Patents Act 1977

[F1 20B Effect of reinstatement under section 20A U.K.

(1) The effect of reinstatement under section 20A of an application for a patent is as follows.

(2) Anything done under or in relation to the application during the period between termination and reinstatement shall be treated as valid.

(3) If the application has been published under section 16 above before its termination anything done during that period which would have constituted an infringement of the rights conferred by publication of the application if the termination had not occurred shall be treated as an infringement of those rights—

(a) if done at a time when it was possible for the period referred to in section 20A(1) above to be extended, or

(b) if it was a continuation or repetition of an earlier act infringing those rights.

(4) If the application has been published under section 16 above before its termination and, after the termination and before publication of notice of the request for its reinstatement, a person—

(a) began in good faith to do an act which would have constituted an infringement of the rights conferred by publication of the application if the termination had not taken place, or

(b) made in good faith effective and serious preparations to do such an act,

he has the right to continue to do the act or, as the case may be, to do the act, notwithstanding the reinstatement of the application and the grant of the patent; but this right does not extend to granting a licence to another person to do the act.

(5) If the act was done, or the preparations were made, in the course of a business, the person entitled to the right conferred by subsection (4) above may—

(a) authorise the doing of that act by any partners of his for the time being in that business, and

(b) assign that right, or transmit it on death (or in the case of a body corporate on its dissolution), to any person who acquires that part of the business in the course of which the act was done or the preparations were made.

(6) Where a product is disposed of to another in exercise of a right conferred by subsection (4) or (5) above, that other and any person claiming through him may deal with the product in the same way as if it had been disposed of by the applicant.

[F2 (6A) The above provisions apply in relation to the use of a patented invention for the services of the Crown as they apply in relation to infringement of the rights conferred by publication of the application for a patent (or, as the case may be, infringement of the patent).]

(7) In this section “termination”, in relation to an application, means—

(a) the refusal of the application, or

(b) the application being treated as having been refused or withdrawn.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Ss. 20A, 20B inserted (1.1.2005) by The Regulatory Reform (Patents) Order 2004 (S.I. 2004/2357), arts. 1(2), 8 (with arts. 20-23)

F2 S. 20B(6A) inserted (1.1.2005) by Patents Act 2004 (c. 16), s. 17(2), Sch. 2 para. 7 (see S.I. 2004/2357, art. 1(2))