What a Crocker…Groundless threats result in permanent injunction

It’s risky business bringing proceedings for IP infringement without proper legal advice. A self-represented Debra Crocker learnt this the hard way over a series of court proceedings, which saw her sentenced to time in prison for contempt of Court and prohibited from instituting proceedings in the Federal Court with limited exception. Following these recent proceedings,[1] …
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First of its kind: Injunction restraining launch of biosimilar granted in Australia

The first interlocutory injunction restraining the launch of a biosimilar pharmaceutical product was granted by the Federal Court of Australia in a decision on 12 June 2018¹. Background The decision concerns the monoclonal antibody rituximab, a biologic therapy which is prescribed in Australia to treat a number of immunology conditions including lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukaemia …
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Crema-free coffee patent grinds to a stop

A recent opposition decision of the Australian Patent Office¹ focused on the level of disclosure which is required in a patent specification to properly enable and support the claimed invention. This decision illustrates the importance of providing an enabling disclosure across the full width of the claimed invention and, where possible, providing a principle of …
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Innovation Patent back in IP Australia’s sights

In the latter part of 2017, IP Australia sought comment on a proposed bill, the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Productivity Commission Response Part 1 and Other Measures) Bill (Part 1 Bill), for changes to a number of IP policy matters – one of which included the abolishment of Australia’s innovation patent system. The proposed change …
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The Carbon XPRIZE and CSIRO: CO2 mitigation technology in Australia and beyond.

The NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE seeks to incentivise development of carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) technologies that convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into useful products while mitigating climate change. Ten finalists (carbon.xprize.org/teams) were selected to compete for a USD$20 million pot, by demonstrating their technologies at pilot scale using power station flue gas as the CO2 …
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Innovation patents on the ropes, but not the canvas.

The Australian innovation patent system has been in the news recently as a result of the Australian Government’s intention to abolish the system. This decision followed the general inquiry made by the Productivity Commission into Australia’s intellectual property (IP) system. The expectation within the IP industry was that abolition of the innovation patent system would …
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Changes to double patenting in New Zealand

Today, new regulations come into effect which clarify the requirements for filing divisional patent applications in New Zealand. These regulations, the Patent Amendment Regulations 2018, allow a divisional application to be filed with claims that overlap in scope with the claims of the parent application (including, for example, refiling the same claim set as the …
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