The agency manages the registration of patents, trade marks, registered designs and plant breeder's rights in Australia.

From 1904 until 1998, the responsible government agency was called the Australian Patent Office (APO), which is now a division within IP Australia.

[5] Australia is also a member of the Madrid system for trade marks, the Paris Convention for designs and the UPOV for plant breeder's rights.

"[15] [October 2010] "APO is pursuing a medium-term strategy of continuing to engage patent examiners so that we can reduce that backlog during a time when our work is a little bit quieter, so that when economic activity picks up again we will be well placed.

To demonstrate the absurdity of the system, an innovation patent application was filed for the wheel and granted automatically by IP Australia.