Reprint as at 13 September 2014
Patents (United States of America) Regulations 1956
(SR 1956/159)
C W M Norrie, Governor-General
Order in Council
At the Government Buildings at Wellington this 2nd day of October 1956
Present: The Right Hon S G Holland presiding in Council
Pursuant to the Patents Act 1953, His Excellency the Governor-Gen- eral, acting by and with the advice and consent of the Executive Council, hereby makes the following regulations.
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Note Changes authorised by subpart 2 of Part 2 of the Legislation Act 2012 have been made in this official reprint. Note 4 at the end of this reprint provides a list of the amendments incorporated. These regulations are administered by the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment.
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Regulations 1956 Reprinted as at
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Regulations
These regulations may be cited as the Patents (United States of America) Regulations 1956.
2 Where an invention has been communicated to the New Zealand Government or any individual, firm, or corporation in New Zealand at the request of that Government under the conditions set out in an agreement between New Zealand and the United States of America for the security of military information, and an application for a patent for the same invention is made by the person from whom the invention has been so communicated or by the personal representative or assignee of that person, then— (a) the communication, or the publication, making, use, ex-
ercise, or vending of the inventions in consequence of the communication, shall not prejudice the application for a patent or invalidate the grant of a patent thereon; and
(b) the application, and any patent granted thereon, shall have priority over any other application for a patent for the invention or any part thereof if that other application was made by a person who obtained the invention or part thereof in consequence of such communication as aforesaid, in the manner and to the extent set out in regulation 4.
3 A claim to protection and priority under regulation 2 shall be addressed in writing to the Commissioner of Patents, and may bemade at any time before the acceptance of the complete spe- cification filed in connection with the application for a patent but not later than 12 months from the date of the filing of the application for the patent, and shall be accompanied by a statu-
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tory declaration giving information as to the date on which and the person to whom the invention was communicated and a description of the information or article so communicated. The claim and declaration shall be open to public inspection on acceptance of the complete specification, as a notice that priority as of the date of communication is claimed, but the notice shall not in itself be deemed to indicate that the claim to priority has been proved to the satisfaction of the Commis- sioner; and in any proceedings under the Patents Act 2013 or regulationsmade under that Act the Commissioner or the court may require the applicant or the patentee, as the case may be, to furnish such further proof as he or it may deem necessary. When the claim is laid open to public inspection, the date of communication claimed shall be advertised in the Journal and, on the grant of a patent on the application, shall be entered on the register of patents. Regulation 3: amended, on 13 September 2014, by section 249 of the Patents Act 2013 (2013 No 68).
When a claim to priority is made pursuant to regulation 3 and any claim of the specification of the invention forming the sub- ject of the application or patent is for the same subject matter as that claimed in a claim of the specification of any other appli- cation for a patent which when granted would have a priority date within the meaning of section 5 of the Patents Act 2013 later than the date of the communication but not later than the priority date of any claim of the specification of the patent ap- plied for with the said claim to priority, the Commissioner or the court, as the case may be, may on satisfactory proof of communication of the invention, treat the date of communica- tion as the priority date in any proceedings under the Patents Act 2013 or regulations made under that Act— (a) based on prior publication of or claiming of the inven-
tion in such other application or patent; or (b) based on prior claiming in the application or patent in
respect of which the claim to priority has been made of the invention claimed in the other application or patent—
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if the invention or part thereof claimed in the other application or patent was obtained in consequence of that communication: provided that the invention or part shall be presumed to have been obtained in consequence of the communication unless the applicant or the patentee of the other application or patent proves that the invention or part was made in New Zealand be- fore the date of communication or was independently devised in New Zealand. Regulation 4: amended, on 13 September 2014, by section 249 of the Patents Act 2013 (2013 No 68).
5 (1) In the case of an application by any individual, firm, or cor-
poration resident or carrying on business in the United States of America at any time subsequent to 2 September 1952, or the personal representative or assignee of such an individual, firm, or corporation, for a patent which if granted would have claims in the relative specification having a priority date sub- sequent to 2 September 1952, there shall be included, among the grounds upon which notice of opposition to the grant of the patent may be given or an application for revocation of a patent granted thereon may be made, the ground that the in- vention or some part thereof was obtained in consequence of a communication by or at the request of the New Zealand Gov- ernment to the Government of the United States of America or to any person, firm, or corporation in the United States of America under an agreement between the two Governments.
(2) For the purposes of this regulation an invention shall be pre- sumed to have been obtained in consequence of the commu- nication if the priority date of any claim of the specification filed in relation thereto is later than the date of the communi- cation unless the applicant or the patentee, as the case may be, proves that he or the person from whom his title to the inven- tion is derived introduced the invention or a part thereof into New Zealand before the date of the communication or devised the invention or a part thereof in New Zealand.
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T J Sherrard, Clerk of the Executive Council.
Issued under the authority of the Legislation Act 2012. Date of notification in Gazette: 4 October 1956.
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Reprints notes
1 General This is a reprint of the Patents (United States of America) Regulations 1956 that incorporates all the amendments to those regulations as at the date of the last amendment to them.
2 Legal status Reprints are presumed to correctly state, as at the date of the reprint, the law enacted by the principal enactment and by any amendments to that enactment. Section 18 of the Legislation Act 2012 provides that this reprint, published in electronic form, has the status of an official version under section 17 of that Act. A printed version of the reprint produced directly from this official electronic version also has official status.
3 Editorial and format changes Editorial and format changes to reprints are made using the powers under sections 24 to 26 of the Legislation Act 2012. See also http://www.pco.parliament.govt.nz/editorial-conven- tions/.
4 Amendments incorporated in this reprint Patents Act 2013 (2013 No 68): section 249
Wellington, New Zealand: Published under the authority of the New Zealand Government—2014
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