Commonwealth Consolidated Regulations Commonwealth Consolidated Regulations(1) The Commissioner may, before a patent application becomes open to public inspection, disclose any or all of the following to the International Bureau or a foreign patent office:
(a) the patent application;
(b) a document given by the applicant to the Commissioner in connection with the application;
(c) information in the possession of the Commissioner relating to the applicant or the application.
(2) However, the Commissioner must not disclose the application, document or information without the consent of the applicant.
Note Section 194 of the Act also authorises the Commissioner to give a person certain information about patents, patent applications and other documents in certain circumstances.