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Effect of accept

ance

11. (1) If an applicant supplies only a provisional specification with his application he shall be obliged to send in a complete specification within nine months from the date of his application; and if he fails to do so he shall be considered to have abandoned his application. The applicant may however within such period of nine months notify to the Commissioner that he desires his provisional specification to be regarded as a complete specification and if such provisional specification comcomplies with the conditions herein before provided with reference to complete specifications to the satisfaction of the Commissioner subject to appeal to the Attorney-General the same shall be treated as a complete specification.

*

(2) After a complete specification shall have been accepted of complete by the Commissioner or after a provisional specification shall specification. have been accepted as a complete specification as herein before provided and until such time as the patent shall be sealed or until the period shall have elapsed within which such sealing must take place the applicant shall enjoy the same rights and privileges as if a patent had been granted to him for his invention on the date of the acceptance of such complete specification; Provided that an applicant shall not be entitled to institute any proceedings for infringement until a patent for the invention has been granted to him.

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12. (1) Where a complete specification is left after a provisional specification the Commissioner shall examine both the provisional and complete specifications for the purpose of ascertaining whether the complete specification has been prepared in the prescribed manner and whether the invention particularly described in the complete specification is substantially the same as that which is described in the provisional specification.

(2) If the Commissioner finds that the conditions hereinbefore contained have not been complied with, he may refuse to accept the complete specification, unless and until the same shall have been amended to his satisfaction; but any such refusal shall be subject to appeal to the Attorney-General.

(3) The Attorney-General shall, if required, hear the applicant and the Commissioner, and may make an order determining whether and subject to what conditions, if any, the complete specification shall be accepted.

(4) Unless a complete specification is accepted within twelve months from the date of application, then (save in the case of appeal having been lodged against the refusal to accept) the application shall at the expiration of those twelve months become void : Provided always that the Commissioner may extend the said period of twelve months by a period not exceeding three months on payment of the prescribed fee.

*See Patents (Amendment) Proclamation, Tr. 29 of 1902, sect. 5, as to the power of the Attorney-General on such appeals, to examine witnesses upon oath, and administer oaths for that purpose; and sect. 6, as to his power to make, alter, and rescind rules regulating such appeals, and the practice and procedure before him, and to making orders as to costs.

13. On the acceptance of the complete specification the Commissioner shall issue a notice to the applicant to that effect, which the applicant shall forthwith advertise in three issues of the Gazette, and in such other newspaper or newspapers as the Commissioner may require, and thereupon the application and specification or specifications with the drawings, if any, shall be open to public inspection. The applicant shall, within the period mentioned in the next succeeding section file with the Commissioner a copy of the Gazette in which the notice of the acceptance of the specification aforesaid has been published.

Proc. No. 22 of 1902.

On acceptance ap

plicant to publish notice in Gazette,

Opposition to grant

14. (1) Any person may at any time within two months
from the date of the latest advertisement of the acceptance of a of patent.
complete specification, give notice in writing at the Patent
Office of objection to the grant of a patent on any one or
more of the following grounds:-

(a) That the invention has been fraudulently obtained to
the prejudice of another's rights;

(b) That the person represented as being the true and first
inventor is not such;

(c) That the invention is not new;

(d) That the invention is not capable of being patented in
terms of section fire of this Proclamation;

(e) That the complete specification, or the provisional
specification accepted as such, as herein before provided,
has reference to the theoretical principles, hypotheses,
methods, systems, discoveries or conceptions, the manner
of applying or using which is not set out;

(f) That the complete specification, or the provisional
specification accepted as such, as herein before provided,
is not sufficient, i.e., that mention of a part of the
invention has been omitted, or that it has been
insufficiently explained;

(9) That the invention, or the application of the same, is
contrary to law, public order, or good morals;

(1) That the title of the invention fraudulently sets forth

another than the true subject matter of the invention; (i) That the complete specification describes or claims an invention other than that described in the provisional specification, and that such other invention forms the subject of an application made by the objector in the interval between the leaving of the provisional and the leaving of the complete specification.

Form of notice of

(2) A notice of opposition to the grant of a patent shall be in the form given in Schedule D, and shall state the ground or opposition. grounds on which the person giving such notice (hereinafter referred to as the objector) intends to oppose the grant, and must be signed by him. Such notice shall state his address for service in this Colony.

(3) The Commissioner shall give notice to the applicant of the objection to his application and the grounds on which it is based, and shall give notice to both the applicant and the

Commissioner

to

give notice of objec tions to applicant.

Proc. No. 22 of 1902.

Commissioner

to

objector of the place where and the day and the hour when he will consider the application and the objections thereto.

15 (1) At the time and place stated in the last-mentioned decide on objections. notice the Commissioner shall hear the applicant and the objector either personally, or by their attornies or counsel, and their respective witnesses, if any;

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(2) The Commissioner shall have power to determine whether any evidence in support of or in opposition to the application shall be by means of affidavit, or riva voce on oath, or partly affidavit and partly riva voce, and may at the request of either party direct cross-examination of any witness upon his affidavit.

(3) In any proceeding under this section the Commissioner shall have power to issue subpoenas for the attendance of witnesses, to administer oaths, to issue commissions de bene esse for the taking of evidence in this Colony or any foreign country, to commit for contempt of court, or to grant discovery of documents or inspection.

(4) The Commissioner may call in the assistance of experts and other persons, and may decide whether any, and what, remuneration shall be paid to them for such assistance, either by the applicant or by the objector.

(5) The Commissioner shall have power to order that the costs of any proceeding under this section shall be paid by either party thereto, in all respects as if the Commissioner were a Judge of the Court, and such costs shall be taxed by the taxing officer and paid, and the payment thereof may be enforced in the same manner as if the same were costs allowed by a Judge of the Court.

