S.L. 417.1 Art. 20Claims of priority. Article 22.

(1) A copy of the earlier application referred to in article 22(2) of the Act must be filed with the Office within sixteen months from the filing date of that earlier application or, where there is more than one such earlier application, from the earliest filing date of those earlier applications and the said copy and the date of filing of the earlier application must be certified as correct by the Office with which the earlier application was filed.

(2) Such a certified copy of the earlier application and the certification of the filing date need not, however, be filed with the Office where the earlier application or the previously filed application was filed with the Office, or is available to the Office from a digital library which is accepted by the Office for that purpose.

(3) Where the earlier application is not in one of the official languages of the Office and the validity of the priority claim is relevant to the determination of whether the invention concerned is patentable, a translation of the earlier application referred to in subregulation (1) must be filed by the applicant, upon invitation by the Office within two months from the date of that invitation or sixteen months from the filing date of that earlier application, whichever expires later.

(4) Where the Office finds in terms of article 22(4) of the Act that the requirements under article 22 of the Act or under this regulation have not been fulfilled, it shall invite the applicant to file the required correction within two months from this invitation.

(5) Where such an invitation has not been made, however, because indications allowing the applicant to be contacted by the Office have not been filed, the time limit for the filing of such correction shall be three months from the date on which one or more of the elements referred to in article 14(1) of the Act were first received by the Office.

(6) A reference made upon the filing of the application in one of the official languages of the Office to an application previously filed by the applicant himself or his predecessor or successor in title shall, for the purposes of the filing date of the application, replace the description and any drawings: Provided that:

(a) this reference shall indicate that, for the purposes of the filing date, the description and any drawings are replaced by the reference to the previously filed application and shall also indicate the number of that application, and the Office with which that application was filed, as well as the filing date of the previously filed application; and

(b) subject to subregulation (2), a certified copy of the previously filed application and, where the previously filed application is not in one of the official languages of the Office, a translation of that previously filed application, shall be filed with the Office within four months from the date on which the application containing the reference was received by the Office.