Patent information in Australia

Abstract

The total amount of this waste/loss cannot be quantified; however, to give some idea of the magnitudes involved, the value of primary and secondary production in Australia in 1979-80 was about $69000 million. Even a small increase in efficiency through proper use of patent information should save millions of dollars. Research carried out in Australia in 1976-77 cost some $803 million’. Avoidance of unnecessary duplication of work by not using patent information, estimated at lo”,,; (the actual figure is probably much higher), would save $80 million a year for more productive research. As a case in point, the Patent Office has shown that it can save the Government substantial sums by establishing that proposed industrial research and/or development incentive projects have been pre-empted by disclosures in patent documents. Similar levels of savings could be made by the avoidance of unnecessary licensing fees associated with the transfer of new technology.