Patent decision

BL number
O/209/03
Concerning rights in
GB 2309156
Hearing Officer
Mr M C Wright
Decision date
18 July 2003
Person(s) or Company(s) involved
Vatina Services Limited and Jonathan King
Provisions discussed
PA 1977, Section 28(3)
Keywords
Restoration
Related Decisions
None

Summary

On acquiring Vatina's rights in the application for the patent from Mr Barber, Ms du-Rose agreed that Mr Barber would notify the patent agent, who prosecuted the application and the Patent Office about the acquisition rather than do it herself. However, Mr Barber did not carry out this task and so Ms du-Rose, who took over responsibility for the patent, never received any reminders about the renewal fee which remained unpaid. The Hearing Officer remarked that the act of seeing that a renewal fee is paid in the period it could be paid, is not confined to action in the period itself. In this regard, he found it was unreasonable for Ms du-Rose to continue, for well over two years prior to the period for paying the fee, to accepting Mr Barber's assurances that all was well without attempting herself to obtain confirmatory evidence and in view of the difficulties Mr Barber was having communicating with the patent agent. The Hearing Officer also felt that Ms du-Rose's decision not to attempt to notify the agent and the Office herself, for fear of jeopardising her business relationship with Mr Barber, could not be viewed as taking reasonable care. Moreover, the Hearing Officer was not persuaded that the stress Ms du-Rose was experiencing was not such as to prevent her acting in a reasonable manner.

Full decision O/209/03 PDF document32Kb