Like something out of a science fiction movie, Celestino’s $5B Sydney Science Park is set to be a world-first in the scientific community. In partnership with private industry and universities, and driven by the new Aerotropolis, the park will be an international epicentre for scientific STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education and R&D and is set to be Australia’s …

Many people, even those with significant experience with patents, harbour some misconceptions about the patent system, its advantages and risks. This article debunks a few of the more common mistakes. Only Genius Ideas Can Be Patented An invention need not be a genius idea to be patentable. An  Australian standard patent (which provides 20 years’  protection) requires that the invention …

Data exclusivity is a significant form of protection to branded pharma in Australia, yet many companies may not be aware of the subtle differences that protection has compared to protection provided by other countries. In Australia, innovators enjoy data exclusivity protection by which certain information provided to the regulatory authority (the Therapeutic Goods Administration of Australia (TGA)) for the purposes …

Australian patent law provides applicants with a ‘grace period’ in certain circumstances permitting disclosure of an invention prior to filing a patent application, provided a complete application is filed within 12 months of the disclosure. Recent decisions from the Australian Patent Office have held that this grace period applies to whole of contents disclosures filed prior to but published after …

… 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 …