At the time of writing, there are 26,111 patent applications pending and not yet accepted (i.e. awaiting examination, or under examination) at the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ). Of these, 26,029 are subject to the provisions of the current law, the New Zealand Patents Act 2013, which came into effect on 13
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DeepSeek’s Pro-China Bias is Superficial: Revealing the Power of Local AI Deployment
Today, something a little different for this blog. As many readers are aware, for the past couple of years I have been working towards a PhD in which, very broadly speaking, I have been looking at applying machine learning, AI and language models to the analysis of patent claims (in particular, to assessing the scope…
Patent Applicants 2024– China Outfiles Australian Residents While LG Maintains Individual Lead
My latest analysis of patent filing data for 2024 confirms a shift that has been years in the making – Chinese applicants have finally overtaken Australian residents to become the second largest source of patent applications, behind only the United States. This milestone comes as US filings showed a notable decline of 5.7%, while Chinese…
Patent Filing Trends 2024– Market Share Shifts Continue as Firms Face Ongoing Challenges
The landscape of patent filing activity across Australia and New Zealand underwent continued transformation in 2024, marked by declining total filings and ongoing shifts in market share distribution and firm performance. Total standard patent applications filed in Australia decreased by 3.4% to 30,442, while New Zealand experienced a more pronounced decline of 7.3% to 6,202…
Seeking Patent Professionals to Help Train AI Models to Assess Claim Scope
Those of you who have been following my journey over the past couple of years will be aware that I am currently conducting PhD research at Melbourne Law School, investigating patent claim scope and its relationship to patent system performance. I have now reached a critical stage in the project where I need help from…
New IP Scam Alert: Fraudsters Now Impersonating Registered Attorneys
In a concerning development, the authority that regulates the Australian and New Zealand IP professions, the Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Board (TTIPAB), has warned attorneys about an ongoing scam involving the impersonation of registered IP attorneys to defraud IP rights owners. Specifically, the TTIPAB has warned that ‘IP Australia became aware of a scam that…
Is It Time to Talk (Again) About Reforming Australia’s ‘Best Method’ Requirement?
The recent Full Federal Court decision in Zoetis Services LLC v Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA Inc [2024] FCAFC 145 has highlighted fundamental flaws in the Australian patent law’s ‘best method’ requirement. While the court’s application of existing principles appears sound, the resulting analysis reveals that the requirement is not only arbitrary in its operation,…
Hindsight by Stealth? Pre-RtB ‘Ascertainment’ After Sandoz v Bayer
A recent Full Court decision suggests that demonstrating prior art could be ‘reasonably expected to be ascertained’ under the pre-Raising the Bar (RtB) law may be considerably easier than previously thought. But has the pendulum swung too far? In relaxing the evidentiary requirements for establishing that prior art information would have been found by the…
Full Court Delivers Hot N Cold Comfort in Katy Perry Trade Mark Battle
While this blog normally focuses on patent matters, occasionally a case comes along that warrants stepping outside my usual lane. The Full Court of the Federal Court’s decision in Killer Queen LLC v Taylor [2024] FCAFC 149, delivered last week, is one such case. After all, it’s not every day that an Australian small…
Here We Go Again? Aristocrat Eyes High Court After Grant of Leave to Appeal
A single judge of the Federal Court of Australia, Justice O’Bryan, has granted Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Ltd (‘Aristocrat’) leave to appeal a decision issued back in March this year. In that decision, Justice Burley found that all remaining claims in a group of innovation patents relating to computer-implemented electronic gaming machine (EGM) technology did…