Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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PATENTS AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 2002 (NO. 2) 2002 NO. 100

STATUTORY RULES 2002 No. 100

Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources

Patents Act 1990

Patents Amendment Regulations 2002 (No. 2)

Section 228 of the Patents Act 1990 (the Act) allows the Governor-General to make regulations for the purposes of the Act, to prescribe matters necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act and for the conduct of any business relating to the Patent Office.

Paragraph 228(1)(e) empowers the Governor-General to make regulations for the purposes of carrying out or giving effect to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) whether in relation to PCT applications or otherwise.

The Regulations amend the Patents Regulations 1991 to make some minor, technical amendments relating to the publication of documents associated with patent applications.

Items 1 and 2 of the Regulations provide that all documents, subject to certain limited exceptions, that are associated with a patent application are publicly available when the application is published, which is typically 18 months after the priority date of the application. Item 1 relates to standard patent applications and item 2 to PCT applications.

These amendments provide a comprehensive regime for the public availability of patent-related documents and simplify and expedite access to many documents that currently are not available until much later in the patent process or, in some limited cases, may only be available under the Freedom of Information Act 1982. All eligible documents that are associated with the application will be publicly available, regardless of whether they are filed before or after the date that the application is published.

The exemptions from this publication regime are provided for in items 1 and 2. The exemptions are: documents that are subject to legal privilege; search results disclosed under subsection 45(3) of the Act; and the documents mentioned in subregulation 4.3(2) of the Patents Regulations, which are currently exempted from publication.

Item 3. of the Regulations clarifies that Item 24 of the Patents Amendment Regulations 2002 (No. 1) applies only in relation to applications filed on or after 1 April 2002, the commencement date of those amending Regulations.

The Regulations commence on gazettal.

Authority:            Section 228 of the Patents Act 1990