Patent decision

BL number

O/269/05

Concerning rights in

GB 0226233.5

Hearing Officer

Mr D J Barford

Decision date

30 September 2005

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Mastermover International Limited v Matthew Joseph Smith and Steve Mather

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 section 8

Keywords

Entitlement, Third party terms

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The defendants filed a patent application (the earlier application) which was published but then terminated. The claimant filed a patent application at a later date than the defendant (the later application), learned of the earlier application through the search report, and filed a reference under section 8(1)(a) in respect of the earlier application seeking relief under section 8(3). The defendants, who had been employed by the claimant, confirmed that the claimant was entitled to the invention.

An order under section 8(3) was made authorising the claimant to file a new application for all or part of the matter in the earlier application, and taking the filing date thereof. Given the particular circumstances, the order was made subject to third party terms (although opposed by the claimant).

Full decision O/269/05 114Kb