application. Practitioners are requested to either:
- create a separate
document as the vehicle for the fee payment, with that document simply referring
to the faxed correspondence;
- pay any required fees by credit card payment
as part of the faxed correspondence; or
- (in the case of most patent matters)
wait for an “Invitation to Pay” to
be issued, and pay against that invitation.
Queries
Jodi Lawler (02) 6283 2681
OFFICIAL NOTICE
Change of Practice
Design Applications - Copies of Representations
10 April 2003
The Designs Office has reviewed its practice in relation to the number of
copies of representations required to be filed with new designs applications.
Background:
For quite some time the practice of the Designs Office has been to require
the filing of seven (7) copies of representations in association with new design
applications.
As a result of new business processes within the Designs Office this practice
has been reviewed and changed.
New Practice:
As from the date of this journal, 10 April 2003, only five (5) copies
of representations will be required to be lodged in association with new
design applications.
N.B.
Past practice requiring filing of a Form 2 with new applications ceased many
years ago. Some individuals continue to file Form 2 even though it is unnecessary. Do
not file a Form 2, it is not required.
Contact: Victor Portelli, Deputy Registrar of Designs, (02)
6283 2093
OFFICIAL NOTICE
Policy with respect to refunds and waivers
12 February 2003
IP Australia has recently reviewed its policy with respect to refunds and waivers.
The full policy is available at the IP Australia website, at
http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/resources/forms_finance.shtml
A summary of the policy follows. This policy is broadly aligned with IP Australia's
previous practices. Most notably, however, refund practices with respect to
Extension of Time requests, and to trade marks series filed for multiple classes,
will change. To the extent that the policy is materially different to the practice
previously applied, the policy will apply with respect to any fee payments made
on or after 15 Feb. 2003.
Enquiries
General enquiries regarding the policy: Jodi Lawler 02 6283
2681
Enquiries regarding specific matters:
Patents: Leo O'Keeffe, Deputy Commissioner (A) 02 6283 2036
Trade Marks: Penny Bailey, Director (Administration) 02 6283
2940
Designs: Victor Portelli, Deputy Registrar of Designs 02 6283
2093
* * * * *
Summary - Refunds
- IP Australia will automatically refund money when
- The customer has submitted a payment and request for something IP Australia
does not do (e.g. car registrations), or
- The customer has submitted a payment and request for something that
is not legally or practically capable of being done. (e.g. opposing a
newly filed application), or
- The fee is overpaid.
- A fee has been incurred as a result of an office error. Where IP Australia
has made an error, given incorrect advice or failed to provide a notification,
in such a way as will make the customer liable for a fee that they would
not otherwise have needed to pay then, if the fee has been paid we will
refund it.
- In other circumstances, IP Australia will only consider giving a refund
if the customer lodges a request for one.
- Where a fee has been paid for lodging a document, and the document has been
lodged with IP Australia, then the fee cannot and may not be
refunded.
- Where a fee has been paid for IP Australia to perform a particular action,
and that action has been performed, then the fee cannot and may not be refunded.
- Where a fee has been paid and
- the accompanying document is not considered to have been lodged, or
- the required action has not been performed,
- then the fee may be refunded, on the customer's request.
- Refunds on fee items will be paid in full, or not at all. There will be
no administrative charges levied.
- Refunds on cost recovery activities (such as providing data extracts from
IP Australia's information systems) may be partial refunds. The cost of any
effort in servicing the original requested activity will be deducted from
the refunded sum.
IP Australia will apply these principles consistently in respect of all of
its customers.
Summary - Waivers/Exemptions
- IP Australia will waive fees in part or in full only in rare circumstances
- Due to differences between the Trade Marks Act and the Patents and Designs
Acts, the rules for waivers are slightly narrower in Trade Marks than in the
rest of IP Australia.
- IP Australia may waive part or all of a fee for a patents or designs transaction
when:
- IP Australia has made an error, given incorrect advice or failed to
provide a notification, in such a way as will make the customer liable
for a fee that they would not otherwise have needed to pay.
