Schedule, The Patents and Industrial Design Act, 2012

(Section 16) ARTICLE 4– PARIS CONVENTION A. (1) Any person who has duly filed an application for a patent, or for the registration of a utility model, or of an industrial design, or of a trademark, in one of the countries of the Union, or his successor in title, shall enjoy, for the purpose of filing in the other countries, a right of priority during the periods hereinafter fixed. (2) Any filing that is equivalent to a regular filing under the domestic legislation of any country of the Union or under bilateral or multilateral treaties concluded between countries of the Union shall be recognised as giving rise to the right of priority. (3) By a regular national filing is meant any filing that is adequate to establish the date on which the application was filed in the country concerned, whatever may be subsequent fate of the B. Consequently, any subsequent filing in any of the other countries of the Union before the expiration of the periods referred to above shall not be invalidated by reason of any acts accomplished in the interval, in particular, another filing, the publication or exploration of the invention, the putting on sale copies of the design, or the use of the mark, and such acts cannot give rise to any third-party right or any right of personal possession. Rights acquired by third parties before the date of the first application that serves as the basis of the right of priority are reserved in accordance with the domestic legislation of each country of the Union. C. (1) The periods of priority referred to above shall be twelve months for patents and utility models, and six months for industrial designs and trademarks. (2) These periods shall start from the date of filing of the first application; the day of filing shall not be included in the period. (3) If the last day of the period is an official holiday, or a day when the office is not open for the filing of applications in the country where protection is claimed, the period shall be extended until the first following working day. (4) A subsequent application concerning the same object as previous first application within the meaning of paragraph (2) above, filed in the same country of the Union, shall be considered as the first application, of which filing date shall be the starting point of the period of priority, if, at the time of filing the subsequent application, the said previous application has been withdrawn, abandoned, or refused, without having been laid open to public inspection and without leaving any rights outstanding, and if it has not yet served as a basis for claiming a right of priority. D. (1) Any person desiring to take advantage of the priority of a previous filing shall be required to make a declaration indicating the date of such filing and country in which it was made. Each country shall determine the latest date on which such declaration must be made. (2) These Particulars shall be mention in the publications issued by the competent authority, and in particular in the patents and specifications relating thereto. 36 37 Transitional provisions. No. 10 Patents and Industrial Designs Act 2012 No. 10 Patents and Industrial Designs Act 2012 (3) The countries of the Union may require any person making a declaration of priority to produce a copy of the application (description, drawings, etc.) previously filed. The copy, certified as correct by the authority that received such application, shall not require any authentication, and may in any case be filed, without fee, at any time within three months of the filing of the subsequent application. They may require it to be accompanied by a certificate from the same authority showing the date of filing, and by a translation. (4) No other formalities may be required for the declaration of priority at the time of filing the application. Each country of the Union shall determine the consequences of failure to comply with the formalities prescribed by this Article, but such consequences shall in no case go beyond the loss of the right of priority. (5) Subsequently, further proof may be required. Any person who avails himself of the priority of a previous application shall be required to specify the number of that application; this number shall be published as provided for by paragraph (2), above. E. (1) Where an industrial design is filed in a country by virtue of a right of priority based on the filing of a utility model, the period of priority shall be the same as that fixed for industrial designs. (2) Furthermore, it is permissible to file a utility model in a country by virtue of a right of priority based on the filing of a patent application, and vice versa. F. No country of the Union may refuse a priority or a patent application on the ground that the applicant claims multiple priorities, even if they originate in different countries, or on the ground that an application claiming one or more priorities contains one or more elements that were not included in the application or applications whose priority is claimed, provided that, in both cases, there is unity within the meaning of the law of the country. With respect to the elements not included in the application or applications whose priority is claimed, the filing of subsequent application shall give rise to a right of priority under ordinary conditions. 38 39 G. (1) If the examination reveals that an application for a patent contains more than one invention, the applicant may divide the application into certain number of divisional applications and preserve as the date of each the date of the initial application and the benefit of the right of priority, if any. (2) The applicant may also, on his own initiative, divide a patent application and preserve as the date of each divisional application the date of the initial application and the benefit of the right of priority, if any. Each county of the Union shall have the right to determine the conditions under which such division shall be authorised. H. Priority may not be refused on the ground that certain elements of the invention for which priority is claimed do not appear among the claims formulated in the application in the country of origin, provided that the application documents as a whole specifically disclose such elements. I. (1) Application for inventors' certificate filed in a country in which applicants have the right to apply at their own option either for a patent or for an inventors' certificate shall give rise to the right of priority provided for by this Article, under the same conditions and with the same effects as applications for patents. (2) In a country in which applicants have a right to apply at their own option either for a patent or for an inventors' certificate. ARTICLE 4bis [Patents: Independence of Patents Obtained for the Same Invention in Different Countries] (1) Patents applied for in the various countries of the Union by nationals of countries of the Union shall be independent of patents obtained for the same invention in other countries, whether members of the Union or not. (2) The foregoing provision is to be understood in an unrestricted sense, in particular, in the sense that patents applied for during the period of priority are independent, both as regards the grounds for nullity and forfeiture, and as regards their normal duration. (3) The provision shall apply to all patents existing at the time when it comes into effect. No. 10 Patents and Industrial Designs Act 2012 No. 10 Patents and Industrial Designs Act 201240 (4) Similarly, it shall apply, in the case of the accession of new countries, to patents in existence on either side at the time of accession. (5) Patents obtained with the benefit of priority shall, in the various countries of the Union, have a duration equal to that which they would have, had they been applied for or granted without the benefit of priority. ARTICLE 4quarter [Patents: Mention of the Inventor in the Patent] The inventor shall have the right to be mentioned as such in the patent. ARTICLE 4quarter [Patents: Patentability in case of Restrictions of Sale by Law] The grant of a patent shall not be refused and a patent shall not be invalidated on the ground that the sale of the patented product or of a product obtained by means of a patented process is subject to restrictions or limitations resulting from the domestic law. PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY THE GOVERNMENT PRINTING DEPARTMENT, SIERRA LEONE. GAZETTE NO.5 3 OF 11TH OCTOBER, 2012. Passed in Parliament this 4th day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand and twelve. IBRAHIM S. SESAY, Clerk of Parliament. THIS PRINTED IMPRESSION has been carefully compared by me with the Bill which has passed Parliament and found by me to be a true and correct printed copy of the said Bill. IBRAHIM S. SESAY, Clerk of Parliament.