Part V Patent Agents and Trade Mark Agents

Patent agents

281 Power of comptroller to refuse to deal with certain agents.

1

This section applies to business under the M1Patents Act 1949, the M2Registered Designs Act 1949 or the M3Patents Act 1977.

2

The Secretary of State may make rules authorising the comptroller to refuse to recognise as agent in respect of any business to which this section applies—

a

a person who has been convicted of an offence under section 88 of the Patents Act 1949, section 114 of the Patents Act 1977 or section 276 of this Act;

b

F1a person whose name has been erased from and not restored to, or who is suspended from, the register of patent F2attorneys on the ground of misconduct;

c

a person who is found by the Secretary of State to have been guilty of such conduct as would, in the case of F3 a person registered in the register of patent F2attorneys, render F4the person liable to have F5the person's name erased from the register on the ground of misconduct;

d

a partnership or body corporate of which one of the partners or directors is a person whom the comptroller could refuse to recognise under paragraph (a), (b) or (c) above.

3

The rules may contain such incidental and supplementary provisions as appear to the Secretary of State to be appropriate and may, in particular, prescribe circumstances in which a person is or is not to be taken to have been guilty of misconduct.

4

Rules made under this section shall be made by statutory instrument which shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

5

The comptroller shall refuse to recognise as agent in respect of any business to which this section applies a person who neither resides nor has a place of business in the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man or another member State of the European Economic Community.