Intellectual
Property Rights
Patents
Act, 1970
CHAPTER XXII: INTERNATIONAL ARRANGEMENTS
133. Notification as to convention countries
(1) With a view to the fulfilment
of a treaty, convention or arrangement with any country outside India
which affords to applicants for patents in India or to citizens of India
similar privileges as are granted to its own citizens in respect of the
grant of patents and the protection of patent rights, the Central Government
may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare such country to
be a convention country for the purposes of this Act.
(2) A
declaration under sub-section (1) may be made for the purposes either
of all or of some only of the provisions of this Act, and a country in
the case of which a declaration made for the purposes of some only of
the provisions of this Act is in force shall be deemed to be a convention
country for the purposes of those provisions only.
134. Notification as to countries not providing for reciprocity
Where any
country specified by the Central Government in this behalf by notification
in the Official Gazette does not accord to citizens of India the same
rights in respect of the grant of patents and the protection of patent
rights as it accords to its own nationals, no national of such country
shall be entitled, either solely or jointly with any other person-
(a) to apply for the grant of
a patent or be registered as the proprietor of a patent;
(b) to be registered as the assignee
of the proprietor of a patent; or
(c) to
apply for a licence or hold any licence under a patent granted under this
Act.
135. Convention applications
(1) Without
prejudice to the provisions contained in section 6, where a person has
made an application for a patent in respect of an invention in a convention
country (hereinafter referred to as the "basic application"),
and that person or the legal representative or assignee of that person
makes an application under this Act for a patent within twelve months
after the date on which the basic application was made, the priority date
of a claim of the complete specification, being a claim based on matter
disclosed in the basic application, is the date of making of the basic
application.
Explanation: Where applications
have been made for similar protection in respect of an invention in two
or more convention countries, the period of twelve months referred to
in this sub-section shall be reckoned from the date on which the earlier
or earliest of the said applications was made.
(2) Where applications for protection
have been made in one or more convention countries in respect of two or
more inventions which are cognate or of which one is a modification of
another, a single convention application may, subject to the provisions
contained in section 10, be made in respect of those inventions at any
time within twelve months from the date of the earliest of the said applications
for protection:
PROVIDED
that the fee payable on the making of any such application shall be the
same as if separate applications have been made in respect of each of
the said inventions, and the requirements of clause (b) of sub-section
(1) of section 136 shall, in the case of any such application, apply separately
to the applications for protection in respect of the said inventions.
136. Special provisions relating to convention applications
(1) Every
convention application shall-
(a) be accompanied by a complete
specification; and
(b) specify the date on which
and the convention country in which the application for protection, or
as the case may be, the first of such applications was made; and
(c) state that no application
for protection in respect of the invention had been made in a convention
country before that date by the applicant or by any person from whom he
derives title.
(2) Subject to the provisions
contained in section 10, a complete specification filed with a convention
application may include claims in respect of developments of, or additions
to, the invention in respect of which the application for protection was
made in a convention country, being developments or additions in respect
of which the applicant would be entitled under the provisions of section
6 to make a separate application for a patent.
(3) A
convention application shall not be post-dated under sub-section (1) of
section 17 to a date later than the date on which under the provisions
of this Act the application could have been made.
137. Multiple priorities
(1) Where
two or more applications for patents in respect of inventions have been
made in one or more convention countries and those inventions are so related
as to constitute one invention, one application may be made by any or
all of the persons referred to in sub-section (1) of section 135 within
twelve months from the date on which the earlier or earliest of those
applications was made, in respect of the inventions disclosed in the specifications
which accompanied the basic applications.
(2) The priority date of a claim
of the complete specification, being a claim based on matters disclosed
in one or more of the basic applications, is the date on which that matter
was first so disclosed.
(3) For
the purposes of this Act, a matter shall be deemed to have been disclosed
in a basic application for protection in a convention country if it was
claimed or disclosed (otherwise than-by way of disclaimer or acknowledgment
of a prior art) in that application, or any documents submitted by the
applicant for protection in support of and at the same time as that application,
but no account shall be taken of any disclosure effected by any such document
unless a copy of the document is filed at the patent office with the convention
application or within such period as may be prescribed after the filing
of that application.
138. Supplementary provisions as to convention applications
(1) Where
a convention application is made in accordance with the provisions of
this chapter, the applicant shall furnish, in addition to the complete
specification, copies of the specifications or corresponding documents
filed or deposited by the applicant in the patent office of the convention
country in which the basic application was made, certified by the official
chief or head of the patent office of the convention country, or otherwise
verified to the satisfaction of the Controller, along with the application
or within three months thereafter, or within such further period as the
Controller may on good cause allow.
(2) If any such specification
or other document is in a foreign language, a translation into English
of the specification or document, verified by affidavit or otherwise to
the satisfaction of the Controller, shall be annexed to the specification
or document.
(3) For
the purposes of this Act, the date on which an application was made in
a convention country is such date as the Controller is satisfied, by certificate
of the official chief or head of the patent office of the convention country
or otherwise is the date on which the application was made in that convention
country.
139. Other provisions of Act to apply to convention applications
Save as
otherwise provided in this chapter, all the provisions of this Act shall
apply in relation to convention application and a patent granted in pursuance
thereof as they apply in relation to an ordinary application and a patent
granted in pursuance thereof.
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