The principal theme that emerges in all intellectual property regimes is to vest ownership in the creator, but to vary this where creation is in the course of employment or pursuant to some other express contractual arrangement. The application process for obtaining the grant of a standard or innovation patent was described in chapter 12. In this chapter, we discuss a variety of matters that relate to the entitlement to apply and be granted a patent, ownership and the allocation of rights, including the grant of interests in the Crown and compulsory licences, and the role of the Register.

Entitlement to grant

The Patents Act 1990 (Cth) focuses upon a person's entitlement to be granted the patent. A number of independent people or teams of people may be working on the same area of technology and arrive at the same invention. All may satisfy the technical requirements that qualify them as ‘inventors’ who would be entitled to a grant of patent under s 15. However, priority for grant of a patent is given to the first of the inventors to complete the work and file for protection.