S.L. 417.1 Art. 33Details concerning correction or addition of priority claim and restoration of priority right.

(1) Correction of a priority claim under article 22(4) of the Act or addition of a priority claim shall not be accepted by the

Office where the request for such correction or addition is received after the applicant has made a request for early publication or for expedited or accelerated processing, unless that request for early publication or for expedited or accelerated processing is withdrawn before the technical preparations for publication of the application have been completed.

(2) No request for the correction of a priority claim under article 22(4) of the Act or for the addition of a priority claim shall be accepted by the Office unless it is signed by the applicant and filed within sixteen months from the priority date or, where the correction or addition would cause a change in the priority date, sixteen months from the priority date as so changed, whichever sixteen month period expires first.

(3) Where an application ("the subsequent application") which claims or could have claimed the priority of an earlier application has a filing date which is later than the date on which the priority period expired, but within two months from the date on which the priority period expired, the Office shall restore the right of priority, if:

(a) a request to that effect is made to the Office signed by the applicant and accompanied, where the application did not claim the priority of the earlier application, by the priority claim;

(b) the request is filed within two months from the date on which the priority period expired or the time that any technical preparations for publication of the subsequent application have been completed, whichever expires earlier;

(c) the request states the reasons for the failure to comply with the priority period;

(d) the Office finds that the failure to file the subsequent application within the priority period occurred in spite of due care required by the circumstances having been taken or was unintentional.

(4) Where a copy of an earlier application requested under article 22(2) of the Act is not filed with the Office within the time limit prescribed in regulation 20, the Office shall restore the right of priority insofar as:

(a) a request signed by the applicant to that effect is made to the Office with an indication of the Office to which the request for a copy of the earlier application had been made and the date of that request;

(b) the request is filed within the time limit prescribed in regulation 20 for filing the copy of the earlier application;

(c) the Office finds that the request for the copy to be provided had been filed with the Office with which the earlier application was filed within two months before the expiration of the time limit prescribed in regulation 20(1); and

(d) a copy of the earlier application is filed within one month from the date on which the applicant is provided with that copy by the Office with which the earlier application was filed.

(5) A fee in accordance with the Schedule shall be payable for requests under subregulations (1) to (4).

(6) A request under subregulations (1) to (4) may not be refused, totally or in part, without the requesting party being given the opportunity to make observations on the intended refusal within a reasonable time limit.