be entitled to be heard before any decision is given thereon.
(3) After the acceptance of a complete specification—
(a)
no amendment thereof shall be effected except by way of disclaimer,
correction or explanation; and
(b)
no amendment thereof shall be allowed, except for the purpose of
correcting an obvious mistake or a false statement which was made in the belief that
it was true, the effect of which would be that—
(i)
the specification as amended would claim or describe matter not in
substance disclosed in the specification before the amendment; or
(ii)
any claim of the specification as amended would not fall wholly
within the scope of a claim of the specification before the amendment.
(4) The request for an amendment of an accepted complete specification and its
nature and the reasons therefor shall be advertised by the applicant in the Journal,
and, at any time within three months of the advertisement or such further time as the
Registrar, subject to such conditions as he may impose, may allow, any person may
give notice at the Patent Office of opposition to the amendment.
(5) Notice of opposition in terms of subsection (4) shall be given in the prescribed
manner to the Registrar and to the person making the request, and the Registrar shall
hear the person making the request and the person who has given notice of opposition
and determine whether and subject to what conditions, if any, the amendment ought
to be allowed.
(6) Where a complete specification has not been accepted, the Registrar shall
determine whether and subject to what conditions, if any, the amendment ought to be
allowed.
(7) No request for amendment under this section shall be allowed if and so long as
any proceedings are pending for infringement or revocation of the patent in question.
(8) An appeal shall lie from any decision of the Registrar made under this section.
38
Amendment of specification with leave of High Court or Tribunal
In any action for infringement of a patent or any proceedings before the Tribunal for
the revocation of a patent, the High Court or the Tribunal, as the case may be, may,
subject to subsection (3) of section thirty-seven, allow the patentee to amend his
complete specification in such manner and subject to such terms as to costs,
advertisement or otherwise as the High Court or the Tribunal may think fit, and, if in
any such proceedings for revocation the Tribunal decides that the patent is invalid, it
may allow the specification to be amended under this section instead of revoking the
patent.
[amended by Act 9 of 2002, with effect from the 20th December, 2002.]
39
Restrictions on recovery of damages in certain cases
Where an amendment of a specification by way of disclaimer, correction or
explanation has been allowed under this Act after the publication of the specification,
no damages shall be awarded in any proceedings in respect of the use of the invention
before the date of the decision allowing the amendment if the High Court or the
Tribunal is satisfied that the specification as originally published was not framed in
good faith and with reasonable skill and knowledge.
[amended by Act 9 of 2002, with effect from the 20th December, 2002.]
40
Savings for anticipation
An invention claimed in a complete specification shall not be deemed to have been
anticipated by reason only of the communication of the invention to a department of
the State or to any person authorized by the Minister to investigate the invention or its
merits or of anything done by any person whomsoever in consequence of such a
communication for the purpose of the investigation.
41
Co-ownership of patents
(1) Where a patent is granted to two or more persons, each of those persons shall,
unless an agreement to the contrary is in force, be entitled to an equal undivided share
in the patent.