PATENTS ACT 1990 - SECT 43 Priority dates

PATENTS ACT 1990 - SECT 43

             (1)  Each claim of a specification must have a priority date.

             (2)  The priority date of a claim is:

                     (a)  if subsection (2A) applies to the claim--the date determined under the regulations; or

                     (b)  otherwise--the date of the filing of the specification.

          (2A)  This subsection applies to a claim if:

                     (a)  prescribed circumstances apply in relation to the invention defined in the claim; and

                     (b)  a prescribed document discloses, or a prescribed set of prescribed documents considered together disclose, the invention in the claim in a manner that is clear enough and complete enough for the invention to be performed by a person skilled in the relevant art.

          (2B)  A prescribed document, or a prescribed set of prescribed documents considered together, is taken to disclose the invention in a claim as mentioned in paragraph (2A)(b) so far as such disclosure requires a description of a micro-organism, if:

                     (a)  the micro-organism is deposited with a prescribed depository institution in accordance with such provisions of the Budapest Treaty as are applicable; and

                     (b)  the prescribed circumstances apply.

             (3)  Where a claim defines more than one form of an invention, then, for the purposes of determining the priority date of the claim, it must be treated as if it were a separate claim for each form of the invention that is defined.

             (4)  The priority date of a claim of a specification may be different from the priority date of any other claim of the specification.

             (5)  If, at the time when a Convention application or a PCT application is made in respect of an invention:

                     (a)  an application (the earlier application ) has been made for protection in respect of the invention in a Convention country; and

                     (b)  the earlier application was made in the prescribed period; and

                     (c)  the earlier application has been withdrawn, abandoned or refused without becoming open to public inspection; and

                     (d)  the earlier application has not been used as the basis of claiming a right of priority in a Convention country under a law of that country; and

                     (e)  a later application has been made by the same applicant for protection in respect of the invention in a Convention country;

the earlier application is taken, for the purposes of this Act, to have never been made.

Note:          For the purposes of paragraph (e), the later application need not have been made in the same Convention country as the earlier application.