Millard v Commissioner of Patents

This case concerned an appeal to the High Court of Australia from a decision of the Commissioner of Patents. The applicant, Hannah Gardner Millard, sought a patent for "Improvements in dressmakers' pattern outfits." The Commissioner had refused to accept the application on the grounds that the specification disclosed no invention and no patentable subject matter.

The central legal issue before the High Court was whether the applicant's proposed dressmakers' pattern outfit constituted a patentable invention. Specifically, the court had to determine if the described features, which included pattern pieces marked with sequential characters and an instruction sheet with illustrations and explanatory text to guide the assembly of a garment, amounted to a genuine invention for the purposes of patent law.

The High Court, in dismissing the appeal, found that the applicant's proposal lacked any "germ of invention." The court applied the principle that a patentable invention must demonstrate a novel and inventive step, and in this instance, the combination of pre-marked pattern pieces and instructional diagrams was considered to be a mere mechanical arrangement or an ordinary workshop improvement rather than a true invention. The court concluded that the Commissioner's decision was correct.