FOR IP PROFESSIONALS

Doing business with us

In keeping with the Electronic Transaction Act 1999, we provide you the option of using electronic communications when engaging with us.

Making payments to us

As a customer of IP Australia you may wish to know more about the following:

Determining fees and charges
Approved Means for Transactions
Official Direction in relation to the payment of fees
Conditions of use - Emergency Fax Service
Patents (Filing Documents and Evidence - Opposition) Direction
Trade Marks (Filing Documents and Evidence - Opposition) Direction

How to pay us:

Determining fees and charges

Most eServices requests require payment at the time of filing using a Visa or MasterCard. Certain transactions made using other means (i.e. not online) still need to be paid for at the time of filing. You can determine the fees payable in respect of your application, by looking at the fee schedule for patents, trade marks, designs or plant breeder's rights and the list of other charges, or by using our International Trade Mark Fee Calculator. If during processing of your application the fee items used in the calculation are found to be incorrect, the fee payable is recalculated using the correct fee items. This may result in a letter of notification being sent (underpayments) or refund processed (overpayments).

Approved Means for Transactions

Our customers have the opportunity to file some documents, requests and make payments using an approved means. Customers that file via approved means will benefit through lower fees for these service requests and payments as listed in the fee schedules for patents, trade marks, designs and plant breeders rights.

Payment Types

Credit Card

Credit card is available for all our products and services, including the payment of sundry debtor accounts. Cards accepted are Visa and MasterCard. A minimum of $10 applies for all credit card transactions.

We have appropriate security and handling mechanisms in place to protect your credit card details.

A Payment Options Form must be included when posting credit card payments or using the Emergency Fax Service, cheques or money orders. Please note that this form must not be attached when using eServices (a payment service is available using the 'My Payments' option). Declined credit cards do not constitute payment.

Payments Options Form [72 KB]

Accounts for Selected Services

Payment may be made on account for non-IP transactions such as copies of patent specifications and journal subscriptions. Items are charged to your customer account which you pay on a monthly basis. You may request an account by contacting our office on 1300 65 1010. Once your account is established, you will be able to charge all general (non-IP) items. Invoices are sent monthly with statements. Payment terms are strictly 30 days.

Cash/ cheque/ money order

Cash, cheque or money orders are accepted for all our products and services. Cash payments may be made in person at our office in Canberra, ACT, and must be made in Australian dollars. Cheque or money order payments may also be made in person at our office in Canberra, ACT, or through the mail to our PO Box address. Both personal and bank cheques are accepted and must be marked 'not negotiable'. Cheques must be made out in Australian dollars and originate from an Australian bank. Personal cheques are receipted on the day of the transaction but are subject to 5 days clearance. Dishonoured cheques do not constitute payment.

EFTPOS

EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale) is available for all our products and services, using your bank debit card and PIN number. EFTPOS facilities are available at each of our office in Canberra, ACT for over the counter transactions. A lower limit of $10 applies to EFTPOS transactions. The upper limit is determined by your bank balance and bank's individual policy. There is no cash out facility provided.

Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)

Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) is available for all our products and services. Transfer of funds is made from your bank account into our bank account. EFT payments must be initiated from your financial institution. Once the EFT payment has been received, we will match it to your IP transaction. EFT is by prior arrangements only.

If you would like to pay by EFT you must contact us for an EFT form. The date of your payment will be the date that money arrives in our account not the date you undertake the transfer. This can be up to 10 working days later, so ensure you allow sufficient time for this method of payment, or you may incur late fees or miss a critical date (note that certain service requests are not considered filed until both the request and money are received). To protect your interests, the EFT form must contain sufficient details to enable us to match your payment with your IP right. The completed EFT transaction details notice should be posted to:

IP Australia
PO Box 200
Woden ACT 2606

Direct Debit

This payment type is limited to Business to Business (B2B) customers. These customers are required to enter into an IPA-B2B Online Transaction System Agreement, a Direct Debit Request Service Agreement and must provide IP Australia a Direct Debit Request.

Further information regarding B2B and Direct Debit can be obtained by contacting our office on 1300 65 1010 during business hours.

Emergency Fax Service correspondence

When you use the Emergency Fax Service, please ensure that you adhere to the conditions of use.

Faxes do not need to be accompanied by a paper copy or "confirmation copy". Doing so may result in a duplicate payment being processed. If you need to split your transmission as a result of page restriction limits, ensure you identify the second batch of documents as following on from part 1.

Receipt of a fax is taken to be the date and time the entire fax enters our information system at the Canberra Office. The date and time of receipt is based on Australian Eastern Standard/Daylight Savings Time (AEST/AEDT) when the final page of the fax is received.

For submissions using our online services - eServices or our B2B system

The date and time of receipt of a service request submitted using an IP Australia online service (eServices or B2B system) is the date and time in Canberra (Australian Eastern Standard/Daylight Savings Time) when the entirety of the service request (and any attachments) has entered IP Australia's information system. Users should note that this may be different from the date and time in their location.