(6) Either party shall have the right to appeal to the High Court of the Transvaal, from the decision of the Commissioner, and such appeal shall be dealt with by the said Court in all respects as if it were an appeal from a Court of inferior jurisdiction.

(7) In case the objector or the applicant is residing abroad, or has no fixed property within this Colony, then the applicant or the objector prior to the hearing of the application or objection or any appeal, as the case may be, shall have the right to require that security to the satisfaction of the Commissioner or the said Court, as the case may be, be lodged by the applicant or objector for the costs, and if such security is not lodged or given, the application or objection or appeal, as the case may be, shall not be taken into consideration by the Commissioner or the said Court.

16. If there is no opposition, or, in case of opposition, if the determination is in favour of the grant of a patent, the Commissioner shall cause a patent to be sealed with the seal of the Patent Office, and a patent so sealed shall have the same effect as if it were sealed with the seal of the Governor.

17. The issue of a patent for an invention, the use of which is contrary to law, public order, or good morals, may be refused.

Proc. No. 22 of 1902.

Time within which

18. The sealing of a patent shall take place as soon as possible, but not later than fifteen months after the date of the a patent is to be application, except in the following instances:

(a) In case the sealing is delayed on account of an appeal
or on account of objections being lodged against the
granting of the patent, the sealing may take place at
such time as the Commissioner shall determine.

() In case the applicant dies before the expiration of the
period of fifteen months aforesaid, the letters patent
may be granted to his legal representative and may be
sealed at any time within twelve months after the
decease of the applicant.

Provided always that where an extension of time is allowed by
the Commissioner for the acceptance of a complete specification
under Sub-section four of Section twelve of this Proclamation,
the Commissioner shall allow an extension of a period not
exceeding four months after the said fifteen months for the
sealing of the letters patent.

sealed.

Form and date of

19. Every patent granted under this Proclamation shall be drawn up as nearly as possible in the form given in Schedule "E," patent. and shall be dated and sealed as of the day of the application. Provided that no proceedings shall be taken in respect of an infringement committed before the publication of the complete specification. Provided also that in case of more than one application for a patent for the same invention, the sealing of a patent on one of those applications shall not prevent the sealing of a patent on an earlier application.

20. Where an application for a patent has been abandoned or become void before the publication of the complete specification, the specification or specifications and drawings (if any) accompanying or left in connection with such application shall not at any time be open to public inspection or be published by the Commissioner.

21. (1) The term limited in every patent for the duration thereof shall be fourteen years from its date.

(2) But every patent shall, notwithstanding anything therein or in this Proclamation, cease if the patentee fails to make the payments prescribed in Schedule "H" within the prescribed times.

(3) If, nevertheless, in any case by accident, mistake, or inadvertence, a patentee fails to make any prescribed payment within the prescribed time, he may apply to the Commissioner for an enlargement of time for making the payment.

(4) Thereupon the Commissioner shall, if satisfied that the failure has arisen from any of the above-mentioned causes, on receipt of the prescribed fee for enlargement, enlarge the time. accordingly for such period as he shall think just, subject only that if any proceeding shall be taken in respect of an infringement of the patent, committed after a failure to make any payment within the prescribed time and before the enlarge

Specifications, &c., of abandoned appli

cations not open to inspection.

Term of patent.

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ment thereof, the Court, before which the proceeding is proposed to be taken, may, if it shall think fit, refuse to award or give any damages in respect of such infringement.

22. If a patent has been lost or destroyed, or if it has been proved to the satisfaction of the Commissioner that the document cannot be produced, a duplicate may be issued on a sworn declaration to that effect being made, after four publications during three months in the Gazette and such other newspaper or newspapers as the Commissioner may direct, and on payment of the fee prescribed by Schedule "H."

23. (1) The grant of a patent or similar exclusive privilege for an invention in a foreign country to any person, shall not be a bar to the grant of a patent for the same invention, or any part thereof, in this Colony to the same person, provided that the application for the grant of a patent in this Colony shall be made within twelve months of the date of the grant of such foreign patent, or similar exclusive privilege.

(2) The publication in this Colony, or any foreign country, during the aforesaid period of any description of the invention or the use therein during such period of the invention, shall not invalidate the patent which may be granted for the invention in this Colony.

24. All specifications, with the drawings if any, appertaining thereto deposited at the office of the Commissioner in manner aforesaid shall remain in his custody at the Patent Office.

25. (1) An applicant or a patentee may from time to time, by request in writing left at the Patent Office, seek leave to amend his specification, including drawings forming part thereof, by way of disclaimer, correction, or explanation, stating the nature of such amendment and his reasons for the same.

(2) The request and the nature of such proposed amendment shall be advertised by publication in the Gazette and such other newspaper or newspapers as the Commissioner may require, in the form prescribed by schedule "F" to this Proclamation, and at any time within three months from its first advertisement any person may give notice at the Patent Office of opposition to the amendment.

(3) Where such notice is given, the Commissioner shall give notice of the opposition to the person making the request and shall hear and decide the case, subject to an appeal to the Attorney-General.

† (4) The Attorney-General shall, if required, hear the person making the request and the person so giving notice and being in the opinion of the Attorney-General entitled to be

* The words " or any foreign country "are inserted by virtue of the Patents (Amendment) Proclamation (Tr. 29 of 1902, Sect. 2).

+ See Patents (Amdmt.) Proclamation-Tr. 29 of 1902-as to the power of the Attorney-General on such appeals to examine witnesses upon oath and to administer oaths for that purpose: also section 6 as to his power to make, alter and rescind rules regulating such appeals and the practice and procedure before him, and to make orders as to costs.

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