Investigates and reports on patent applications to assess their compliance with the requirements of the Patents Act.
Occupation description
Investigates and reports on patent applications to assess their compliance with the requirements of the Patents Act.
Patents Examiner is a Group B occupation
Applicants can fulfil the assessment criteria for this occupation in four different ways.
*If employment is prior to the completion of the qualification at the required level, an applicant must have at least one year of highly relevant employment at an appropriate skill level within the last five years. The remaining five years of pre-qualifying period may be within the last ten years.
A positive assessment of both qualification level and employment duration is required for a positive Skills Assessment outcome.
* Additional qualifications in a highly relevant field of study include those comparable to the following levels:
- AQF Diploma
- AQF Advanced Diploma
- AQF Associate Degree or AQF Graduate Diploma
*** Bachelor degree or higher degree includes:
- AQF Master Degree or AQF Doctoral Degree
** Highly relevant paid employment duration (20 hours or more per week)
1-3
minimum years of employment highly relevant to the nominated occupation, completed at an appropriate skill level in the five years before the date of application for a Skills Assessment.
4
minimum 4 years of relevant employment required – Three years of relevant employment (can be outside the last 5-year period) in addition to at least one year of highly relevant employment within the last five years before applying.
Qualification & Employment Criteria
Qualification
Patents Examiners usually have a background in science, engineering or law with a good understanding of scientific advances. They hold qualifications in one of the following main fields of study.
Technical qualifications include:
- Mechanical Engineering
- Biomedical Engineering
- Chemical Engineering
- Biotechnology Pharmacology
- Electronics
- Telecommunications
- Computer Science
- Physics
- Law
This occupation requires a qualification assessed as comparable to the education level of an Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) Bachelor degree or higher degree and in a field highly relevant to the nominated occupation.
Employment Criteria
Highly relevant tasks include, but are not limited to:
- Examines patent applications to assess compliance with the Australian Patents Act
- Assesses whether patent applications provide an adequate technical description of the invention
- Assesses whether the patent rights sought are justified and match the invention's technical description
- Ensures patent applications do not infringe on previous patents
- Searches on-line databases to discover similar patents held in Australia and overseas
- Grants patent rights for inventions based on new technology
- Reports findings to patent applicants or their legal representatives
- May supervise clerical or other office staff
It is essential for applicants to meet the following employment criteria:
- at least one year of post-qualification employment at an appropriate skill level,
- undertaken in the last five years,
- working 20 hours or more per week, and
- highly relevant to the nominated occupation.
If the qualification is not in a highly relevant field, then the applicant must have:
- three years of post-qualification employment experience at an appropriate skill level,
- undertaken in the last five years,
- working 20 hours or more per week, and
- highly relevant to the nominated occupation.
This is reduced to two years if there is an additional qualification at least at AQF Diploma level in a highly relevant field.
If employment has occurred before completion of qualification, then five years of highly relevant employment experience are required in addition to at least one year of highly relevant employment at an appropriate skill level in the last five years.
Please note in order to achieve a successful Skills Assessment Outcome, a positive assessment for both qualifications and employment is required.
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