Patents Act, 1992
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Determination of entitlement to patents, etc. |
81.—(1) Any person may refer to the Court the question whether, by operation of law or otherwise, he is entitled (alone or jointly with any other person) to any patent granted or to be granted in the State for an invention, and the Court may make such order (including an order of apportionment) for giving effect to its decision as it considers expedient. | |
(2) The Court on a reference under this section, or in the exercise of any declaratory or other jurisdiction, shall not determine a question whether a patent was granted to a person not entitled to be granted the patent if the reference was made or the action was commenced after the end of the period of two years beginning on the date of the grant, unless it is shown that any person registered as a proprietor of the patent knew at the time of the grant or, as the case may be, of the transfer or assignment of the patent to him, that he was not entitled to the patent. | ||
(3) An order under this section shall not be made so as to affect the mutual rights or obligations of trustees or of the personal representatives of a deceased person, or their rights or obligations as such. | ||
(4) When the Court finds on a reference under this section, or in the exercise of any declaratory or other jurisdiction, that a patent was granted to a person who was not entitled to be granted that patent (whether alone or with other persons) and on an application made under section 57 the Court or Controller makes an order by reason of the persons not being so entitled for the conditional or unconditional revocation of the patent, the Court or Controller may order that the person by whom the application was made or his successor in title may make a new patent application— | ||
(a) in the case of unconditional revocation, for the whole of the matter comprised in the specification of that patent, and | ||
(b) in the case of conditional revocation, for the matter which in the opinion of the Court or the Controller should be excluded from the specification by amendment under section 38 , | ||
and when such a new application is made, it shall be treated as having been filed on the date of filing of the application for the patent to which the reference or other proceedings relate and shall have the benefit of any right to priority. | ||
(5) A new patent application shall not be allowed to be filed under subsection (4) in respect of subject-matter which extends beyond the content of the original patent application. |