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ARTICLE · 10 MAY 2016

How do the laws of disclosure and support affect drafting patent specifications?

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This article serves as a timely reminder on how these relatively new laws affect how patent specifications are drafted.

AustraliaIntellectual Property
Charles Tansey
Charles Tansey
Michael Zammit
Michael Zammit
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The Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Raising the Bar) Act 2012 (the RTB Act) commenced 3 years ago, and with the passage of the legislation came a number of important changes to the Patents Act 1990 (Cth) (the Act), in particular to increase the thresholds of 'disclosure' and 'support' required in a patent specification. Australian attorneys will undoubtedly have been drafting specifications to these higher standards for many years, even before the passage of the RTB Act. In view of the first opposition decision to deal with these more stringent requirements1, this article may serve as a timely reminder on how these relatively new laws affect how specifications are drafted in order to comply with the higher thresholds of disclosure and support.

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