Monday, August 6, 2012

When will my patent application be examined?

Mt Ruapehu Original Vertorama
Mount Ruapehu
We are often asked for status updates on patent applications we are handling in Australia and New Zealand. Last year I ran some numbers on my firm's cases and posted my results. I'm sure the sample size is large enough to be a fair representation of IPONZ records.

I found that 84% of unexamined patent cases had been filed up to 12 months earlier. About 16% of cases were filed between 12 months and 24 months. A negligible number were filed more than 24 months earlier.

Since then it feels like IPONZ has conducted a massive clearance of its inventory. Some numbers I ran recently confirm just that. As at 26 July 2012 approximately 91% of unexamined patent cases had been filed up to 12 months earlier. Approximately 9% of cases were filed between 12 months and 24 months earlier.

Patent examination times

Breaking this down further, just over half (51%) of unexamined patent cases were filed less then 6 months earlier. Approximately 40% were filed between 6 months and 12 months earlier.

I guess the answer to the most commonly asked question is that a New Zealand patent application will probably be examined some time within 12 months of filing. Unless it isn't.

Photo courtesy of author JayVeeAre under Creative Commons licence.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Matt. Your readers might find that a quick visit to the IPONZ website will help with their query on processing times for applications at IPONZ. http://www.iponz.govt.nz/cms/iponz/processing-timeframes-for-applications-and-correspondence

    Mark Pritchard

    ReplyDelete

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