Any attachment to an electronic service request is not considered received by IP Australia until the entirety of the service request (and any attachment) has entered IP Australia's information system. The date and time of receipt of the attachment is the date and time of receipt of the service request (determined as above).

Trade Marks

We prefer the use of the PNG file type for Trade Mark images, but will accept image files as PNG (.png), TIFF (.tif), JPEG (.jpeg, .jpg), MP3 (.mp3) or MPEG (.mpg). Note that sound files must be in MP3 (.mp3) format. Note that animated files must be in MPEG (.mpg) format.
We prefer the use of PDF for documents, but will accept document files as PDF (.pdf), TIFF (.tif), Text (.txt), XML (.xml) and Word (.doc, .docx).
Please ensure there are no spaces in the image file name.
The preferred size range for trade mark images is 4 cm x 3 cm (minimum) and 8 cm x 8 cm (maximum).
The minimum allowable image size is 4cm x 2cm to ensure the features of the trade mark can be clearly identified. The maximum allowable size for an image is 29.7cm x 21cm.
The minimum resolution of an image is 200 dots per inch (dpi), the maximum resolution of an image is 600 dots per inch (dpi), with the recommended resolution as 300 dpi.
The colour space of an image must be sRGB.
If it is important that the files are presented in a specific order, the file names must begin with a number indicating the sequence.
File attachments must be limited to a maximum of 20MB (or less for slow connections) to allow for upload and conversion of the image.
For more information about how to file sound and moving image file formats, please contact our Customer Service Centre on 1300 65 1010.
Correspondence accompanying payments can be made via eServices or Emergency Fax Services.

Patents

We prefer the use of PDF, but will accept attachment files as PDF (.pdf), TIFF (.tif), Text (.txt), Word (.doc, .docx) PNG (.png), XML (.xml) and JPEG (.jpeg, .jpg). Please note that PNG or JPEG files should only be provided if an image needs to be in colour.
PDF attachments must be compatible to at least Adobe Acrobat v5.0 (PDF 1.4) to ensure general accessibility.
The size of the pages should be A4 (29.7cm x 21 cm).
The minimum resolution of an image is 200 dots per inch (dpi), the maximum resolution of an image is 600 dots per inch (dpi), with the recommended resolution as 300 dpi.
Images and drawings should be executed in durable, black, dense, dark, uniformly thick and well-defined, lines and strokes without colouring. Grayscale should not be used.
Nucleotide and/or Amino Acid Sequence Listings should be submitted in a format consistent with that of the PCT Administrative Instruction Annex C.
File attachments must be limited to 20MB in size.
Any data exceeding 999 pages in size must be sent to us as physical media (CD-ROM, CD-R, DVD or DVD-R). However it must be noted that where a patent application is filed only partly via our website and other components of the application are filed via physical media, and these components are received by us on different days, the filing date will be determined according to Regulation 3.5A. This may mean that the application is only entitled to the date the last component was filed.

International Patent Applications

As a Receiving Office we are able to accept international applications prepared and filed using the WIPO hosted ePCT system. Applications filed with the Australian Receiving Office (RO/AU) through ePCT are received for the purpose of the PCT at the date and time in Canberra (Australian Eastern Standard/Daylight Savings Time) when the transaction is completed.
We also accept international applications prepared using WIPO's PCT Safe software and submitted online through IP Australia's PCT online service (noting the file attachment size limit for PCT Safe is 20MB).
Nucleotide and/or Amino Acid Sequence Listings should be submitted in a format consistent with that of the PCT Administrative Instruction Annex C.

Designs

We prefer the use of the PNG file type for greyscale or colour images and TIFF for black and white images. We will accept only PNG (.png), TIFF (.tif) and JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg) for image files.
We prefer the use of PDF for documents, but will accept PDF (.pdf), TIFF (.tif), Text (.txt), Word (.doc, .docx) XML (.xml) and JPEG (.jpeg, .jpg).
PDF attachments must be compatible to at least Adobe Acrobat v5.0 (PDF 1.4) to ensure general accessibility.
We recommend that each attached image file is a single A4 size page (29.7cm x 21 cm).
Please ensure there are no spaces in the file name.
The minimum resolution of an image is 200 dots per inch (dpi), the maximum resolution of an image is 600 dots per inch (dpi), with the recommended resolution as 300 dpi.
The colour space of an image must be sRGB
File attachments must be limited to a maximum of 20Mb (or less for slow connections) to allow for upload and conversion of the image.

Plant Breeder's Rights

We prefer the use of PDF for documents but will accept PDF (.pdf), Text (.txt), Word (.doc, .docx), JPEG (.jpeg, .jpg), TIFF (.tif) and XML (.xml).
We prefer the use of JPEG for images but will accept JPEG (.jpeg, .jpg), PNG (.png), and TIFF (.tif).
PDF attachments must be compatible to at least Adobe Acrobat v5.0 (PDF 1.4) to ensure general accessibility. Note we prefer the use of our online fillable PDF forms where possible.
The size of the pages should be A4 (29.7cm x 21 cm).
The minimum resolution of an image is 200 dots per inch (dpi), the maximum resolution of an image is 600 dots per inch (dpi), with the recommended resolution as 300 dpi.
File attachments must be limited to 20MB in size.

