Small businesses now have a new tool to help them manage their patents, trade marks and other valuable intellectual property (IP) assets. Intellectual Property Explorer is an online tool that will help small businesses profit from their hard work and ingenuity by identifying and analysing different forms of IP relating to inventions, designs and brands.

Following a review of its fee structure and consultation with customers, IP Australia made a formal request to Government to increase patent fees. This request has been approved and IP Australia will therefore increase some patent fees and introduce two new fee items as of 1 August 2010.

Generic top level domains (gTLDs) are the last part of a domain name, such as .com or .net. There are currently 21 gTLDs in use around the world.

The community review phase of the inaugural Peer-to-Patent Australia pilot project has now ended. For those of you not familiar with the project, Peer-to-Patent Australia is a web-based initiative aimed at supporting patent examination and improving the quality of issued patents in Australia. This is a joint project of the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and IP Australia that was launched in December 2009. The project’s chief investigators are Professor Brian Fitzgerald and Ben McEniery.

IP Australia has recently completed a review of its fee structure. The fee review proposed changes to patent fees and were published below for customer feedback and comment. The consultation period ran for four weeks until 10 June 2010.

IP Australia recently held an IP Forum focussing on IP and exporting. The forum featured a keynote address by Boost Juice’s General Counsel and Company Secretary. The IP Forum is an important engagement mechanism for IP Australia. It provides a wide range of stakeholders with an opportunity to engage with IP Australia on a specific issue.

In accordance with the directives adopted by the PCT Assembly at its thirty-second session , new equivalent amounts in AUD have been established by WIPO, and the new PCT fees will become effective from 1 July 2010.

In accordance with legislation, the Director General has declared the Tasmanian sub-office not open for business today. This action is a result of an incident at Australia Post which has closed the facility in Hobart for several hours. This close down is effective for 9 June 2010.

The validity of any patent granted by IP Australia may be challenged via court proceedings by any party at any time. The patent (686004) subject to court action by Cancer Voices Australia was first granted in Australia in 1998. IP Australia will be monitoring the relevant court proceedings.

A staggering 63 per cent of small and medium sized exporters risk significant losses if they fail to protect their intellectual property (IP) against theft and imitation overseas. To help Australian exporters protect themselves in the international marketplace, IP Australia is bringing together a panel of experts to provide the latest advice on IP issues