Australian IP report 2025
Key trends in 2024 for standard patents in Australia
- Filings by Australian residents were stable, despite tight financial and economic conditions. Patent grants increased by over a quarter, due to increased office productivity and capacity.
- Overall filings fell by 3.3%, driven by reduced applications from the United States, and reduced patenting across health technology fields.
- Biotechnology was the exception, with a 4.7% increase in filings, sourced from across geographic regions. Several US biotechnology companies entered the list of top filers for Australian patents for the first time.
- Strong patent growth also observed in transport, indicating growing demand for new and higher quality transport technologies.
What is a patent?
A patent is a temporary legal right that allows the patent owner to exclude others from commercially exploiting an invention. Standard patents are granted for inventions that are new, useful and involve an inventive step beyond the normal progress of science and technology.
By excluding imitators, patents enhance the returns to investment in research and development (R&D). Without patent rights, innovators may be unable to recoup these investments and tend to underinvest. In return for patent rights, innovators must disclose new technical knowledge in their inventions, coaxing them out of secrecy so they can be reworked by others.