A standard patent application (also called a complete or convention application) gives long term and control to a claimed invention based on your technology. Standard patents in Australia last up to 20 years from the filing date or priority date of your application. This maximum lifespan is extendable for up to a further 5 years for pharmaceutical based inventions.
For a standard application to be granted as a patent, the invention must be new (novel) and include an inventive step (e.g. be a non-obvious adaption of the previous technology). Also the invention is required to be able to be made from the basic instructions included in the specification of the application.
It is important to note that the invention must differ in some way from existing known technology, but the difference(s) must have resulted from soothing more than the simple application of published information or background knowledge.