Registration as a patent attorney in Australia is administered by the Professional Standards Board for Patents and Trade Marks Attorneys (the "PSB").
To apply to become an Australian patent attorney, one must:
1. Pass the nine topics set out in Schedule 5 to the Patent Regulations 1991.
2. Hold a suitable tertiary educational qualification in a field of technology that contains potentially patentable subject matter.
3. Be an Australian resident.
4. Have worked for a year as:
(a) a technical assistant (trainee patent attorney) in a patent attorney's practice;
an employee in a company in Australia, practising patent matters on behalf of that company; or
(b) an examiner of patents at IP Australia (the Australian Patent Office).
5. Be of good fame, integrity or character, and not have been convicted within the past five years of offences against Patents, Trade Marks and Designs legislation.
Until the late 1990s, topics were mainly taught and examined by members of the patent attorney profession under the oversight of the PSB, but this process has now been brought into the university system within Australia.
Once registered, a Patent and Trademark Attorney may be elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia.
