Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

PATENTS ACT 1990 - SECT 45

             (1)  Where an applicant asks for an examination of a patent request and complete specification relating to an application for a standard patent, the Commissioner must examine the request and specification and report on:

                     (a)  whether the specification complies with section 40; and

                     (b)  whether, to the best of his or her knowledge, the invention, so far as claimed, satisfies the criterion mentioned in paragraph 18(1)(a); and

                     (c)  whether, to the best of his or her knowledge, the invention, so far as claimed in any claim and when compared with the prior art base as it existed before the priority date of that claim:

                              (i)  is novel; and

                             (ii)  involves an inventive step; and

                     (d)  such other matters (if any) as are prescribed.

          (1A)  For the purposes of paragraph (1)(c), the prior art base is to be taken not to include information made publicly available only through the doing of an act (whether in or out of the patent area).

             (2)  The examination must be carried out in accordance with the regulations.

             (3)  The applicant must inform the Commissioner, in accordance with the regulations, of the results of the following searches carried out for the purpose of assessing the patentability of an invention disclosed in the complete specification or a corresponding application filed outside Australia:

                     (a)  any documentary searches by, or on behalf of, a foreign patent office, other than searches prescribed by the regulations;

                     (b)  the documentary searches prescribed by the regulations.

             (4)  Subsection (3) only applies to searches completed before the grant of the patent.

             (5)  In subsection (4):

"completed" , in relation to a search, has the meaning prescribed by the regulations.