| Benefit Claims, Priority, Electronic Exchange of Documents |
Referenced Items (137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146) |
(145) Notice of Right to Claim Priority Based Upon
Applications Previously Filed in India
On January 3, 1995, the Ministry of India (Department of Industrial
Development) caused a Notification to be published in The Gazette of India:
Extraordinary [Part II-Sec. 3(ii)]. This Notification included the
following text:
"[I]n exercise of the powers conferred by subsection (1) of
section 133 of the Patents Act, 1970 (39 of 1970), the
Central Government hereby declares each of [the members
of the World Trade Organization, which includes the United
States of America] to be a convention country for all the
provisions of the said Act".
Section 135(1) of the Patents Act, 1970 (39 of 1970) of India provides
as follows:
Without prejudice to the provisions contained in section 6,
where a person has made an application for a patent in respect
of an invention in a convention country (hereinafter referred
to as the "basic application"), and that person or the legal
representative or assignee of that person makes an application
under this Act for a patent within twelve months after the
date on which the basic application was made, the priority
date of a claim of the complete specification, bearing a claim
based on matter disclosed in the basic application, is the
date of making of the basic application".
Given the above-referenced Notification in The Gazette of India and
Section 135 of the Indian Patents Act, 1970, India is deemed a foreign
country which affords privileges in the case of applications filed in
the United States or to citizens of the United States similar to those
afforded under 35 U.S.C. Sec. 119.
Accordingly, an application for patent for an invention filed in the
United States by any person who has, or whose legal representatives or
assigns have, previously regularly filed an application for a patent for
the same invention in India shall have the benefit of the filing date in
India in accordance with 35 U.S.C. Sec. 119. Such persons became entitled
to claim that benefit on the basis of applications filed in India on, or
after, January 3, 1995, the date of publication of the above-referenced
Notification in The Gazette of India.
January 13, 1997 BRUCE A. LEHMAN
Assistant Secretary of Commerce and
Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks
[1195 OG 42]
Top of Notices (145) December 30, 2008