Naomi Pearce

On 5 March 2024, the Australian Patent Office (APO) issued its decision in the opposition filed by Clearview Towing Mirrors Pty Ltd in respect of Australian patent application AU2020281026 (Opposed Application). Clearview had opposed the grant of the Opposed Application on the grounds of inventive step, novelty, sufficiency, support and clarity.

The Federal Court’s second patent decision of 2024 is a unanimous decision of the Full Federal Court relating to one of several long-running patent disputes in the field of carpark overstay detection.   In March 2023, Justice Besanko upheld the validity of two patents owned by Vehicle Monitoring Systems Pty Ltd (VMS), both entitled ‘Method, apparatus and system for parking overstay detection’. 

In the first Federal Court patent decision handed down in 2024, MSA 4×4 Accessories Pty Ltd failed to establish infringement by Clearview Towing Mirrors Pty Ltd of MSA’s patent to a mountable storage device, commonly used in off-road and trade vehicles. 

The High Court of New Zealand is only rarely called on to determine applications for interlocutory injunctions in proceedings alleging patent infringement. The decision in this case was that, despite taking more than a