Our role in IP legislation
We're responsible for the administration of IP legislation in Australia. Our role includes:
- overseeing the functions of the trade mark, patent, design right and plant breeder's right offices and officers
- publishing and maintaining the official journals for IP rights in Australia
- administering applications for trade marks, patents, design rights and plant breeder's rights
- charging fees
- registering trade mark and patent attorneys and defining their rights of practice
- accrediting approved persons to supervise and verify plant breeder's rights applications.
Acts and regulations
In Australia, the law regarding IP rights is prescribed by acts and regulations. We administer the following:
- Trade Marks Act 1995 except Part 13, which the Australian Customs Service administers
- Trade Marks Regulations 1995
- Patents Act 1990
- Patents Regulations 1991
- Designs Act 2003
- Designs Regulations 2004
- Plant Breeder's Rights Act 1994
- Plant Breeder's Rights Regulations 1994
- Olympic Insignia Protection Act 1987
- Olympic Insignia Protection Regulations 1993.
Non-legislative instruments
We manage several non-legislative instruments for each IP right.
The Trade Marks Act allows the Registrar to determine:
- how to file a document with the trade marks office
- forms for filing documents
- how evidence in a Trade Marks Act matter should be filed
- how to pay fees.
Here's the current non-legislative trade mark instruments:
The Patents Act allows the Commissioner to determine:
-
how to file a document with the patent office
-
forms for filing documents
-
how evidence in a Patents Act matter should be filed
-
how to pay fees
-
formalities requirements for complete applications.
Here's the current non-legislative patent instruments:
Patents (formalities requirements for patent documents) determination 2019
PDF | 262KB
Patents (formalities requirements for patent documents) determination 2022
PDF | 296KB
Patents (means and form of filing documents) instrument 2019
PDF | 159KB
Patents (approved means for paying a fee) determination 2019
PDF | 65KB
Patents (means and form of filing documents and evidence opposition and other proceedings) instrument 2019
PDF | 175KB
The Designs Act to allows the Registrar to determine:
- how to file a document with the Designs office
- forms for filing documents
- how evidence in a Designs Act matter should be filed
- formal requirements for design representations
- how to pay fees.
Here's the current non-legislative design instruments:
The Plant Breeder's Rights Act allows the Registrar to determine:
- how to file a document with the plant breeder's right office
- forms for filing documents
- how to pay fees.
Here's the current non-legislative PBR instruments:
The Patents Act allows the Commissioner to determine:
-
how to file a document with the patent office
-
forms for filing documents
-
how evidence in a Patents Act matter should be filed
-
how to pay fees
-
formalities requirements for complete applications.
Here's the current non-legislative patent instruments:
Archiving non-legislative documents
We undertake regular reviews of the non-legislative instruments to adopt more efficient processes. As these become available, we repeal or amend some instruments.
To make the process transparent to our stakeholders and for tracking purposes, we keep a history of superseded non-legislative instruments.