Patents Act 1990

This section applies to an innovation patent if:

after examining the patent under section 101B, the Commissioner decides that he or she is satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, as to the following:

the specification complies with subsections 40(2) to (4);

the invention, so far as claimed, complies with paragraphs 18(1A)(a), (b) and (c);

the invention is a patentable invention under subsections 18(2) and (3);

the use of the invention would not be contrary to law;

the patent does not claim as an invention a substance that is capable of being used as food or medicine (whether for human beings or animals and whether for internal or external use) and is a mere mixture of known ingredients;

the patent does not claim as an invention a process producing such a substance by mere admixture;

the patent does not contain a claim that includes the name of a person as the name, or part of the name, of the invention so far as it is claimed in that claim;

the patent does not claim an invention that is the same as an invention that is the subject of a patent and is made by the same inventor, where the relevant claim or claims in respect of each patent have the same priority date or dates;

each claim in the complete specification has a priority date that is before the day paragraph 101B(2)(ha) commences;

the complete specification complies with such other matters (if any) as are prescribed for the purpose of paragraph 101B(2)(i); and

the patent has not ceased under section 143A.

Paragraph 101B(2)(ha) was inserted by the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Productivity Commission Response Part 2 and Other Measures) Act 2020.

If this section applies, the Commissioner must:

notify the patentee and the person who requested the examination (if that person is not the patentee) that the patent has been examined and that a certificate of examination is to be issued; and

publish a notice of the examination having occurred in the Official Journal; and

issue a certificate of examination to the patentee in the approved form; and

register the issue of the certificate.