Click Here & Upgrade PDF Complete Expanded Features Unlimited Pages Documents (b) the complete specification gives such relevant information as is available to the applicant on the characteristics of the micro-organism; (c) the complete specification gives the date when the culture was deposited, the culture collection in which it was deposited and the file number of the deposit. (2) Before an application for a patent referred to in regulation 28bis(1) can be accepted, the applicant must furnish proof to the satisfaction of the Registrar that samples of the micro-organism in question are available from such culture collection to the public in the Republic of South Africa. 28A. Microbiological processes and products (1) If the complete specification accompanying an application claims as an invention a microbiological process or a product thereof and requires for the performance of the invention the use of a micro-organism which is not available to the public on the date of lodging the application and which cannot be made or obtained on the basis of the description in the specification, the following provisions shall apply: (a) Not later than the date of lodging the application, a culture of the micro­ organism shall be deposited with a depositary institution which has acquired the status of international depositary authority as provided for in the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Micro-organisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure; (b) subject to subregulation (2), the complete specification shall state the name, or a recognised abbreviation, of the international depositary authority with which the culture was deposited and the accession number given to the deposit by the international depositary authority; and (c) the complete specification, as lodged, shall give such relevant information as is available to the applicant on the characteristics of the micro-organism. (2) Where the information specified in subregulation (1) (b) is not contained in the complete specification as lodged, it may be added to the complete specification in accordance with section 50 (1) (b) of the Act at any time before the date of publication in terms of section 42 of the Act or before coming open to public inspection in terms of section 43 (3) of the Act, whichever is the earlier. (3) The communication of the information provided for in subregulation (1) shall be considered as constituting the unreserved and irrevocable consent of the applicant to make the deposited culture available to the public in accordance with this regulation from the date contemplated in subregulation (2). (4) A sample of the deposited culture shall be furnished to any person (hereinafter referred to as the 'requesting party') from the date contemplated. in subregulation (2) provided that the requesting party makes a valid request therefor to the international depositary authority with which the culture is deposited. (5) A request for the furnishing of a sample of the deposited culture shall be valid if it is lodged on Form P23 as set out in Schedule 2 and the Registrar has certified on that form that a patent or patent application referring to the deposit of the culture has been published in terms of section 42 of the Act or has come open to public inspection in terms of section 43 (3) of the Act, as the case may be, and that the requesting party is entitled to the furnishing of a sample of the deposited culture.