Amendment of section 124A of the Patents Act 1977

4.—(1) Section 124A of the Patents Act 1977(1) shall be amended as follows.

(2) In subsection (1) for the word “make” there shall be substituted “give”.

(3) In subsection (3), for the words from the beginning to “(1)” there shall be substituted “Subject to subsections (14) and (15), if a document to which a direction under subsection (1) or (2)”.

(4) In subsection (5)—

(a)for the word “make” there shall be substituted “give”;

(b)immediately before paragraph (b) there shall be inserted “and”.

(5) In subsection (6) for the word “make” there shall be substituted “give”.

(6) In subsection (7) for the word “make” there shall be substituted “give”.

(7) Subsections (9), (10) and (12) shall be omitted.

(8) For subsections (13) to (15) there shall be substituted—

“(13) The delivery using electronic communications to any person by the comptroller of any document is deemed to be effected, unless the comptroller has otherwise specified, by transmitting an electronic communication containing the document to an address provided or made available to the comptroller by that person as an address of his for the receipt of electronic communications; and unless the contrary is proved such delivery is deemed to be effected immediately upon the transmission of the communication.

(14) A requirement of this Act that something must be done in the prescribed manner is satisfied in the case of something that is done—

(a)using a document in electronic form, or

(b)using electronic communications,

only if the directions under this section that apply to the manner in which it is done are complied with.

(15) In the case of an application made as mentioned in subsection (14)(a) or (b) above, a reference in this Act to the application not having been made in compliance with rules or requirements of this Act includes a reference to its not having been made in compliance with any applicable directions under this section.

(16) This section applies—

(a)to delivery at, in, with or to the Patent Office as it applies to delivery to the comptroller; and

(b)to delivery by the Patent Office as it applies to delivery by the comptroller.”.