- IP Australia has made an error or given incorrect advice that has given
the customer a clear expectation that they need to pay an amount that
is less than the prescribed fee
- It would otherwise be in the public interest, or ensure fair and equitable
treatment of IP Australia's customers
- Otherwise, intellectual property fee items will not be waived
- For other financial transactions, IP Australia may waive some or all of
the money due to be paid if:
- The sum involved is so small as not to be economically worthwhile to be
pursued
- It would otherwise be in the public interest, or ensure fair and equitable
treatment of IP Australia's customers
IP Australia will apply these principles consistently in respect of all of
its customers.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
IP Australia Christmas Holiday Close Down
5 December 2002
IP Australia's new Certified Agreement provides for a Christmas close down
period between Christmas Day and New Year's Day. This means that the majority
of IP Australia's staff will be on leave for the period 25 December 2002 until
1 January 2003 inclusive. However 30 and 31 December are not public holidays
for the purposes of the Patents, Trade Marks or Designs Acts. This means that
all deadlines that fall due on the 30 and 31 December will still need to be
met by customers.
In order to provide essential services to our customers on the days of 30 and
31 December, a skeleton staff will be on duty. State Offices will remain open
during this period to receive applications, payments and other documents and
to provide searching facilities. Our Customer Service Number
02 6283 2999, will also be available to answer enquiries.
However all processing and examination work will occur outside of this period.
To assist us to deal with urgent matters, customers are requested to
send all non-urgent work outside of the Christmas close down period.
Where critical deadlines fall due on a day during the Christmas close down (25th
December 2002 to 1st January 2003), customers are advised to undertake necessary
action prior to the Christmas close down. Some examples of these critical deadlines
include:
- the 21-month finalisation date for patent examination;
- to respond to place a design application in order for registration;
- urgent requirement for a certified copy;
- the end of the 6 month period in which a person may file an application
for registration of a trade mark in Australia and claim a right of priority
from an application they filed overseas in a convention country for the same
trade mark;
- final date for acceptance of a trade mark;
- the end of the 15 month period in which a request for deferment of acceptance
of a trade mark application may be made.
If this is not possible and customers need to take action on 30 or 31 December,
our Customer Service staff will be available to assist on 02 6283 2999.
If you have any specific enquiries regarding the close down period please contact:
| Patents |
Dave Herald |
Phone 02 6283 2324 |
| Designs |
Victor Portelli |
Phone 02 6283 2093 |
| Trade marks |
Joanne Rush |
Phone 02 6283 2972 |
| General |
Jodi Lawler |
Phone 02 6283 2681 |
Customers are also reminded of IP Australia's contact details. All business
correspondence should be via these means. It is especially important to use
these numbers over the Christmas close down period, as other numbers may not
be staffed.
| Telephone enquiries |
Phone 1300 651 010
or 02 6283 2999 |
| Facsimile |
Phone 02 6283 7999 |
| E-mail |
assist@ipaustralia.gov.au |
| Correspondence |
PO Box 200
Woden ACT 2606 |
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Response Times of IP Australia's Systems
8 August 2002
As foreshadowed in earlier Official Notices, IP Australia is in the process
of implementing its new patent business model and new supporting systems to
move to the electronic filing and processing of patent applications through
the New Patent Solution (NPS) project.
Release 2.1 is a crucial stage of the New Patent Solution (NPS) project. One
of the features of Release 2.1 involves the migration of data from the Patent
Administration system (Patadmin) to the NPS system.
From Thursday 8 August 2002 and over the weekend, Patadmin access will
need to be suspended. During this time, extensive use of the mainframe computer
will occur to retrieve data to migrate into the NPS system. Therefore users
may experience a noticeable decline in response times of other IP Australia
mainframe systems such as TMARK, ATMOSS and DESADMIN.
Please refer to the IP Australia website for further updates.
IP Australia apologises for any inconvenience caused to its customers.
For further information please contact the Customer Support Centre on 02 6283
2999.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Fee Regulations Under the Patent, Trade Marks and Designs Acts Made 4 July
2002
26 July 2002
The Intellectual Property Legislation (Fees) Amendment Regulations
2002 were made by the Governor-General on Thursday 4 July 2002.
The Regulations amend the Patents, Trade Marks and Designs Regulations to provide
for changes to the amounts and structures of fees for various transactions with
the Patent, Trade Marks and Designs Offices.
Preliminary information about these fees was provided to customers in Official
Notices during June 2002.
The Fee Amendment Regulations will commence on 1 September 2002, and their
final form is attached to this Notice.