DRM - Digital Rights Management

We do not accept file attachments which make use of Digital Rights Management (DRM) file policy settings. Policy settings are used in some file formats to (among other things) limit copying, printing or the duration of readability of the file. If detected, files containing policy settings may be rejected by IP Australia and you may be asked to re-submit a policy-free version of the file.

Electronic Service Request Receipt

Trade marks

This table shows the ways that we can receive requests for trade marks.

Trade marks	eServices	B2B	Emergency Fax	Email
TM Headstart request / Add class(es) fee / Part 2 fee / new representation fee	yes	no	no	no
TM Headstart amendments	yes	no	no	no
TM Headstart general correspondence	yes	no	no	yes
Apply for a trade mark	yes	yes	yes	no
Reply to examiner's report	yes	yes	yes	no
General opposition correspondence	yes	yes	yes	no
Request amendment (standard application)	yes	yes	yes	no
Registration payment	yes	yes	yes	no
Renewal payment	yes	yes	yes	no
Request assignment / Cancellation / Withdrawal	yes	yes	yes	no
Trade Marks Declarations	yes	yes	yes	no

Patents

This table shows the ways that we can receive requests for patents.

Patents	eServices	B2B	Emergency Fax
Innovation patent application	yes	yes	yes
Provisional patent application	yes	yes	yes
Standard patent application	yes	yes	yes
Standard patent application - National Phase Entry	yes	yes	yes
Reply to examiner's report	yes	yes	yes
Opposition correspondence	yes	yes	yes
Renewal payment	yes	yes	yes
Request examination	yes	yes	yes
Request amendment	yes	yes	yes
General correspondence	yes	yes	yes
Check PCT application status	no	no	yes
Patents Declarations	yes	yes	yes

Plant Breeder's Rights

This table shows the ways that we can receive requests for plant breeder’s rights.

Plant Breeder's Rights	eServices	B2B	Emergency Fax
Apply for Plant Breeder's Rights (Part 1)	yes	yes	yes
Apply for Plant Breeder's Rights (Part 2 - Description of Variety)	yes	yes	yes
Reply to examiner's correspondence	yes	yes	yes
Opposition correspondence	yes	yes	yes
Renewal payment	yes	yes	yes
Plant Breeder's Rights Declarations	yes	yes	yes

Plant Breeder's Rights forms are provided in a fillable PDF format.

Designs

This table lists the ways that we can receive requestsfor Designs.

Designs	eServices	B2B	Emergency Fax
Apply for registration / publication of a Design	yes	yes	yes
Reply to Pre-registration Formalities Notice (with replacement / substitute representations)	yes	yes	yes
Reply to Pre-registration Formalities Notice (without representations)	yes	yes	yes
Reply to examiner's report	yes	yes	yes
Opposition correspondence	yes	yes	yes
Renewal payment	yes	yes	yes
Designs Declarations	yes	yes	yes

Designs forms are provided as a PDF.

General

General	eServices	B2B	Emergency Fax
Request copies of documents	yes	yes	yes
General enquiries	yes	yes	yes
FOI Request	yes	yes	yes
Making a complaint or suggestion	yes	yes	yes

Sending Electronic Physical Media

We accept physical media (CD-ROM, CD-R, DVD or DVD-R) for certain transactions. You may be required to send duplicate copies of physical media. Physical media identified for an eServices request must be accompanied by the physical media coversheet that can be printed from within the eServices official receipt after submission. Each physical medium must be enclosed in a hard case and accompanied by a transmittal letter on paper. The transmittal letter must list:

the machine format (e.g. IBM-PC, Macintosh)
the operating system compatibility (e.g. MS-DOS, MS-Windows)
a list of the files contained on the physical medium including their names, sizes in bytes and dates of creation.

Please note USB devices are not an approved form for filing physical media.

Physical media submitted to IP Australia will not be returned to you. Your physical media must be physically labelled with the following information:

the name of the sender;
the name of the invention (patents only);
any relevant reference number;
creation date of the physical media;
the order of media if the document extends over multiple media; and
an indication of copy of submission if more than one copy is filed (e.g. Copy 1 or Copy 2).

Any amendment to the information must be sent on a replacement physical medium containing the original text and incorporating the amended information.

Opposition - Means for filing documents and Evidence

For oppositions evidence and certain other documents must be filed through an electronic document management system known as Objective Connect. Access to this system will be arranged when opposition proceedings are commenced. The documents that must be filed by this means and other requirements are specified in the Patents (Filing Documents and Evidence-Opposition) Direction and the Trade Marks (Filing Documents and Evidence-Opposition) Direction.

Objective Connect User Guides

Last Updated: 19/11/2014