Patent decision

BL number

O/087/08

Concerning rights in

GB2405579A

Hearing Officer

Mr S Probert

Decision date

20 March 2008

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Barry Mellor

Provisions discussed

Section 117B, Rule 109

Keywords

Extensions of time

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The applicant in this case did not respond to the first examination report until he received a letter from the Office (nearly four years later) saying that because he had not replied to the examination report his application was going to be treated as refused.

The Hearing Officer concluded that it was no longer possible to extend the reply period because more than two months had elapsed since the period had expired. He also decided that if he had had discretion to accept a late response, the reasons given were not sufficient to justify a favourable exercise of that discretion in the particular circumstances of this case. The application was refused for failure to comply with section 18(3) within the specified period.

Full decision O/087/08 31Kb