Amendment of the Patents Act 1977
6.—(1) Section 17 of that Act (preliminary examination and search) shall be amended as follows.
(2) For the heading there shall be substituted “Search”.
(3) For subsection (1) there shall be substituted—
“(1) The comptroller shall refer an application for a patent to an examiner for a search if, and only if—
(a)the comptroller has referred the application to an examiner for a preliminary examination under section 15A(1) above;
(b)the application has not been withdrawn or treated as withdrawn;
(c)before the end of the prescribed period—
(i)the applicant makes a request to the Patent Office in the prescribed form for a search; and
(ii)the fee prescribed for the search (“the search fee”) is paid;
(d)the application includes—
(i)a description of the invention for which a patent is sought; and
(ii)one or more claims; and
(e)the description and each of the claims comply with the requirements of rules as to language.”.
(4) Subsections (2) and (3) shall cease to have effect.