Australia: Is there an Australian rocket docket for pharma?
This is applauded by parties and practitioners who recognise that swift resolution of patent disputes avoids unnecessary costs and induces market certainty for pharmaceutical companies, payers and patients.
For Australian pharma patent litigation, the selected forum will—almost always—be the Federal Court (over the state based Supreme Courts), and “forum shopping” will involve selecting between the various registries of the Federal Court. The Federal Court operates an IP practice area, with 17 patent judges nationwide each sitting within a certain state/s. Most patent judges sit in NSW and/or Victoria so most patent cases are filed there. Before selecting a registry, sophisticated applicants will consider various attributes of judges in each registry pool, including:
