43Priority dates

43 Priority dates

(1) Each claim of a specification must have a priority date. (2) The priority date of a claim is: (a) if subsection (2A) applies to the claim—the date determined under the regulations; or (b) otherwise—the date of the filing of the specification. (2A) This subsection applies to a claim if: (a) prescribed circumstances apply in relation to the invention defined in the claim; and (b) a prescribed document discloses, or a prescribed set of prescribed documents considered together disclose, the invention in the claim in a manner that is clear enough and complete enough for the invention to be performed by a person skilled in the relevant art. (2B) A prescribed document, or a prescribed set of prescribed documents considered together, is taken to disclose the invention in a claim as mentioned in paragraph (2A)(b) so far as such disclosure requires a description of a micro‑organism, if: (a) the micro‑organism is deposited with a prescribed depository institution in accordance with such provisions of the Budapest Treaty as are applicable; and (b) the prescribed circumstances apply. (3) Where a claim defines more than one form of an invention, then, for the purposes of determining the priority date of the claim, it must be treated as if it were a separate claim for each form of the invention that is defined. (4) The priority date of a claim of a specification may be different from the priority date of any other claim of the specification. (5) If, at the time when a Convention application or a PCT application is made in respect of an invention: (a) an application (the earlier application) has been made for protection in respect of the invention in a Convention country; and (b) the earlier application was made in the prescribed period; and (c) the earlier application has been withdrawn, abandoned or refused without becoming open to public inspection; and (d) the earlier application has not been used as the basis of claiming a right of priority in a Convention country under a law of that country; and (e) a later application has been made by the same applicant for protection in respect of the invention in a Convention country; the earlier application is taken, for the purposes of this Act, to have never been made.

Note: For the purposes of paragraph (e), the later application need not have been made in the same Convention country as the earlier application.