Australian Patent Office To Act As International Searching Authority For USPTO

by Mike Godfrey, for LawAndTax-News.com, Washington

04 November 2008

It has been announced this week that, with effect from November 1, 2008, the Australian Patent Office (IP Australia) will act as an International Searching Authority (ISA) under the Patent Cooperation Treaty for international applications filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Under the new regime, the USPTO will collect the search fees from the applicants, and will transmit them to IP Australia.

The search fee for IP Australia acting as an ISA for international applications received by the USPTO is USD1,514. Any other fees necessary for search or examination or incidental thereto will be paid by applicants directly to IP Australia.

IP Australia can only act as an ISA under the treaty if the following conditions are met:

• The applications made must be submitted in the English language;
• The applications do not contain one or more claims relating to mechanical engineering or analogous fields of technology as defined by certain International Patent Classification classes, and
• IP Australia is chosen as a competent authority by the applicants.

IP Australia will also act as an International Preliminary Examining Authority if these three requirements are met, and IP Australia acted as the ISA.

With this new addition, US applicants will be able to elect the USPTO, the European Patent Office, the Korean Intellectual Property Office or IP Australia as the ISA or International Preliminary Examination Authority.

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