Refund of examination fees when application is withdrawn after requesting examination

Issue summary

There is little incentive for an applicant to withdraw an application they have no interest in pursuing. The applicant is unable to reclaim fees paid and IP Australia wastes resources examining patent applications that are not pursued.

Under this issue, IP Australia makes it standard practice to refund all or part of the examination request fee where the applicant decides to withdraw the application after requesting examination but before examination has commenced.

History

• Closed 20 November 2019

Comments

This issue was considered during IP Australia’s 2019-20 fee review, which determined that this would result in little benefit for customers or IP Australia, and will therefore not proceed.