One Year On: IP Australia's Regional Patent Examination Training Program

• Author: Fatima Beattie
• Position: Deputy Director General, IP Australia
• Pages: 35-36

p. 35WIPO | MAGAZINE

ONE YEAR ON:

IP Australia’s Regional Patent

Examination Training Program

By Fatima Beattie, Deput y Director

General, IP Australia

In April 2013, IP Australia embarked on developing and d elivering an intensive online

training program to partic ipants in different countrie s and time zones – a challenge,

but one worth pursuin g based on the benets already bei ng realized.

Launched with the supp ort of the ASEAN-Australia-New Zea land Free Trade Agree-

ment (AANZF TA) Economic Cooperation Work Programme (ECWP), and the World

Intellectual Propert y Organization (WIPO), the Regional Patent Examination Training

(RPET) Program had an inaugural intake that included eight examiners from Indonesia,

Kenya, Malaysia, the Philippines, Kenya and the African Regional Intellectual Property

Organization (ARIPO).

Traditionally, patent examiner training has been under taken on an ad hoc basis, over

short periods of time a nd face-to-face; an approach that does not provide for in-

depth training and knowled ge transfer. In light of this, IP Australia decided to develop

a new learning experi ence that creates a community of lea rning backed-up with a

support network.

The RPET program uses e -learning technology to provide mo dern, comprehensive

and intensive competency-based traini ng for patent examiners from different national

IP ofces. The training m aterial is based on IP Australia’s existing training framework,

introduced several years ago to imp rove the quality and consistency of examinatio n

output, and has a focus on search a nd examination to international standards in line

with the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

Trainees advance through the program on the ba sis of their progress rather than ac-

cording to an articial tra iner-based timeline. T hey are periodically assessed against

dened skills sets and sta ndards of practice. Graduates of the RPET Progra m will

have consistently demonstrated the app lication of their skills and knowledge to their

own work.

Patricia Kelly, its Director General, noted that IP Australia h as, for many years, been

an active contributor to the development of patent exa mination capabilities around

the world.

“We have delivered training prog rams, either by ourselves, or in partne rship with other

IP ofces, including WIP O. However, these tradition al training programs have been

delivered over a short p eriod of time, usually one or two weeks.”

“These kinds of time con straints mean that we have only been able to address a few

of the skills necessa ry for world class patent examiner s. This new style allows us to

take this one step further.”

“We have taken our training that is condu cted at IP Australia, with our own staff, and

turned this into a collaborative dis tance based learning progr am.”