(b) in accordance with the law of any convention country is equivalent to an application duly made in
that convention country,
he shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to have applied in each of those convention countries
or in that convention country, as the case may be.
(4) Where a patent application or a design application is to be treated by virtue of subsection (2) of this
section as having been made on the date of an earlier application in a convention country, that earlier
date is referred to in this Act as a foreign priority, and in this Act the expression "foreign priority" shall
be construed accordingly28. (1) There shall be a Registrar of Patents and Designs, who shall be appointed by the Federal Civil Service
Commission.
(2) The Registrar may correct any clerical error in an entry in the Register, but before doing so shall give the
person to whom the entry relates an opportunity to make representations.
(3) Any person(a) may consult the Register free of charge during the prescribed hours; and
(b) on payment of the prescribed fee, may obtain a copy of any entry in the Register.
(4) A copy of an entry in the Register sealed with the Registrar's seal shall be admissible as evidence of what
is stated therein; and any document purporting to be such a copy shall be presumed, until the contrary is
proved, to be what it purports to be.
(5) Any person aggrieved by a decision of the Registrar in the exercise of his functions under this Act may
appeal to the court.
(6) If the Minister so directs, the Registrar shall from time to time publish a journal to be known as the
Patents and Designs Journal in which shall be published all such matters as are required by this Act to be
published or notified and such other matters relating to patents and designs as the Registrar thinks fit:
Provided that, if there is no such direction in force, any matter required by this Act to be published or
notified shall be published by the Registrar in the Federal Gazette.
(7) Subject to this Act and any such rules made under section 30(b) of this Act, the Registrar shall maintain
and make entries in the Register in whatever manner appears to him to be most suitable and convenient.
29. Subject to Part II of the First Schedule to this Act, a patent or registered design shall have the same effect
against the State as against an individual.
30. (1) The Minister may make rules(a) prescribing anything requiring to be prescribed for the purposes of this Act, (including summary
forms of notification of the grant of a patent and the registration of a design, and classifications of
products to which designs relate);
(b) regulating the mariner in which the Registrar shall maintain and make entries in the Register; and
(c) containing such administrative or procedural provisions as appear to him to be necessary or expedient
in order to facilitate the operation of this Act.
(2) The Minister for Industries with the approval of the National Council of Ministers may make rules
establishing schemes to encourage inventive activity; and, without prejudice to the generality of the
foregoing, any such scheme may include provision for the payment of grants to persons who have
discovered or perfected, or appear to have reasonable prospects of discovering or perfecting, important
inventions which cannot be further developed for financial reasons.