3 Purpose of the proposal
14. The overall purpose of the proposed order is
to amend the Patents Act 1977 to remove burdens associated with
the formalities of filing and transacting patents. The
proposals deal with formal requirements in the patents process,
such as the award of a date of filing, the arrangements for filing
supporting material and the means of transmitting patent applications
which concern issues of national security.
15. The UK is signatory to the World Intellectual
Property Organisation (WIPO) Patent Law Treaty (PLT), signed at
Geneva in June 2000.[8]
The Government supports the Treaty's aims of harmonising
patent law between the jurisdictions of the PLT signatories.
16. Many of the provisions of the present order are
intended to make the formalities of UK patent law compliant with
the PLT. The Department considers that the amendments
required to make the substantive requirements of UK patent law
compliant with the PLT are not appropriate for amendment by regulatory
reform order. They have been brought forward in the Patents Bill
[Lords], introduced in the House of Lords on 15 January
2004.[9]
17. The detailed operation of the 1977 Act is provided
for by Patents Rules. The most recent version of the Rules is
the Patents Rules 1995 as amended.[10]
Many of the provisions of the proposed order will require
consequential amendments to be made to the Patents Rules. The
Department has indicated the provisions of the present proposal
for which further provision will be made by means of rules.[11]
8 By 15 October 2003, 7 states had ratified the Treaty,
and a further 54 had signed it:www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/plt Back
9
HL Bill (2003-04) 18 Back
10
S.I. 1995/2093, as amended by S.I. 1999/1092, S.I. 1999/1899,
S.I. 1999/3197, S.I. 2001/1412, S.I. 2002/529 and S.I. 2003/513:
explanatory statement, para 5.03 (as per corrigendum) Back
11
Appendix B, annex 2 Back
| 
