The Patents (Amendment) Rules 1987

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Rules)

These Rules bring into force section 77(6) and section 78(7) of the Patents Act 1977 which provide for the filing of translations into English of specifications and amendments of European patents (UK) and claims of applications for European patents (UK) which have been published in French and German under the European Patent Convention by the European Patent Office. They also amend the Patents Rules 1982 so as to prescribe forms and to introduce other requirements for these translations and they amend the Patents (Fees) Rules 1986 to prescribe fees in connection with these translations. Similar provision is made for corrected translations filed under section 80(3) of the 1977 Act where the translation originally filed confers narrower protection than that conferred by the French or German text published by the European Patent Office. A consequential amendment is made to rule 113 of the 1982 Rules.

Other amendments to the 1982 and 1986 Rules are also made, namely—

(a) rule 20 of the 1982 Rules, which prescribes the size and presentation of documents contained in a patent application, is amended;

(b) rules 25(4) and 80 of the 1982 Rules, which are no longer of practical effect, are revoked;

(c) rule 28 of the 1982 Rules, which provides for the determination of the time when the preparations for publication of a patent application under section 16 of the 1977 Act are completed, is revoked;

(d) rule 99 of the 1982 Rules, which specifies days as excluded days, is revised;

(e) rule 100 of the 1982 Rules, which provides for the amendment of documents and the correction of irregularities in procedure, is revised;

(f) rule 110 of the 1982 Rules, which provides for the alteration of time limits, is amended and new forms and fees are prescribed.