Legal and Copyright

Data Current as of 05 September 2008

No responsibility assumed The Commonwealth, IP Australia, its officers and employees assume no responsibility in relation to the use of this web site or the information contained in it. Search facilities - special skills required Although IP Australia has made available through this web site facilities for searching IP Australia's databases, you should not assume that you have sufficient knowledge and skill to conduct a search adequate for your purposes or to interpret the results of the search. Patent, trade mark and design searching is generally only carried out by specially trained persons and the interpretation of the search results is a matter of legal analysis usually performed by specialist advisers. The search facilities provided in this web site are not a substitute for searches conducted or advice obtained from specialist searchers or advisers. Information may contain errors and inaccuracies The databases accessible through this web site contain large quantities of information which has been entered manually and inevitably errors and inaccuracies occur in such a process. Although efforts are made to identify such errors and inaccuracies, the database nevertheless contains errors and inaccuracies. Database limitations The databases do not show patent, design and trade mark applications recently filed with IP Australia. The details of such applications will not yet have been captured in the data base. Because of certain international laws and conventions, patent, design and trade mark applications not yet filed in Australia may be relevant to you when filed at some future time. The rights granted in relation to those applications may be back-dated to a time prior to the date of your search. The databases accessible through this web site do not show all relevant matters in relation to patents, trade marks and designs. There are many matters which may affect an application for registration or an existing registration which are not within the scope of IP Australia's activities or which have not yet been bought to IP Australia's notice. These matters will not be recorded in the databases. Our databases are under continuous development and undergo maintenance on Wednesday evenings between 7.00pm - 9.00pm and Saturday 12.00 noon - 9.00pm Australian EST. If you have any questions about this site, e-mail us at servicecentre@ipaustralia.gov.au The Designs database All data published in the Australian Official Journal of Designs can be searched on ADDS. The data coverage is of all applications and registrations from 1986 and all registrations captured from 1973 to 1985 that were still active in 1985. Unreliability of third party information Much of the information contained in the databases accessible through this web site is provided to IP Australia by third parties. It is not possible for IP Australia to check the accuracy of the information provided by third parties. Inaccuracies may arise in that information in different ways and those inaccuracies may not be evident to users of this web site. Third party copyright The databases available through this web site may contain material in which third parties are the owners of copyright (such as logos and patent and design drawings). Copying such material may infringe the rights of others and therefore IP Australia recommends that you obtain the appropriate approvals from the copyright owner before copying or doing any other infringing acts. Licences This site uses Unisys patent no. 4,558,302 and/or foreign counterparts, which is licensed by Unisys for use on this site as a public service. Technical terms used The information in this web site uses terms which have technical meanings that may be different from their ordinary meanings and require specialist knowledge and expertise to understand properly and use effectively. No advice provided On this web site IP Australia does not provide legal or other advice in relation to intellectual property or any other matters. The information contained in this web site is not intended to be advice. It is general information only. The information contained in this web site is not adapted to any particular person's circumstances and therefore cannot be relied upon to be of assistance in any particular case. Professional advice recommended The information in this web site should not be used as a substitute for professional advice and assistance and we strongly recommend that such advice and assistance be obtained before you take any commercial decisions or steps. The intellectual property laws in other countries are different from those in Australia. You should consult an appropriate professional if foreign laws may affect you. No endorsement of other organisations or businesses Incorporated into this web site are links to the web sites of other organisations and businesses. The links we have incorporated do not and should not be taken as implying an endorsement or approval of the content of those web sites or the activities of the organisations and businesses responsible for those web sites. Information collected by this site IP Australia collects and saves access information relating to the use of this service. This includes for each http request received: the date and time, the originating address, the object requested, and the completion status of the request. Information is also recorded for access by site search engines, browsers, spiders and computer platforms. IP Australia examines this information to determine the traffic through the server as well as access levels to specific pages. In order to deliver better services, IP Australia also performs statistical analysis to establish priorities and allocate resources. The statistics and log files may be preserved indefinitely and used at any time and in any way necessary to prevent security breaches and to insure the integrity of the information supplied by IP Australia. IP Australia uses cookies to obtain session details for accesses to parts of the site. Cookies are essential in providing seamless access to our online databases. Cookie information is not stored or collected by IP Australia. IP Australia also does not maintain a record of search enquiries to the database search engines, or the results obtained by the search request. All information submitted electronically to IP is handled and saved according to the provisions of the Privacy ACT 1988. Some of this information may appear in our online databases or in our publications.