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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 5 Dec 2006

Vol. 628 No. 6

Patents (Amendment) Bill 1999: From the Seanad.

The Dáil went into Committee to consider amendments from the Seanad.

Seanad amendments Nos. 1 to 4, inclusive, and 8 to 10, inclusive, are related and will be discussed together.

Seanad amendment No. 1:

Section 6: In page 7, line 18 deleted and the following substituted:

23.—(1) The date of filing of a patent application shall be".

Seanad amendment agreed to.
Seanad amendment No. 2:
Section 9: In page 9, lines 37 and 38 deleted and the following substituted:
"9.—Part II of the Principal Act is amended by inserting the following sections after section 35 but in Chapter IV of that Part:".
Seanad amendment agreed to.
Seanad amendment No. 3:
Section 10: In page 12, line 21, "including in particular" deleted and "including, in particular," substituted.
Seanad amendment agreed to.
Seanad amendment No. 4:
Section 10: In page 13, line 33, after "or", "by" inserted.
Seanad amendment agreed to.

Seanad amendments Nos. 5 and 6 are related and may be discussed together.

Seanad amendment No. 5:

Section 26: In page 18, line 39, " "," deleted.

Seanad amendment No. 5 is a drafting point to facilitate Seanad amendment No. 6, which provides that a notice of the restoration of a patent application which had been withdrawn in error will be published in the Patents Office Journal.

Seanad amendment agreed to.
Seanad amendment No. 6:
Section 26: In page 18, between lines 39 and 40, the following inserted:
"(2D) Where the Controller decides to allow a request under this section to correct an error or mistake in a withdrawal of an application for a patent and notice of the request was published in the Journal under subsection (2A), the Controller shall make an order restoring the application and publish notice of the restoration in the Journal.",".

Seanad amendment No. 6 provides that where the controller decides to restore an application that has been withdrawn in error under section 33 of the principal Act and where a notice of the request to restore the application had been published in the Patents Office Journal under the amended section 110, notice of the restoration of the application will also be published in the journal.

Seanad amendment agreed to.
Seanad amendment No. 7:
Section 28: In page 20, lines 27 to 46 deleted and the following substituted:
118A.—(1) If an applicant for, or proprietor of, a patent fails to observe any time limit specified by the Controller the applicant or proprietor may request an extension of time in accordance with the prescribed requirements.
(2) Subject to subsections (5) and (6), the Controller shall grant the request, provided that the prescribed requirements are complied with.
(3) An extension of a time limit granted under subsection (2) shall expire at the end of the period prescribed for the purposes of this section.
(4) If the request for an extension of time is granted, the legal consequences of the failure to observe the time limit specified by the Controller shall be deemed not to have ensued.
(5) Where a time limit has been extended under subsection (2) any further request for an extension of time may be granted by the Controller subject to the conditions that the Controller sees fit.
(6) This section does not apply to proceedings before the Controller pursuant to Part VIII.".".

Seanad amendment No. 7 is designed to reflect Article 11 of the Patent Law Treaty, which requires that an extension of a time limit must be for not less than a specified minimum duration. The purpose of the amendment is to introduce a new subsection (3) into section 118A to reflect that Article 11 of the Patent Law Treaty requires that a certain minimum length of extension be allowed from the date of expiration of the unextended time limit. This will be prescribed in the patent rules. The substance of this section, apart from new subsection (3), is unchanged from that in the Bill as passed by Dáil Éireann. The other changes are consequential and relate to the realignment of the numbering of the other subsections.

Seanad amendment agreed to.
Seanad amendment No. 8:
Section 30: In page 21, line 25, after "following", "section" inserted.
Seanad amendment agreed to.
Seanad amendment No. 9:
Section 46: In page 29, line 8, "amendments" deleted and "amendment" substituted.
Seanad amendment agreed to.
Seanad amendment No. 10:
Title: In page 5, line 12, "THE 5TH DAY OF OCTOBER, 1973" deleted and "5 OCTOBER 1973" substituted.
Seanad amendment agreed to.
Seanad amendments reported.

A message will be sent to the Seanad acquainting it accordingly.

I thank the Members of both Houses for their co-operation in the passage of this technical, though important, legislation.

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