The Australian Patent and Trademark Agency, like that in Israel, US and Europe, operates as a closed agency, using income from filing fees and renewals to pay salaries.
Recently, they’ve laid off eleven examiners as much of their income comes from incoming foreign filings.
Mr Noonan, the director, explained that:
”Due to the global economic downturn, there has been a reduction in applications which has affected our revenue.”
Apparently, only one week’s notice was given. The examiners are contractors and not employees, making redundancies easier.
Trademark applications in Australia are down about 15% compared to this time last year, while patent applications are down 5-10 per cent.
The Australian Government’s Gershon review found an over-reliance on contractors within government agencies and recommended replacing 50 per cent of contractors with permanent public servants over three years.
In Israel, use of employment agency staff instead of government employees with permanence was made illegal some yeas ago. In examining patent applications there is a confidentiality issue with temporary examiners having access to confidential documents. Even with trademarks, there is, as Israel Commissioner Meir Noam pointed out, a problem with someone not directly working for government granting an exclusive use for a mark to an entity, thereby restricting the rights of the public.
That said, Unofficial sources in the Israel Patent and Trademark Office report a drop of some 20-30% in new applications. Israel, like Australia is an important jurisdiction for filing in, but less so that the US, Europe, China, Korea or Japan. When a company decides to cut back on their IP budget, and file in say, 5-6 countries, rather than 7-10, Israel and Australia are worst hit. That said, the Israel Patent Office is still recruiting and no redundancies have been announced.
Dear Michael,
The blog entry filed on 25 March 2009 entitled Australian Patent and Trademark Agency Sacks 11 Contractors contained some incorrect information.
The entry states that IP Australia had recently laid off eleven examiners. This is not correct as the staff in question were IT contractors not examination staff. In fact IP Australia has undertaken significant recruitment action over the past 12 months to increase the number of examiners. For example IP Australia will take on over 70 new patent recruits this calendar year. We have also recently established a Patent Examination Centre in Melbourne to enhance our recruitment and retention of patent examiners.
The 11 IT contractors were provided with a weeks notice which is consistent with the contract agreement they were working under.
I would be pleased if you would correct the information on your blog.
Yours sincerely
Victor Portelli
General Manager
Patents and Plant Breeders Rights Group
IP Australia
I have quoted Mr Portelli’s comments in full. I don’t have means of verifying, so am leaving the original article as it was.