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Commonwealth legislation
This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.
These regulations set the procedural and technical rules for obtaining, defending, amending and maintaining patents under the Patents Act, including strict filing formats, deadlines, fees, opposition and restoration processes, and appeal paths. They govern applicants, opponents, patent attorneys and the Commissioner, prescribing how specifications and drawings must be presented, how disputes are handled, and what costs and time limits apply—matters that determine whether patent rights are granted, kept, or lost.
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Direct links to the current provisions in Patents Regulations, 1912.
Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
STATUTORY RULES.
1912. No. 76.
REGULATIONS UNDER THE PATENTS ACT 1903-1909.
I, THE Governor-General in and over the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, do hereby make the following Regulations under the Patents Act 1903–1909, to come into operation on the 10th day of April, 1912.
Dated this fourth day of April, One thousand nine hundred and twelve.
DENMAN,
Governor-General.
By His Excellency’s Command,
ANDREW FISHER,
Acting Attorney-General.
SHORT TITLE.
Short title.
INTERPRETATION.
Interpretation.
“The Act” means the Patents Act 1903-1909.
“Justice of the Peace” means a Justice of the Peace of the Commonwealth, or part of the Commonwealth, or of a State or part of a State.
“The Official Journal” means the Australian Official Journal of Patents.
“Foreign application” means an application by a person for the protection of his invention in the United Kingdom, or the Isle of Man, or in any British Possession or Foreign State to which all or any of the provisions of section 121 with or without variations or additions are for the time being applicable.
C.4395.—Price 1s. 6d.
FEES.
Fees
3.—(1.) The fees to be paid under the Act and these Regulations shall be those specified in the First Schedule, and shall be paid in cash at the Patent Office. All remittances sent by post shall be by money order, postal note, or bank draft, and shall be made payable to the Commissioner of Patents.
(2.) Where any fee is payable in respect of any act or document, the Commissioner may refuse to permit or perform the act, or to receive or issue the document, as the case requires, until the fee payable is paid.
(3.) The prescribed fee for preparation of the patent for sealing shall be paid within the time allowed for the sealing of the patent, and if such fee be not paid no patent shall be sealed.
FORMS.
References to forms.
4.—(1.) Where in these Regulations any form is referred to the reference is to the form in the Second Schedule.
(2.) The forms contained in the Second Schedule may, as far as they are applicable, be used in any proceeding under the Act or these Regulations to which they are appropriate.
HOURS OF BUSINESS.
Hours of business.
APPLICATIONS.
Manner of lodging applications.
Manner of recording applications.
7.—(1.) Every application for a patent left at the Patent Office shall be numbered in the order of its receipt.
(2.) Every application for a patent sent by prepaid letter through the post shall, as far as practicable, be opened and numbered in the order in which the letter containing it was delivered at the Patent Office.
Address for service.
Signature of applicant and witness.
Application by body corporate.
One invention.
11.—(1.) When a specification comprises several distinct matters, they shall not be deemed to constitute one invention by reason only that they are all applicable to or may form parts of an existing machine, apparatus, or process.
Applications for separate patents by way of amendment.
(2.) Where a person making application for a patent has included in his specification more than one invention, the Commissioner may require or allow him to amend such application and specification and drawings or any of them so as to apply to one invention only, and the applicant may make application for a separate patent for any invention excluded by such amendment.
(3.) Every such last-mentioned application may, if the Commissioner at any time so directs, bear the date of the original application, or such date between the date of the original application and the date of the application in question, as the Commissioner directs, and shall otherwise be proceeded with as a substantive application in the manner prescribed by the Act and by these Regulations.
(4.) Where the Commissioner is required or allowed any application or specification or drawings or any of them to be amended as aforesaid, such application shall, if the Commissioner at any time so directs, bear such date, subsequent to the original date of the application, and not later than the date when the amendment was made, as the Commissioner considers reasonably necessary to give sufficient time for the subsequent procedure relating to such application.
(5.) Where the same applicant has put in two or more provisional specifications for inventions which he believes to be cognate or modifications one of the other, and the Commissioner is of opinion that such inventions are not cognate or modifications one of the other, the applicant may divide the complete specification left in connexion with his application into such number of complete specifications as is necessary to enable the application to be proceeded with as two or more separate applications for patents for different inventions.
