26 CAP. 400]
Substitutionof
applicants
Patents
23. (I) If the Registrar is satisfied, on a claim made in the pre
scribed manner at any time before a patent has been granted, that by
virtue of any assignment or agreement made by the applicant or one
of the applicants for a patent, or by operation of law, the claimant
would, if the patent were then granted, be entitled thereto or to the
interest of an applicant therein, or to an undivided share of the patent
or of that interest, the Registrar may, subject to the provisions of this
section, direct that the application shall proceed in the name of the
claimant or in the names of the claimant and the applicant or the
other joint applicant or applicants, as the case may require.
(2) No such direction as aforesaid shall be given by virtue of any
assignment or agreement made by one of two or more joint appli
cants for a patent except with the consent of the other joint applicant
or applicants.
(3) No such direction as aforesaid shall be given by virtue of any
assignment or agreement for the assignment of the right to an inven
tion unless
(a) the invention is identified thereinby reference to the num
ber of the application for the patent;
(b) there is produced to the Registrar an acknowledgement by
the person by whom the assignment or agreement was
made that the assignment or agreement relates to the inven
tion in respect of which that application is made; or
(c) the rights of the claimant in respect of the invention have
been finally established by a decision of the High Court or
any court to which an appeal against such a decision has
been brought.
(4) Where one of two or more joint applicants for a patent has
died at any time before the patent has been granted, the Registrar, if
satisfied of such decease, may alter the application by substituting
the legal representative of such deceased applicant and shall there
after seal the application in the names of the surviving applicants and
of such legal representative unless, upon a request in that behalf
made by the survivor or survivors, and with the consent of such legal
representative, the Registrar directs that the application shall proceed
and be sealed in the name of the survivor or survivors alone.
(5) If any dispute arises between joint applicants for a patent
whether or in what manner the application should be proceeded with,
the Registrar may, upon application made to him in the prescribed
manner by any of the parties, and after giving to all parties concerned
an opportunity to be heard. give such directions as he thinks fit for
enabling the application to proceed in the name of one or more of the
parties alone or for regulating the manner in which it shall be pro
ceeded with, or for both those purposes, as the case may require.