As I recently reported, Australian patent filings in 2023 fell slightly, by 2.4%, over the previous year.  This implies, of course, that patent attorneys filing applications on behalf of domestic and foreign clients should, overall, also have experienced a similar decline new filings.  But, of course, individual firms fared differently in the competition for this work.  Looking at new complete (i.e. non-provisional) patent filings across Australia and New Zealand, declines were experienced by all firms held within the two groups owned by Australian Securities Exchange listed ent ..read more

Over the past five years (i.e. since 2019) Korea’s LG Electronics Inc and China’s Huawei Technologies Ltd have consistently placed in the top five applicants for Australian patents.  Indeed, for the past four years they were in the leading three.  In 2021, Huawei came out on top with LG a close second.  In 2022, LG took top place, with IBM appearing from nowhere to push Huawei back into third.  And in 2023, LG has once again grabbed the top spot, with Huawei not too far behind, and IBM easing up on its Australian filing frenzy to slip back into equal 14th position with a ..read more

In 2023 the total number of standard patent applications filed in Australia remained above 30,000 for the third year running, despite a 2.4% drop in filings.  This follows a decline of nearly 0.5% in the previous year.  However, whereas the decline in new applications in 2022 was due to fewer filings by Australian residents (with a slight increase in foreign-originating applications preventing a larger fall), the drop in 2023 was the result of nearly 800 fewer filings by foreign applicants.  As always, a majority of new filings were national phase entries (NPEs) derived from int ..read more

As some readers may be aware (I have previously mentioned it only in passing) a firm in the IPH Limited (ASX:IPH) group – the market cap of which is A$1.56B at publication – is once again taking legal action against a recently-established firm and its founders, all of whom are former employees of Spruson & Ferguson (‘S&F’).  Earlier, IPH group firm Pizzeys had sued RnB IP and its two founders – formerly partners in Pizzeys at the  time of its acquisition by IPH – for alleged breach of non-compete, non-dealing, and/or non-solicitation restraints that were included in their emp ..read more

Back in July, the Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Disciplinary Tribunal (‘the Tribunal’) issued a decision in relation to a complaint about a registered attorney (‘the attorney’) by a client (‘the client’) in response to which the Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Board (TTIPAB, a.k.a. ‘the Board’) commenced disciplinary proceedings, bringing nine charges against the attorney.  The full decision of the Tribunal can be found here [PDF, 364kB], while a separate ruling on the penalties to be applied can be found here [PDF, 223kB].  This decision is a ‘first’ in a couple of respects.  It is the ..read more

A profile of DABUS creator Dr Stephen Thaler, written by Tomas Weber and published by The Economist in April 2023, paints a picture of a rather isolated man – a septuagenarian, the product of a traumatic childhood, slightly paranoid, seemingly obsessed with his creation, and whose supportive wife seems resigned to the reality that he spends more time with his machines than he does with her.  To be clear, I have no way of knowing whether this is accurate.  I can only go on what is written in the article.  But assuming Weber’s account is a fair assessment, I would suggest that it ..read more

The Australian Patent Office recently issued two decisions on the examination and certification of innovation patents owned by UK company Diogenes Limited: Diogenes Limited [2023] APO 5 concerning innovation patent no. 2020104437 (‘Diogenes 1’); and Diogenes Limited [2023] APO 8 concerning innovation patent no. 2021103809 (‘Diogenes 2’).  Both patents claim inventions relating to electronic pool wagering systems and – unsurprisingly, given this subject matter – both were found to be unpatentable under Australia’s ‘manner of manufacture’ approach to patent-eligibility.  However, it is ..read more

As I recently reported, Australian (standard) patent filings in 2022 remained close to the historic highs of the previous year.  This implies, of course, that patent attorneys filing applications on behalf of domestic and foreign clients should, overall, also have maintained high numbers of new filings.  But, of course, individual firms fared differently in the competition for this work.  Looking at total new standard patent filings across Australia and New Zealand, gains were made by the two firms owned by QANTM IP Limited (ASX:QIP), namely Davies Collison Cave (up by 5.7% to 4 ..read more

In recent years, the title of leading filer of Australian patent applications has been hotly (though probably inadvertently) contested between Huawei Technologies Ltd (China), Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Ltd (China), and LG Electronics (South Korea).  In 2022, LG was a clear winner, with 283 new standard patent applications.  Huawei filed 181 applications, while OPPO disappeared entirely from the leader board, with just 16 applications filed in 2022 – a long way short of the 435 applications it filed at its peak in 2020.  The big surprise of the past year, however ..read more

In 2022, for the second year running, the number of standard patent applications filed in Australia exceeded 30,000.  While there was a slight decline of 0.5% compared with 2021, filings remained at a historic high.  This was, however, primarily due to continuing growth of nearly 1% in applications originating overseas.  Applications from Australian residents fell by 16.6%, returning to around the same level as between 2016 and 2020 following a bumper year in 2021 that was driven substantially by applicants wishing to secure a filing date prior to the phase-out of the innovation ..read more