Patent Act

Marginal note:Inspection by the public

• 10 (1) Subject to subsections (2) to (6) and section 20, all patents, applications for patents and documents relating to patents or applications for patents that are in the possession of the Patent Office shall be open to public inspection at the Patent Office, under any conditions that may be prescribed.

• Marginal note:Confidentiality period

  (2) Except with the approval of the applicant, an application for a patent, or a document relating to the application, shall not be open to public inspection before a confidentiality period of 18 months has expired.

• Marginal note:Beginning of confidentiality period

  (3) The confidentiality period begins on the filing date of the application or, where a request for priority has been made in respect of the application, it begins on the earliest filing date of any previously regularly filed application on which the request is based.

• Marginal note:Withdrawal of request

  (4) Where a request for priority is withdrawn on or before the prescribed date, it shall, for the purposes of subsection (3) and to the extent that it is withdrawn, be considered never to have been made.

• Marginal note:Withdrawn applications

  (5) An application shall not be open to public inspection if it is withdrawn in accordance with the regulations on or before the prescribed date.

• Marginal note:Prescribed date

  (6) A prescribed date referred to in subsection (4) or (5) must be no later than the date on which the confidentiality period expires.