Why Early Is Good When It Comes To Requesting Examination (Local Clients)

If an Australian patent applicant wishes to accelerate the progress of their Australian patent application, it is common practice to request examination of the application at filing or very shortly thereafter. However, there are other benefits to requesting examination early that may not be immediately apparent to applicants. Some of these benefits are mentioned below:

• An early patent search is performed by the Australian Patent Office. This will provide the applicant with a prior art search, the results of which can be taken into account, for example, when prosecuting overseas applications. The prior art results can be used as a basis for pre-emptive claim amendments to be made for overseas applications. For US applications this may allow the claims to enjoy a broader interpretation.