2.23.13 Amendment of a Patent Request or of Other Filed Documents

Under sec 104, an applicant or patentee may seek to amend a patent request or any other filed document, e.g. a notice of entitlement.

Prior to acceptance of a standard patent application or certification of an innovation patent, leave to amend can be granted and the amendment allowed without advertisement.  After acceptance or certification, where leave to amend is granted and the proposed amendments are in respect of:

• the complete specification; or
• the patent request or another filed document and that amendment would ‘materially alter the meaning or scope of the request or document’;

then the amendment must be advertised for opposition purposes (reg 10.5(2)).

An amendment may or may not materially alter the meaning or scope of a document, depending on the circumstances.  For example, the addition or deletion of an inventor or nominated person will normally alter the meaning or scope of a document, whereas a minor variation of a name (e.g. to correct a spelling error) will not.

However prior to the grant of a standard patent, a proposed amendment to the name or address of the applicant does not materially alter the meaning or scope of the patent request or other filed document (reg 10.5(4)).

For further information on amending the patent request and other filed documents, see in particular the following:

• patent request
• 2.23.13.1 Amendment of Patent Request
• 2.10.10A Amendment of Patent Request – Conversion of Application to a Divisional
• abstract
• 2.8.3A Amendment of Abstract
• other filed documents
• 2.23.13.10 Amendments to “other filed documents”
• amending the name of the applicant or nominated person on a patent request or notice of entitlement under sec 104 or sec 113
• 2.6.4 Changing the Applicant or Nominated Person.