"Innovation" patents in Australia

Note the following text from the Sydney Morning Herald:

Halfway through 2005, an ingenious plan was put in motion. AMI's promoter Vaisman had lodged an ''innovation patent'' for a nasal spray to treat premature ejaculation with Australian authorities. It only takes a minute to fill out the documentation online and, not long after, you are granted an ''innovation patent'' to protect your idea until it can be scientifically verified.

An innovation patent is completely different to a standard patent. Millions of dollars and rigorous medical trials are required for a drug to be patented. According to a former AMI executive: ''The company has never owned any patents. The only thing it owned was Jack's bullshit.''

But American investors weren't to know this. They were told in mid-2005 that the company had been ''awarded'' an innovation patent by the Commonwealth Patent Office. Not only that, the company holding the Australian rights to the patent (which had cost Vaisman a mere $150) was now being acquired by AMI Inc for an astronomical $24 million.

The pattern was repeated the following year when a second company - owner of the global rights, as opposed to Australian rights - was acquired by Vaisman's publicly listed US company for "the aggregate acquisition price of $A24.05 million,'' the Securities and Exchange Commission was informed.

Of newspaper involvement:

Before AMI's collapse, Vaisman took legal action to try to prevent The Sydney Morning Herald publishing damaging information about AMI's unconscionable practices. The day before the New South Wales Supreme Court ordered him to pay the Herald's costs, which were in excess of $500,000, Vaisman put his company into administration. A creditors' meeting is being held on Thursday.