1.  These Rules may be cited as the Patent Agents (Non-recognition of Certain Agents by Comptroller) Rules 1990 and shall come into force on 13th August 1990.

2.  In these Rules—

“the Act” means the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988;

“the Comptroller” means the Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks;

“the register” means the register of patent agents required to be kept pursuant to rules made under section 275 of the Act(3)..

3.  The Comptroller is hereby authorised to refuse to recognise as agent in respect of any business under the Patents Act 1949(4), the Registered Designs Act 1949(5)or the Patents Act 1977(6)—

(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 the Act;

(b)an individual whose name has been erased from and not restored to the register 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 an individual registered in the register, render him liable to have his 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.

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Rules)

These Rules authorise, in accordance with section 281 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 the Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks to refuse to recognise certain persons as agents in respect of any business under the Patents Act 1949, the Registered Designs Act 1949 or the Patents Act 1977.