Austrade has developed the Export Market Development Plan (EMDP) which has just admitted registration and/or insurance into its category of costs that can be claimed. More detail can be found here.
You may now claim for payments made to patent and trade mark attorneys for the obtaining IP registration in countries outside of Australia and New Zealand. It is also possible to claim for the cost of insurance against possible infringement in countries outside of Australia or New Zealand.
Just briefly, the requirements are:
a) You must have spent the funds to seek out, create demand for or develop an export market for your product.
b) You must be the intended principal in export transactions.
c) The expense must have been paid by you during the financial year.
d) The item paid for must have been provided to you.
e) You must have evidence of the expense and of what it was incurred for.
f) If you are claiming expenses under the overseas representatives or marketing consultants categories, you must have documentary evidence that shows the role and function of the representative or consultant.
g) If you are claiming expenses under the marketing visits category you must have trip reports, boarding passes, diary notes and/or other evidence which substantiate the details of the trip.
Note
This is good news indeed. I have always maintained that the export of our considerable intellectual wealth could be an excellent source of capital for this country.