Extension of time for leaving complete specifications.
Claims.
13.—(1.) The statement of the invention claimed, with which a complete specification must end, shall be clear and succinct as well as separate and distinct from the body of the specification.
(2.) Each claim of a specification lodged under section 63a of the Act must refer to the provisional specification to which it relates in such a manner as to identify the claim with the invention described in the provisional specification.
Time limit for acceptance of complete specification
Notice that application is ready for acceptance.
15.—(1.) When a complete specification is ready for acceptance, the Commissioner shall notify the applicant accordingly, and require him to pay the acceptance fee.
(2.) Upon the payment of the acceptance fee the Commissioner shall advertise the acceptance in the Official Journal.
(3.) If the acceptance fee be not paid within the time limited for the acceptance of the specification, the application shall be deemed to have been abandoned.
Inspection of specification.
Refusal by Commissioner to accept.
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Advertisement of other proceedings.
Extension of time for sealing.
APPLICATIONS UNDER SECTION 7 OF THE ACT.
Application under sec.7.
Production of State patent.
State specifications to accompany application.
Amendment subsequent to grant of State patent.
Amendments and objections to State patents.
Renewal fee.
Further proceedings.
APPLICATION FOR A PATENT OF ADDITION.
Application for a patent of addition.
Application to be signed by applicant.
Further proceedings.
APPLICATIONS UNDER INTERNATIONAL AND INTERCOLONIAL ARRANGEMENTS.
Form and requirements of application.
Foreign specification, &c., to accompany application.
31.—(1.) In addition to the specification left with the application, a copy or copies of the specification or specifications and drawings, or documents corresponding thereto, filed or deposited by the applicant in the Patent Office of the Foreign State or British Possession in respect of the first foreign application, duly certified by the official chief or head of the Patent Office of the Foreign State or British Possession as aforesaid, or otherwise verified to the satisfaction of the Commissioner, must be left at the Patent Office at the same time as the application, or within such further time thereafter, not exceeding three months, as the Commissioner may allow. If any specification or other document is in a foreign language, a translation thereof shall be annexed thereto, and verified by declaration or otherwise to the satisfaction of the Commissioner.
(2.) An application for extension of time for leaving the copy or copies of the foreign specification or specifications, drawings or documents, or translations thereof may be made in accordance with Form C4, and shall be accompanied by the prescribed fee.
Public inspection.
Proceedings.
RESTORATION OF LAPSED PATENTS.
Restoration of lapsed patents.
34.—(1.) Where any patent has become void owing to the failure of the patentee to pay any prescribed fee within the prescribed time, the patentee may apply to the Commissioner, in accordance with Form G1, for an order for the restoration of the patent. Every such application shall be accompanied by one or more statutory declarations verifying the statements contained in the application. If the Commissioner entertains the application, he shall advertise it in the Official Journal, and in such other manner as in his opinion is desirable. At any time within three months from the first of such advertisements in the Official Journal any person may give notice of opposition at the Patent Office.
(2.) The notice of opposition may be in accordance with Form G2, and shall state the grounds on which the person giving the notice (hereinafter called the opponent) intends to oppose the restoration. The notice must be signed by him or his patent attorney, solicitor, or agent, and must contain an address for service in the Commonwealth, and, if the Commissioner so requires, in or near to the city in which the Patent Office is situate, and shall be accompanied by a true copy.
(3.) Where the ground or one of the grounds of opposition is that the invention has been patented in the Commonwealth or in a State on an application of a prior date, the number, date, and title of the prior patent shall be specified in the notice.
(4.) Forthwith after the receipt of the notice of opposition, the copy shall be transmitted by the Commissioner to the applicant.
Security for costs.
Opponent’s evidence.
36.—(1.) Where such notice is given, the opponent shall, within fourteen days after leaving the notice, or within such further time, not exceeding one month, as the Commissioner allows, leave at the Patent Office one or more statutory declarations verifying any evidence on which he relief in support of the grounds of his opposition.
(2.) The opponent shall also leave at the Patent Office certified copies of his declaration or declarations at the same time as he leaves the originals, and the Commissioner shall forthwith transmit the copies to the applicant.
Further procedure.
This is an opening excerpt, not the complete document.