Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

PATENTS ACT 1990 - SECT 201

             (1)  A person must not carry on business, practise or act as a patent attorney unless the person is a registered patent attorney or a legal practitioner.

Penalty:  $3,000.

             (2)  The members of a partnership must not carry on business, practise or act as patent attorneys unless at least one member is a registered patent attorney or a legal practitioner.

Penalty:  $3,000.

             (3)  A person must not describe himself or herself, or hold himself or herself out, or permit himself or herself to be described or held out, as a patent attorney, or agent for obtaining patents unless the person is a registered patent attorney.

Penalty:  $3,000.

             (4)  The members of a partnership must not describe the partnership, or hold the partnership out, or permit the partnership to be described or held out, as patent attorneys, or agents for obtaining patents, unless at least one member is a registered patent attorney.

Penalty:  30 penalty units.

             (5)  A company must not carry on business, practise, act, describe itself or hold itself out, or permit itself to be described or held out, as a patent attorney or agent for obtaining patents.

Penalty:  $15,000.

             (6)  It is not an offence against subsection (1), (2) or (5) if the legal representative of a deceased patent attorney:

                     (a)  carries on the patent attorney's business for not more than 3 years after the patent attorney's death or for any further period allowed by a prescribed court; and

                     (b)  is a registered patent attorney, or employs a registered patent attorney to manage the business on his or her behalf.

             (7)  For the purposes of this section, a person or company is taken to carry on business, practise or act as a patent attorney if, and only if, the person or company does, or undertakes to do, on behalf of someone else, any of the following in Australia for gain:

                     (a)  applying for or obtaining patents in Australia or anywhere else;

                     (b)  preparing specifications or other documents for the purposes of this Act or the patent law of another country;

                     (c)  giving advice (other than advice of a scientific or technical nature) about the validity, or infringement, of patents.

             (8)  A person does not commit an offence against subsection (1) in respect of anything done, or undertaken to be done, by the person in the capacity of employee for:

                     (a)  in any case--the person's employer; or

                     (b)  if the person's employer is a member of a related company group--another member of the group.

             (9)  A company that is a member of a related company group does not commit an offence against subsection (5) in respect of anything done, or undertaken to be done, by the company for another member of the group.

           (10)  In this section:

"related company group" means a group of 2 or more companies, where each member of the group is related to each other member of the group.

           (11)  For the purposes of this section, the question of whether a company is related to another company is to be determined in the same manner as that question is determined under the Corporations Act 2001 .