On May 24, the Australian Innovation Patent system came into force, to replace the Petty Patent system.
Petty Patents were introduced only in 1979, with the intention of providing a second, lower tier of protection for ‘short term’ inventions. In fact, the petty patent was subject to the same novelty and inventive step requirements as standard patents except that the prior art was limited only to documents or uses occurring in Australia. It had a reduced term of six years.
The innovation patent is a response to at least two recent governmental advisory committee reports that concluded that the petty patent system was failing Australian Industry. It is worth quoting the rationale:
"The purpose of the proposed innovation patent is to stimulate innovation in Australian SMEs. It would do this by providing Australian businesses with industrial property rights for their lower level inventions. Industrial property rights are not available for these inventions at present… This
