Grant/Sealing of Patents and Term of Patents

You file a patent application in January. The Controller objects, you reply, a hearing is held, and three years pass before the patent is granted. On which date does your twenty-year clock start, the day you filed or the day of grant? And what happens if you forget to pay a yearly fee in year eleven? Your competitors would love to know. The Patents Act answers both questions in a few short sections, and the answers are not what most students guess.

In two minutes

A patent is granted under s.43 once the application is found in order, is dated as of the filing date (s.45), runs for twenty years from the date of filing (s.53), and lapses if renewal fees are not paid, subject to restoration under ss.60 to 62.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Intellectual Property Laws on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.