User:Si2e/Patents Act 1953

Below is the complete text of the New Zealand Patents Act 1953.

An Act to consolidate and amend certain enactments relating to patents

1. Short Title and commencement

 * 1) This Act may be cited as the Patents Act 1953.
 * 2) This Act shall come into force on a day to be appointed for the commencement thereof by the Governor-General by Proclamation.

2 Interpretation

 * 1)  In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—
 * Applicant includes a person in whose favour a direction has been given under section 24 of this Act and the personal representative of a deceased applicant
 * Article includes any substance or material, and any plant, machinery, or apparatus, whether affixed to land or not
 * Assignee includes the personal representative of a deceased assignee; and references to the assignee of any person include references to the assignee of the personal representative or assignee of that person
 * Commissioner means the Commissioner of Patents
 * Convention application has the meaning assigned to it by subsection (4) of section 7 of this Act
 * Convention country, in any provision of this Act, means an entity for the time being declared by an order under section 77 to be a convention country for the purposes of that provision
 * Court means the High Court
 * Date of filing, in relation to any document filed under this Act, means the date on which the document is filed or, where it is deemed by virtue of any provision of this Act or of regulations made thereunder to have been filed on any different date, means the date on which it is deemed to be filed
 * Exclusive licence means a licence from a patentee which confers on the licensee, or on the licensee and persons authorised by him, to the exclusion of all other persons (including the patentee), any right in respect of the patented invention; and exclusive licensee shall be construed accordingly
 * Government Department means any Department or instrument of the Executive Government of New Zealand
 * Integrated circuit means a circuit, in its final or an intermediate form, in which the elements, at least one of which is an active element, and some or all of the interconnections are integrally formed in or on a piece of material and that is intended to perform an electronic function
 * International application means an application made under the Patent Cooperation Treaty for the protection of an invention
 * International Bureau means the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization
 * International filing date means the international filing date given to an international application under Article 11 or Article 14(2) of the Patent Cooperation Treaty
 * Invention means any manner of new manufacture the subject of letters patent and grant of privilege within section 6 of the Statute of Monopolies and any new method or process of testing applicable to the improvement or control of manufacture; and includes an alleged invention
 * Journal means the Patent Office Journal published under subsection (1) of section 112 of this Act
 * Minister means the Minister of Commerce
 * Patent means letters patent for an invention
 * Patent Cooperation Treaty—
 * (a) Means the Patent Cooperation Treaty, signed at Washington on the 19th day of June 1970, the text of which, as amended on the 2nd day of October 1979 and modified on the 3rd day of February 1984, is set out in Schedule 1 to the Patents Amendment Act 1992; and
 * (b) Includes any amendments, modifications, and revisions from time to time made to the Treaty, being amendments, modifications, and revisions to which New Zealand is a party and by which New Zealand is bound:
 * Patent of addition means a patent granted in accordance with section 34 of this Act
 * Patent Attorney means a person carrying on for gain in New Zealand the business of acting as agent for other persons for the purpose of applying for or obtaining patents in New Zealand or elsewhere
 * Patentee, in relation to any patent, means the person or persons for the time being entered on the register of patents as grantee or proprietor of the patent
 * Prescribed means prescribed by this Act or by regulations made under this Act
 * Priority date has the meaning assigned to it by section 11 of this Act
 * Published, except in relation to a complete specification, means made available to the public; and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provision a document shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to be published—
 * (a) If it can be inspected as of right at any place in New Zealand by members of the public whether upon payment of a fee or otherwise; or
 * (b) If it can be inspected in a library of a Government Department or of any institution or public authority and the library is one which is open generally to members of the public who are interested in matters to which the document relates and is a library in which members of the public in search of information related to the subject of the document would ordinarily seek and do in fact seek the information: