Patents accessibility review

Generally not. The official fees are typically only a minor part of the overall cost to secure patent protection.

At the time of filing, professional fees are usually reasonable. It is during prosecution that the professional fees often become very significant. especially in international jurisdictions.

Organisations usually rely on advice from patent attorneys rather than support from Australian Government.

IP Australia have regular IP 101 type seminars (e.g. patents, trademarks, IP in China, etc.), which are good for new innovators, start-ups and SMEs. However it would be also beneficial to provide some more advanced seminars.

We aren’t aware of SMEs where fear of litigation prevents them from filing patents.

However patents are also used for defensive purposes and to build perceived value in a technology/company where the SME may never intend to litigate. Hence future litigation is not a significant consideration.

Yes, enforcement is a slow and difficult process. SMEs have limited resources and may not be able to commit the time or funding to pursue litigation. Indeed in many cases even identifying/confirming infringement by a third party can be difficult.

We have no specific recommendations on making enforcement more accessible; however we believe any opportunity for cost reduction would be welcomed by SMEs.

UNSW’s experience is that high growth SMEs focussed on international markets usually use patents as part of their broader strategy. These companies are often looking towards an exit (company sale) at a future point in time and a patent portfolio helps build value in their organisations by securing sustainable competitive advantage.

Companies which are solely focussed on the Australian market will often simply rely on trade secrets, and not consider it worth the expense and time involved with patenting.

We also note that patent attorney firms seem to be embedding themselves more in the start-up and SME ecosystems to promote IP rights and patenting, as there are quite a few patent firms/attorneys that sponsor, help set up, play a mentor role, or are active in angel investing for these. UNSW has been approached by a patent attorney firm offering to provide pro bono advice and even funding to support student start-ups.

IP Australia’s Source IP seems to have been very quiet lately and would benefit with more exposure and publicity to promote success stories and examples of how SMEs can benefit from patents.

One SME that UNSW works with develops material for fire proofing/suppression, but has chosen not to patent because they don’t want to publish their technology. They have concerns of their competitors innovating around their technology and prefer instead to keep IP as trade secrets.