Priority
Process/Product
Proprietor
Publication
Register
Registrar
mind and which have got no further than that. The prior art includes anything which is written down or disclosed in some other way, such as by disclosure at a public talk, but does not include material which has been kept confidential.
Under the Paris Convention, an applicant for a patent who first files an application in a member country has priority over other applications filed within a year in all member countries. In other words, an applicant who files an application in one member of the Paris Convention has a prior right for one year over any other applicant who seeks to file an application for the same invention in any other member country.
Patents can be granted for products or processes. A product is a physical object, whereas a process is a method of achieving or treating a product.
The expression now used to describe the person who owns or is legally entitled to the patent. See also patentee.
Publication by the patent office enables the public to have access to the patent specification. Publication is important because it allows the public to know about the invention and increases the level of technological knowledge. If a patent is granted there are in fact in some patent systems two separate publications the publication of the application (which must occur within 18 months of the priority date) and publication of the granted patent. Publication usually occurs by making the document available to the public in the Patent Office.
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In both the United Kingdom and in Hong Kong there are Registers of patents. In the United Kingdom the Comptroller is obliged to enter certain information on the Register which becomes open to public inspection when the application is published. This information is updated during the life of the patent. Under the 1977 Act, the Register is prima facie evidence of the thing which is required to be registered.
In Hong Kong the Registrar makes an entry on the Hong Kong Register when the certificate of registration is granted in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Register does not record whether the patent remains in force.
The Registrar of Patents in Hong Kong.
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