Patents Ordinance, 2000 — section 14

14. Complete and provisional application..—(1) Every application for a patent, other than a Convention application, shall be accompanied by either a complete specification or a provisional specification, and every Convention application shall be accompanied by a complete specification.

(2)Where an application for a patent is accompanied by a provisional specification, a complete specification shall be filed within twelve months from the date of filing of the application, and if the complete specification is not so filed the application shall be deemed to be abandoned.

(3)Where two or more applications in the name of the same applicant are accompanied by provisional specification in respect of invention which are cognate or of which one is a modification of another, and the Controller is of the opinion that the whole of such inventions or such as to constitute a single invention and properly be included in one patent, he may allow one complete specification to be filed in respect of all such provisional specifications.

(4)Where an application for a patent, not being a Convention application, is accompanied by a specification purporting to be a complete specification, the Controller may, if the applicant so requests at any time before the acceptance of the specification, direct that it shall be treated for the purposes of this Ordinance as a provisional specification, and proceed with the application accordingly. 1 Subs, Added and Omitted by Act XXIV of 2016, s.3. 2 New sub-sections (8) and (9) of s. 13 added by s. 8 of Ord.no XCV of 2002.

(5)Where a complete specification has been filed in pursuance of an application for a patent accompanied by a provisional specification or by a specification treated by virtue of a direction under sub-section (4) as a provisional specification the Controller may, if the applicant so requests at any time before the acceptance of the complete specification, cancel the provisional specification and post-date the application to the date of filing of the complete specification.