S.L. 417.1 Art. 24Maintenance fees prescribed due date. Article 26(2),(3).

(1) If it is desired to keep a patent in force for a further year after the expiration of the second or any succeeding year from the date of filing, an application for that patent as determined in accordance with article 14 of the Act, in respect of the next succeeding year, shall be filed and the prescribed renewal fee paid in the three months ending with the fourth or, as the case may be, succeeding anniversary of the filling date: Provided that, where a patent is granted in the three months ending with the fourth or any succeeding anniversary as so determined or at any time thereafter, a request, in respect of the fifth or succeeding year, may be filed and the prescribed renewal fee paid not more than three months before the expiration of the fourth or relevant succeeding year but before the expiration of three months from the date on which the patent is granted.

(2) On receipt of the prescribed renewal fee, the Comptroller shall (if the patent is granted) issue a certificate of payment.

(3) Where the period for payment of a renewal fee pursuant to subregulation (1) has expired, the Comptroller shall, not later than six weeks after the last date for payment under that subregulation and if the fee still remains unpaid, send to the proprietor of the patent a notice reminding him that payment is overdue and of the consequence of non-payment.

(4) The Comptroller shall send a notice under subregulation (3) to -

(a) the address specified by the proprietor on payment of the last renewal fee; or

(b) where another address has been notified to him for the purpose by the proprietor since the last renewal, that address, and, in any other case, the address for service entered in the register.

(5) A request for extending the period for payment of a renewal fee shall be accompanied by the prescribed renewal fee and the prescribed additional fee for late payment.