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Does your business have a cupboard full of trade marks; which have been registered for years and years? that have not been used in a long time or at all? that the business has no intention to use in the future? or which are not being used for all the goods or services for which they are registered? If the …

… But a ‘Silver Lining’ on Patent Office Practice? The Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia handed down its decision today in the appeal of the Commissioner of Patents v. Rokt Pte Ltd [2020] FCAFC 86. In doing so, the Full Court of the Federal Court overturned the decision of a single judge of the Federal Court and …

IP Australia has recently published the results of its first longitudinal research project on the impact of IP rights on Australian business profitability as part of its annual 8th edition of the Australian Intellectual Property Report 2020. The report can be found here. It is no surprise to Wrays that the study finds that ownership of patents, trade marks and …

Nicholas J has rejected the Commonwealth’s claim for damages in the long-awaited decision of Commonwealth of Australia v Sanofi (No 5) [2020], handed down on 28 April 2020 FCA 543. In this proceeding, the Commonwealth sought compensation for its payments under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) to subsidise Sanofi’s drug Plavix (clopidogrel). The Commonwealth argued that it had suffered a …

This paper considers the proposed reforms to generic and biosimilar medicine applications and the potential effect on pharmaceutical patent litigation in Australia. The reforms relate to greater transparency of information pertaining to medicines under evaluation by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). The reforms were published in February 2019 in the consultationpaper1. A total of 39 submissions received from government, industry …

Taking effect from 22 April 2020, the Electronic Transactions Regulation 2017 (NSW) has been amended to include new provisions (i.e. Schedule 1 Response to COVID-19 pandemic) relating to witnessing and attestation of documents during the COVID-19 pandemic.  The new regime allows: witnessing of a signature by audiovisual link performing arrangements in relation to witnessing and attestation of documents (e.g. confirming …

Trade marks are country-specific property rights. Your ability to use and register your trade mark remains to be assessed on a country-by-country basis. In Australia, registration of a trade mark in the presence of a competing mark may be possible, but you need to show prior continuous use of your mark compared to a prior similar registration in order to …

On 22 April 2020, IP Australia released measures to assist customers “struggling with the impacts of COVID-19”.  The measures focus on two main areas: Free Extensions of Time for Patents, Trade Marks and Designs IP Australia released a simplified system for extending time to respond to office deadlines if an applicant is affected by COVID-19.  The system provides free extensions …

Patentees of pharmaceutical substances are frequently unable to exploit their inventions until receiving regulatory approval for their products, often many years after the commencement of the patent term. Recent decisions from IP Australia and the Australian Federal Court indicate that the Australian patent term extension system is quite favourable to patentees at the moment. Multiple patents can be extended based …

Franchisors look out.  For the second time in less than 12 months, a franchisor has received a multimillion-dollar penalty for breaches of the Franchising Code.  Compliance with the Code is paramount, as GEOWASH P/L recently learnt when it was slugged with a total of $4.2 million in penalties against an insolvent carwash, a car detailing company, and two of its …