Australia and New Zealand Agree to Streamline Patent Applications

Australia and New Zealand have agreed to implement a streamlined patent application process that would allow inventors in both countries to file a single patent application by 2013 and request a single patent examination by 2014. Details about the Trans-Tasman Patents Plan were announced in July.

AusPat beta Launched

IP Australia recently released a new version of its patent database, AusPat beta. The new version allows users to retrieve patent specifications from 1904 to the present. Approximately half of the 1.4 million AU patent specs have been loaded. The complete collection is expected to be available in March 2011. Pre-1980 documents appear to be searchable only by patent number. Not sure if or when other bibliographic data will be added. See AusPat beta users guide for search tips and other.

AusPat v1.3 Enhancements

IP Australia has announced the release of AusPat v1.3, the new web-based Australian patent database that replaced the PatSearch system in early 2008. AusPat v1.3 enhancements include (quoting from the release memo):

1. "e-Journal functionality has been incorporated into AusPat with the introduction of a new search field (called “Publication”) allowing users to search by Publication Action and Journal* Range.
2. The “Acceptance Published Date” search field has been removed. To search for applications by Acceptance Published Date use the new “Publication” search field.
3. Search and display of limited publication history for PATADMIN applications.
4. Ability to launch electronic Journal.*
5. Link to add AusPat to Instant Search Box for users with IE 7."

* The Australian Official Journal of Patents

End in Sight for IP Australia's PatSearch System

IP Australia has announced that it will update Patsearch, its legacy patent search system, weekly on Mondays starting Nov. 22, 2008. The system will be decommissioned in February 2009. AusPat, the new patent search system, was launched in April 2008 and contains bibliographic data from about 1970 forward and full text from 1998 forward. Australian patent documents are also available in esp@cenet and PatentLens (1998+). The Australian Patent Office was established in 1904. IP Australia has a long-term project to scan and make searchable all patent specifications back to this date.

Scientific Fraud and Patents

According to a report in the Oct. 2 issue of Nature, IP Australia is taking some heat for issuing a patent (AU2004309300B B2) to discredited Korean scientist Dr. Woo Suk Hwang that was based on fabricated data. In 2004 and 2005 Dr. Hwang claimed to have created a stem-cell line from a cloned human embryo. Hwang's claims, it was discovered, were a complete fraud. He lost his university job, was convicted of various crimes including embezzlement and his published papers were retracted. However, his university continued to prosecute patent applications based on his work.

Unlike scientific papers, patents are not peer-reviewed. Patent offices issue patents based on the legal criteria put for under national patent laws. They don't test the validity of the data submitted with a patent application. If they did, the patent system would probably grind to a halt. Of course, there are penalties for inventors who lie or commit misrepresentations in a patent application. But this usually applies to things like the date of conception of the invention, true inventorship, etc.