1.4. Examination Quality Standards

Date Published

IP Australia recognises that the services it provides must comply with the requirements of the Trade Marks Act 1995 and Regulations, and meet expectations of quality from its customers. IP Australia’s Quality Policy is available on the IP Australia website.

IP Australia’s quality management system, whilst monitoring, managing and reviewing the ongoing suitability and efficiency of our processes and procedures, also includes a strong focus on consistently achieving quality IP products and services.  

Our Trade Marks Service Level Commitments set out the level of service that customers can expect. These commitments are relevant to applications for registration, examination requests and hearing decisions.

Quality objectives have been developed which provide a framework as part of our quality system. They are:  

  • Stakeholders/Customers have confidence in our decisions

  • Our services and products demonstrate a professional approach

  • The information we provide is useful for stakeholders

As part of meeting the above objectives, a set of Quality Standards is applicable to all aspects of an examination of a trade mark application. They provide us IP Australia with benchmarks against which to assess (or review) the quality of the work we produced.  

Achieving the standards for trade mark examination will ensure that the resulting registrations are entitled to a presumption of validity, which meets the customer's expectations. The Manual is fundamental to implementing the quality standards but must always be considered as a guide and interpreted in the context of the Act, Regulations and the relevant decisions of courts and tribunals.  

The quality standards support IP Australia's commitment to providing high quality trade mark regulatory services for the benefit of Australia.  These standards will be continually refined in the light of experience and comments from our customers.

The quality standards can be viewed by clicking on the heading below.

Quality Standards (Printable Word Version)

Amended Reasons

Amended Reason Date Amended

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