Patent decision

BL number

O/022/09

Concerning rights in

PCT/GB08/050757

Hearing Officer

Dr J E Porter

Decision date

23 January 2009

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Philip Jones et al

Provisions discussed

Patent Co-operation Treaty rule 26bis.3

Keywords

PCT application, Priority date

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The applicants had filed a PCT application just less than 14 months after the filing date of an earlier application. They requested restoration of the right of priority under PCT rule 26bis.3, on the basis that the failure to file the PCT application within the priority period was unintentional. Reasons for the delay including problems that Mr Jones encountered with the PCT filing software, and his mistaken assumption that the software would inform him of important matters such as impending deadlines. He was therefore unaware of the 12 month priority period. On the evidence provided, the hearing officer found that Mr Jones had been acting intentionally in filing the PCT application when he did - albeit that he was acting on the basis of a misunderstanding of the PCT system. Although the hearing officer accepted that Mr Jones may have acted differently if he had been aware of the deadline, he found that speculating about what Mr Jones might have done, or might have intended to do, in different circumstances was not relevant. The request was refused.

Full decision O/022/09 189Kb