Australia, like the US, has had patent re-examination proceedings for some time. And much like has happened in the

US, there is now a proposal to change Australian patent re-examination so as to introduce new grounds of invalidity and

to change the relevant standard of proof required for validity. As the Australian Patent Office must initiate re-examination if requested to do so (even where there is no substantial

new question of validity), these changes are expected to transform Australian patent re-examination proceedings into a

powerful weapon for post grant attack.