Information about transitional arrangements under the Patents Act has been
published in a Notice in the Australian Official Journal of Patents. There are
no transitional arrangements required in relation to the Trade Mark and Designs
fee changes. The fee to be paid will be the fee due on the date of payment.
Please email assist@ipaustralia.gov.au
with any inquiries.
You can download the original document in PDF format below:
Intellectual Property Legislation
Amendment Regulations 2002
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Practice in relation to changes in Designs Office fees
(effective as of 1st September 2002)
24 June 2002
There are no transitional provisions for the changes to design fees. The design
fee to be paid is the fee due on the date of payment.
- Where a fee is due but not paid before 1 September, the fee to be
paid after 1 September is the new fee.
Please note: Not only will the new fee be payable but extension of time
fees may also apply. From 1 September these will also be charged at the
new rate.
- Where a fee is only partially paid before 1 September, the remainder
of the fee to be paid after 1 September is the balance of the new fee.
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OFFICIAL NOTICE
Time Periods and 'local' holidays
IP Australia is currently reviewing its practice under the patents, trade
marks and designs legislation (IP legislation) in relation to time periods generally
and specifically to time periods that expire on a Saturday, Sunday, public holiday,
or bank holiday. As part of this general review of time periods, please note
that the Patents Regulations have been recently amended to clarify the way in
which periods measured in months are calculated.
The expiration of time periods under the IP legislation is largely governed
by s.36(2) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 (AI Act). The AI Act generally
provides that if a time period expires on a weekend, public holiday or a bank
holiday then the period actually expires on the next day that is not such a
day. This reflects current IP Australia practice.
The imminent application of the Electronic Transactions Act 1999 (ET
Act) for electronic filings (which includes facsimile) to all the IP legislation
also needs to be taken into account - the ET Act has applied to the patents
legislation from 24 May 2001 and will apply to the remainder from 1 July 2001.
Also relevant is Rule 80 of the Patent Cooperation Treaty and Rule 4 of the
Madrid Protocol for documents filed under those Treaties.
The review has indicated that there is no issue of uncertainty or inconsistency
with current practice in relation to the expiration of time periods that fall
on weekends and national public holidays (ie, those holidays falling on the
same day throughout Australia).
However, many public holidays apply only in the location of some offices of
IP Australia - such that some, but not all, offices are closed - while offices
of IP Australia are generally not closed on bank holidays. In these cases of
local public holidays (ie those holidays that are not national public holidays)
and bank holidays, the situation is not as certain for the expiration of time
periods - the operation of the IP legislation, the AI Act, the ET Act and the
PCT and Madrid Protocol Rules can lead to inconsistent results.
In the interests of providing certainty and consistency to our customers to
safeguard rights, IP Australia is proposing to seek amendments of the IP legislation
to set out clearly the approach in relation to time periods. To help achieve
a consistent and certain approach and also take into account the operation of
the ET Act and the PCT and Madrid Protocol Rules it is necessary to establish
the central Canberra Office as the relevant Office for the measurement of time
periods.
This means for documents filed electronically (including by facsimile), the
day on which the document is considered to be filed would be determined by the
date in Canberra and not the date in the location where the person sending the
electronic communication is located - if a document is filed electronically
it would therefore need to be filed before 12.00 midnight Canberra time zone
to be accorded a filing with that date.
For time periods that expire on a weekend, public holiday or bank holiday,
IP Australia's proposed approach would only recognise weekends, national public
holidays and Canberra public holidays as the relevant days for which a period
would expire on the next day that is not such a day.
As a result of the proposed approach, local public holidays (other than in
Canberra) and bank holidays would no longer be recognised. Therefore if a time
period ends on such a day, the period would not be extended as a result of that
holiday.
IP Australia will consult more fully with customers and practitioners before
implementing this proposed approach to time periods. However, we are of the
view that the proposed approach would best provide the necessary certainty for
customers, particularly in relation to filings under the PCT and Madrid Protocol.
Please note that as this proposed approach to handling the expiration of time
periods would require amendments to the primary IP legislation, it would not
come into effect until 2002 at the earliest.
In the interim, customers and practitioners are therefore advised to note the
uncertainty surrounding the effect of local time zones and local public holidays
and bank holidays on time periods, and to avoid reliance on such time zones
and holidays when filing documents at the end of a period.
