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AU Published Patent Data as of 3 July 2008

Please Note:

Important: Please read our Disclaimer regarding use of IP Australia's database services and About APPS and Help before using AU Published Patent Data Searching (APPS). We recommend that you obtain professional advice before significant business decisions are made based on published patent documents, or if assistance is needed in searching Australian or worldwide patent documentation or in interpreting the results of patent searches.

Patent applications and patents in APPS with the old AU patent application format of YYYYNNNNN do not identify related divisional or additional patent applications with the new AU patent application number format of YYYYNNNNNN. AU Published Patent Data Searching contains:

• Australian patent data as at the time of its publication and hence, the data may not be current nor indicative of the current status of the patent application or patent
• Australian patent data back to 1975; however, the data is not complete for all patent records because, for example, the particular record predates IP Australia's computer systems or, for Patent Cooperation Treaty designations, the data has not yet been provided to IP Australia by other IP Offices
• Australian patent bibliographic data from 1974 back to 1920; however, the data is not complete for most fields because these records predate IP Australia's computer systems;
• Derwent abstracts which are copyright to Derwent Information Limited and whose use is subject to the Derwent Conditions of Use in About APPS.

AU Patent Abstracts are in image (not text) format. Certain Abstracts may have a hyperlink to access the full specification. The full specification can be lengthy (40 pages on average but can be 100's of pages) and are in image (not text) format. Depending on speed of access to the Internet, it is likely that the full patent specification will take considerable time to display and/or print. AU-A Patent Applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) are referred to the European Patent Office's esp@cenet web site to access the document by the corresponding WO publication number.

IP Australia is working to improve the quality of the PCT images on this site. Until this work is completed, users are advised to use the WIPO number found using the AU Published Patent Data Searching tool to display the image using espacenet, a search tool provided by the European Patents Office. This search tool can be found at the following URL: http://www.espacenet.com/

IP Australia will be providing improved searching functionality for both standard and innovation patents as part of the implementation of the Patent Search Strategy Project in 2007.

Continuing further indicates your acceptance of the terms and conditions in Disclaimer, About APPS and Help.