LAWCOMM 785 Patent Practice Assignment: Letter of Advice, 2026

The LAWCOMM 785 assignment puts you in the role of a patent practitioner advising an eVTOL aircraft maker on how to challenge a competitor’s pending patent applications in Australia and New Zealand. You compare the options and timeframes in each country, outline the grounds worth pursuing in light of four prior disclosures, recommend a coordinated trans-Tasman strategy and assess the impact on the client’s own pending applications.

Background

Your client, VertiDynamics Inc, is a mid-sized Californian aerospace company with an Australian subsidiary in Brisbane. It has developed SkyLynx, a five-seat electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) air taxi with eight electric ducted fans on a tilting wing, battery modules housed in the wing, and a flight controller that redistributes thrust if a fan fails. It plans certification test flights in Queensland in mid-2027 and demonstration flights in Christchurch in 2028.

A UK competitor, EvoLift Technologies Ltd, holds national phase applications in Australia (AU 2020398765) and New Zealand (NZ 794512) from a PCT application claiming priority from a UK filing of 1 December 2019. The Australian application is still under examination (first examination report of 3 April 2026 raised clarity objections only, not yet answered); the New Zealand application was accepted, with acceptance published on 25 September 2026. Claim 1 in Australia covers an eVTOL aircraft with ducted fans on a tiltable wing and a controller that redistributes thrust on fan failure; the New Zealand claim 1 additionally requires battery modules housed within the wing. SkyLynx appears to fall within both claims.

Prior Material Located by the Client

• A March 2017 peer-reviewed journal article describing a tilting wing carrying multiple ducted fans on a hybrid turbine-electric aircraft with fuselage fuel tanks; it does not discuss fan failure.
• A 2016 US patent for a consumer quadcopter drone whose controller redistributes thrust when one rotor fails, stating the technique “may be applied to any multi-rotor vehicle”.
• A 2018 Chinese utility model (in Chinese only) describing a fixed-wing unmanned aircraft with batteries housed in the wing.
• A 14 June 2019 presentation by EvoLift’s then chief engineer at VertiCon 2019 in Munich, uploaded publicly the same day, showing a tilting ducted-fan wing aircraft and its “fan-out” thrust redistribution; EvoLift did not mention this in either application.

The Client’s Own Development and Filings

• Work on tilting ducted-fan configurations since August 2018; wind tunnel tests at a Brisbane university facility in February 2019 under a written confidentiality agreement.
• A September 2019 heads of agreement to lease a hangar near Brisbane and an order for two prototype fan units for 2020 delivery.
• An October 2019 closed investor meeting in San Francisco where slides of an early SkyLynx configuration (including thrust redistribution) were shown to twelve investors; the slides were marked “Confidential” but no confidentiality agreement was signed.
• A US provisional application on 20 March 2020, a PCT application on 19 March 2021 and national phase entry in Australia and New Zealand in September 2022; both applications are pending and unexamined.

Task: Letter of Advice to the General Counsel

1. The options for challenging the applications in each jurisdiction, including the relevant timeframes, a brief outline of the possible grounds (without discussing their substance in detail) and the pros and cons of each option.
2. What the General Counsel should consider when deciding how to proceed, helping her make a qualitative assessment of the options, and how the strategy should be coordinated across both jurisdictions.
3. A brief assessment of the implications of EvoLift’s applications for VertiDynamics’ own pending Australian and New Zealand applications.
4. Where you need more information to advise fully, and how it might affect your advice.

Assumed Facts and Notes

• The Patents Act 1990 (Cth) applies in Australia and the Patents Act 2013 (NZ) in New Zealand.
• EvoLift is entitled to its 1 December 2019 priority date for every claim, and the UK priority application disclosed everything later shown at VertiCon 2019.
• The informal translation of the Chinese utility model is accurate; the specifications are identical apart from the claim difference noted.
• Procedural detail (such as evidentiary stages) is only needed to compare options; discuss costs qualitatively.
• Write for a commercially experienced in-house lawyer who is not a patent specialist; be practical, make a recommendation, and flag unsettled law or facts open to more than one reading. Do not assume facts beyond those stated.

Submission Notes

• Submit online through Canvas; anonymise the letter (student ID and LAWCOMM 785 in the header, no name).
• Word limit 2,000 words with 5% leeway, including footnotes; follow the course’s suggested procedures for formatting.
• GenAI use is permitted with a disclosure statement (platform, how it was used, confirmation of responsibility); hallucinated or wrong references attract heavy penalties.