3.5.1 Presentation of Evidence

Date Published


Written and documentary evidence must be in the approved form and be filed with the Commissioner electronically by approved means.  For information on the approved form of written and documentary evidence, see Written Evidence and Declarations.  Information about how evidence is to be filed can be found at 3.4.4 Filing Opposition Documents.  

Note: If documents have been filed together with the statement of grounds and particulars, it does not mean the documents are in evidence, However, it is the current practice of the Commissioner when acknowledging the filing of the Notice of Opposition to inform the parties that she intends to direct that any documents accompanying the statement of grounds and particulars will be treated as evidence in support of the opposition.  That direction is then made when the Commissioner acknowledges that the statement has been filed.  If no such direction has been made, the opponent may, during the evidence in support period, request a direction that those documents be treated as evidence in support, rather than refiling them as evidence.

The Commissioner requires that filed evidence comply in terms of the file format, file size and naming conventions (see the Objective Connect User Guide – Patents which is available on the IP Australia website).  If evidence is not presented in a suitable format, the party who filed it may be requested to re-file the evidence in the appropriate format.  Files found to be corrupted and unreadable will not be taken to be filed.  The parties will be notified as soon as possible after a corrupted file has been identified.  

Note: Physical evidence should not be filed unless requested or directed by the Commissioner (see Physical Evidence – Special Considerations).