The Patents (Amendment) Rules 1993

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Rules)

These Rules amend the Patents Rules 1990 (S.I. 1990/2384)—

(a) to replace rule 30 (address for service) with a rule which makes better provision for the furnishing of addresses by applicants for and proprietors of patents and persons concerned in proceedings under the Rules;

(b) in rule 85 to—

(i) clarify that rule 113(1) (which requires documents to be translated into English) does not apply where information relating to micro-organisms is added to an international application for a patent (UK) after the international filing date, and

(ii) extend the circumstances in which an international application for a patent (UK) shall not be treated as withdrawn under the Act;

(c) in rule 93—

(i) to provide under a new sub-paragraph (g) of paragraph (4) a restriction on the inspection of documents issued by the Patent Office which the comptroller considers should be treated as confidential, and

(ii) in paragraph (5)(c), to provide for any document sent by the Patent Office before 1st June 1978 as one which the comptroller is under no duty to make available for public inspection;

(d) in rule 94, to provide for a request to the comptroller for a document to be treated as confidential to be made also in respect of a specified part of a document.