Seeking feedback on an exposure draft of the Patents Amendment Bill

What we are seeking feedback on

The draft legislation would amend the transitional provisions for new divisional patent applications that are, or are treated as, an application filed under the Patents Act 1953. These amendments would only apply to new divisional applications filed after entry into force of the legislative changes contained in this Bill.

The amendments would require the Commissioner of Patents to be satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that the divisional application and its complete specification meet the more restrictive requirements of the Patents Act 2013, which are that the invention claimed must be:

• novel as defined in section 6
• inventive as defined in section 7
• supported by the matters disclosed in the complete specification.

These stricter requirements are to apply when the application is examined and may apply to any opposition, revocation and re-examination proceedings involving those applications.

We are seeking feedback on whether the drafting of the Bill achieves the policy intent or could have unintended consequences.

Background

Policy decisions for this amendment were made by Government in June 2020. They can be found in recommendation 3.1 of the June Cabinet Minute DEV-20-MIN-0109.

This amendment was agreed to by the Government as part of a package of reforms to intellectual property policy. Background information is available here.

Proposed Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill