8.6. Examination and certification: Expedited examination

Date Published

A design owner or customer can make a written request to the Registrar to expedite the examination of their registration.

IP Australia offers this process as a courtesy. Expedited examination is not mentioned in the Act or regulations and is a business process. As a result, timelines for examination could vary based on operational requirements. Where possible, however, examinations of files with expedite requests will be processed before other requests.


Process

An owner may request expedited examination at the time of the examination request or after the request has been lodged and the design is pending examination.

Requests should be made through the IP Australia online portal services. We cannot respond to a verbal or email request – it must be in writing, preferably through the online process.

The request must state relevant reasons. This statement is taken as a declaration by owner that the specific reasons are a true and accurate representation of their situation.

The Customer Experience Group (CEG) will consider the request and the reasons provided and decide whether to grant it. They will then send a response to the owner specifying whether the request has been granted. If it is granted, CEG will then forward the expedited case to the examiners as a priority task.

Examiners will make their best efforts to examine expedited cases ahead of others.


Reasons

To grant a request to expedite examination, the Registrar must be reasonably satisfied, based on the reasons provided by the owner, that either:

  • expediting the examination would be in the public interest
  • there are special circumstances that make it desirable.
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Reasons for this may relate to, for example:

  • specified commercialisation requirements by the owner
  • infringement matters
  • licensing​​​​​​​.