Examination of standard patent requests and specifications

Issue summary

Currently, subsection 44(3) of the Patents Act enables any person to require the Commissioner to direct the applicant to ask for examination where the complete application and specification become open to public inspection. This may be an unnecessary procedural step.

History

On hold 6 June 2017

Comments

Public consultation on this issue took place from November 2016 - February 2017.

Due to a number of high priority proposals resulting from the Government's response to the PC inquiry this proposal was changed to medium priority and placed on hold for further consideration at a later date.

Following review in December 2022 the proposal has been given low priority. Other matters of higher priority will be considered first.