57Effect of publication of complete specification

#### 57 Effect of publication of complete specification (1) After a complete specification relating to an application for a standard patent has become open to public inspection and until a patent is granted on the application, the applicant has the same rights as he or she would have had if a patent for the invention had been granted on the day when the specification became open to public inspection. (3) Subsection (1) does not give the applicant a right to start proceedings in respect of the doing of an act unless: (a) a patent is granted on the application; and (b) the act would, if done after the grant of the patent, have constituted an infringement of a claim of the specification. (4) It is a defence to proceedings under subsection (1) in respect of an act done: (a) after the complete specification became open to public inspection; and (b) before the patent request was accepted: if the defendant proves that a patent could not validly have been granted to the applicant in respect of the claims (as framed when the act was done) that are alleged to have been infringed by the doing of the act. (5) For the purposes of applying this section to a PCT application, references to the complete specification becoming open to public inspection are references to the PCT application becoming open to public inspection in accordance with regulations made for the purposes of section 56A.