Patent Rules

Marginal note:Requirements

• 73 (1) For the purposes of subsection 28.4(2) of the Act, the request for priority must be made in the petition of the pending application for a patent, or in a document other than the abstract, the specification or the drawings included in that application, before the earlier of

  • (a) the later of

    • (i) the end of a period of 16 months after the earliest of the filing dates of the previously regularly filed applications for a patent on which the request is based, and

    • (ii) the end of a period of four months after the filing date of the pending application, and

  • (b) if applicable, the day on which the applicant submits their approval, under subsection 10(2) of the Act, for the application for a patent to be open to public inspection before the expiry of the confidentiality period, unless that approval is withdrawn in time to permit the Commissioner to stop technical preparations to open the application to public inspection.

• Marginal note:Time to submit information

  (2) The information required under subsection 28.4(2) of the Act must be submitted to the Commissioner within the time prescribed by subsection (1).

• Marginal note:PCT national phase application

  (2.1) For greater certainty, in respect of an international application that has become a PCT national phase application, a priority claim made in accordance with the requirements of the Patent Cooperation Treaty before the application’s national phase entry date is considered to be a request for priority made in accordance with subsection (1), and the applicant is considered to have submitted the information required under subsection 28.4(2) of the Act in accordance with subsection (2).

• Marginal note:Requirement

  (3) A request for priority in respect of a pending application for a patent may be based on a previously regularly filed application only if the filing date of the pending application is, or under subsection 28.4(6) of the Act is deemed to be, within 12 months after the filing date of the previously regularly filed application.

• Marginal note:Correction — error in filing date

  (4) An error in a filing date submitted under subsection 28.4(2) of the Act may be corrected on request submitted before the earlier of

  • (a) the end of the time prescribed by subsection (1), as determined using the corrected filing date, and

  • (b) the end of the time prescribed by subsection (1), as determined using the uncorrected filing date.

• Marginal note:Correction — name or number

  (5) An error in the name of a country or office of filing or in the number of an application for a patent submitted under subsection 28.4(2) of the Act may be corrected on request submitted on or before the day on which the final fee set out in item 14 of Schedule 2 is paid or, if the final fee is refunded, on or before the day on which the final fee is paid again.

• Marginal note:Withdrawal of request for priority

  (6) If a request for priority in respect of a previously regularly filed application for a patent is withdrawn before the end of a period of 16 months after the filing date of that application, the time prescribed by subsection (1) must be determined as if the request for priority had never been made on the basis of that application.

• Marginal note:Non-application of subsection 3(1)

  (7) Subsection 3(1) does not apply in respect of the time prescribed by subsection (1).