The ZERO patent situation (as I understand it):
Before beginning, I should acknowledge my debt to a ZERO long, the RB poster Olympus1, who has already posted summary output for the three patent applications involving Jeffrey Muller which I have reprinted below. Without his hint (no details were provided in the posts I read concerning how to access this material) I might well have remained unaware that Australian patent information was available online.
A search (details on duplicating this search are given at the end of this post) of the Australian online patent database for the name "muller;jeffrey" yields three applications:
Name: Muller ; Jeffrey Alan
Opt Date Filed
_ PP9720 12/04/99
Device for saving fuel and reducing emissions
_ PQ7629 19/05/00
Device for saving fuel and reducing emissions
_ 42937/96 PCT/AU95/00852 15/12/95
Magnetic drive transmission and retardation systems
The first of these appears to me to be a provisional patent application filed on April 12, 1999 which has subsequently lapsed.
Provisional No : PP9720 PAEN02ME
Applicant : Jeffrey Alan Muller
Title : Device for saving fuel and reducing emissions
Filing Date : 12/04/99 Lodgement Fee : 80
Date Keyed : 16/04/99 Receipt Issued Date : 16/04/99
Country of Origin : Australia: Queensland
Lapsed : Y Withdrawn :
Attorney/Address for Service :
PIZZEYS PO Box 7746
GCMC QLD 9726
I believe it to be a provisional application based on its having a provisional number - from the examples on ipaustralia.gov.au it appears to me that a filing of a complete (as opposed to a provisional) application would have an application number (rather than a provisional number), while the filing of an international application would have a PCT (Patent Co-operation Treaty) number.
As suggested by the foregoing, Australia permits the filing or three types of patent applications - provisional, complete, or international:
A provisional application-as the name implies is provisional in nature. It can be used at an early stage to establish a priority date for your invention, i.e. if your invention was known to the public before the priority date, you cannot patent it.
Filing a provisional application on its own does not give you patent protection.
Within 12 months you must also file:
an associated Australian complete application for either a petty or standard patent;
an international patent application; and/or
a patent application in one or more foreign countries.
Filing a provisional application gives you time, before committing to the expense of these further applications, to reassess the viability of your invention and decide whether you want to continue.
The Patents Act requires us to publish the Applicant's name and the title of the invention, but we do not publish the content of provisional applications so keep your invention confidential even after applying. This leaves open the chance of gaining patent protection later if you are not ready, or decide not to file an associated complete patent application or foreign patent application within the time allowed. Be aware that you will, however, lose your priority date.
The provisional specification which forms the basis of a provisional application must be drafted very carefully to ensure that you secure effective priority rights for your invention.
ipaustralia.gov.au
In addition the following "warning" screen of the online database may also be of interest:
WARNING
1.THE PATENTS ACT HAS PROVISIONS WHICH ALLOW FOR THE
RESTORATION OF A LAPSED OR A CEASED PATENT.
2.A LAPSED OR WITHDRAWN APPLICATION (INCLUDING PROVISIONAL
APPLICATIONS) OR A CEASED PATENT MAY PROVIDE PRIORITY FOR
A DIFFERENT CURRENT APPLICATION OR PATENT.
3.BECAUSE OF PROVISIONS RELATING TO THE LATE PAYMENT OF
FEES, THE FACT THAT AN APPLICATION HAS LAPSED, OR A PATENT
CEASED, WILL NOT BE KNOWN UNTIL AFTER SIX MONTHS FROM THE
DATE OF ACTUAL LAPSING OR CEASING.
Based on ipaustralia.gov.au a provisional application filed on April 12, 1999 would have lapsed a year later absent a filing of either a complete application, an international application and/or a foreign filing.
The second listed filing by Jeffrey Muller is:
Provisional No : PQ7629 PAEN02ME
Applicant : Jeffrey Alan Muller
Title : Device for saving fuel and reducing emissions
Filing Date : 19/05/00 Lodgement Fee : 80
Date Keyed : 24/05/00 Receipt Issued Date : 24/05/00
Country of Origin : Australia: Queensland
Lapsed : Withdrawn :
Attorney/Address for Service :
PIZZEYS GPO Box 1374
BRISBANE QLD 4001
Like the first application, this second recent filing (May 19, 2000) is also for a "Device for saving fuel and reducing omissions". Since no details of the application are provided, one can not determine whether the device is the same one as in the first application, a modified version of that device, or an unrelated device. Since the other Jeffrey Muller company, Save the World Technologies, also has an engine that they describe as running on compressed air, this last possibility (an unrelated device) can not be dismissed out of hand.
The third search item is presented for completeness, but appears unrelated to the ZERO device:
Application Id : 42937 / 96 Serial Number :
PCT Number : PCT/AU95/00852 WIPO Number : WO96/19035
Applicant: Summercove Pty. Ltd.
Title : Magnetic drive transmission and retardation systems
Status : Lapsed
PCT Adv. Lapsed Date : 04/09/97
Complete Filing Date : 15/12/95 Earliest Priority Date : 15/12/94
Australian OPI Date: 03/07/96
Election Flag : Y
--
Priority Date/Country: 15/12/94 AUSTRALIA
If you're wondering why this third application shows up on a search for Jeffrey Muller (his name isn't included in the displayed information), it's because a supplementary page lists the inventors of the device as Jeffrey Alan Muller and Ronald James Woodleigh. Inventor information was not available for the first two applications.
How to access the Australian online database:
Unfortunately, there is no direct link - you will need to download free software in order to do so. The software is available at ipaustralia.gov.au
I used the java applet. After it downloads and you install it, you should see a logon screen. Press the 'Enter' key to logon as a guest. This should bring up a disclaimer screen. Press 'Enter' again to bring up a menu. Type in '2' and then '1' to get to the Patent Enquiry System.
As a test you might search on the following strings (type them in without the quotes):
"muller;jeffrey"
"muller;terrence"
"hart;pro"
"hart;kevin"
(According to galleryhillcrest.com Pro Hart was born Kevin Charles Hart.)
The first of these four searches should yield the three applications described above. The remaining three resulted in no hits when I performed them. |