In this regard, customers and practitioners should note that while the Patents
and Trade Marks Acts provide a general extension of time mechanism to cover
certain situations where an act has not been done within a time period, there
are no such corresponding extension of time provisions under the PCT and the
Madrid Protocol to cover analogous situations.
If in the interim customers and practitioners wish to rely on local time zones
and local public holidays, they should not assume that the expiration of time
periods is determined by s.36(2) of the AI Act in isolation. The following examples
serve as a guide to illustrate the interaction between the IP legislation, the
AI Act, the ET Act and the PCT and Madrid Protocol. Customers and practitioners
should carefully assess this interaction if relying on local time zones and
local public holidays and recognise that different outcomes can result. We can
only again emphasise that customers and practitioners should avoid placing reliance
on local time zones and local public holidays when filing documents at the end
of a period.
Illustrative examples of the current effect of local time zones and local
holidays on time periods
Time periods generally
1. For paper documents:
- the day on which a document is filed is determined by the date at the State
Office (while open for business) at which the document is filed.
2. For documents filed electronically (NOT including facsimile):
- the day on which a document is filed is determined by the date in Canberra
(in accordance with the ET Act) and NOT the date in the location where the
person sending the electronic communication is located.
3. For documents filed electronically by facsimile:
- IP Australia has established business rules which encourage applicants to
use our central fax number in Canberra. This overcomes the uncertainty which
governs the application of dates to facsimile messages. In this instance the
day on which a document is filed is determined by the date in Canberra (in
accordance with the ET Act) and NOT the date in the location where the person
sending the facsimile is located.
- If an applicant does not use our advertised number in Canberra but sends
a document to a fax machine elsewhere in IP Australia, we will give the document
the time and date it is received in that location. However, there is less
certainty in this situation. It is arguable (under the provisions of the
ET Act or the PCT or Madrid Protocol) that the date is determined by the date
existing in Canberra irrespective of where the receiving facsimile machine
is located. When using facsimile, customers and practitioners are therefore
strongly encouraged to use our advertised central number in Canberra whenever
possible.
Effect of holidays on time periods
1. For paper documents filed under the Patents, Trade Marks and Designs
Acts:
- if a public holiday or bank holiday occurs in the location of a State Office
on the last day of a time period; and
- the document is filed at the Office where that holiday occurred,
the period is extended to the next day that is not such a day.
However the period is NOT so extended if it is filed in an Office where the
public holiday or bank holiday did not occur.
2. For documents filed electronically (NOT including facsimile)
under the Patents, Trade Marks and Designs Acts:
- these documents are considered to be filed at the Canberra office and so
only holidays in Canberra are relevant; and
- if a public holiday or bank holiday occurs in Canberra on the last day of
a time period, the period is extended to the next day that is not such a day.
3. For documents filed electronically by facsimile under the
Patents, Trade Marks and Designs Acts:
- documents filed by facsimile to the central IP Australia fax number are
filed at the Canberra office and so only holidays in Canberra are relevant;
and
- if a public holiday or bank holiday occurs in Canberra on the last day of
a time period, the period is extended to the next day that is not such a day.
- If an applicant does not use our advertised number in Canberra but sends
a document to a fax machine elsewhere in IP Australia and a public holiday
or bank holiday occurs in that location on the last day of a time period we
will give the document the time and date it is received in that location.
However, there is uncertainty about whether the local holiday extends the
period for filing the document. When using facsimile, customers and practitioners
are therefore strongly encouraged to use our advertised central number in
Canberra whenever possible.
4. For documents filed under the PCT and the Madrid Protocol:
- there is no recognition of bank holidays;
- while IP Australia believes that a document filed in reliance of a local
public holiday would be entitled to the beneficial application of PCT Rule
80.5 or Madrid Protocol Rule 4(4) and will continue to advise WIPO of compliance
of time periods on that basis, customers and practitioners are advised
that there may be uncertainty - Rules 80.4(b) and 80.5 of the PCT and
Rule 4(4) of the Madrid Protocol arguably only recognise holidays that exist
in Canberra. Accordingly, customers and practitioners are strongly encouraged
not to place reliance on local public holidays unless absolutely necessary.
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