46
Government Gazette 23 March 2012
Act No. 1, 2012
No. 4907
INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY ACT, 2012
(6)
Where exploitation of a patented invention pursuant to subsection (2)
involves importation of a product and such importation takes places pursuant to the
Decision of the General Council of the WTO of August 30, 2003 or Article 31 bis of
TRIPS whichever is applicable, and the exporting country issues a compulsory licence
for the same patented invention, no compensation is payable to the owner of the patent
as contemplated in subsection (5).
(7)
The owner of the patent may appeal to the Tribunal against any decision
of the Minister made in terms of subsection (2) or of the Minister made in terms of
subsection (5).
(8)
An appeal against the decision of the Minister does not stay or suspend
the use of the patented invention during the appeal process, the patent holder’s sole
remedy being limited to a claim against the government entity or the third person
authorised to use the invention for the recovery of adequate compensation.
PART 11
SURRENDER, INVALIDATION AND REVOCATION
Surrender of patent
64.
(1)
A patent owner may at any time, by giving notice in the
prescribed manner to the Registrar, offer to surrender his or her patent, and the Registrar
must, on receipt of the notice, give notice of the offer to any person shown in the register
to have an interest in the patent.
(2)
Any person may within the prescribed time lodge in writing with the
Registrar an objection to the surrender of the patent.
(3)
If no objection is so lodged or if any such objection is overruled by
the Registrar or the Tribunal after having given the patent owner and the objector an
opportunity to be heard, the patent is deemed to have been revoked as from the date of
receipt by the Registrar of the offer of surrender, and the Registrar must advertise the
revocation of the patent in the bulletin and make the necessary entries in the register.
(4)
An offer to surrender a patent may not be considered as long as any
proceedings for infringement or invalidation of that patent are pending before the
Tribunal, except by consent of the parties to such proceedings.
Invalidation of patent
65.
(1)
Any person may, in the prescribed form and manner, apply to
the Tribunal to invalidate a patent.
(2)
An application for invalidation must be served on the owner of the
patent and must be notified to the Registrar in the prescribed manner.
(3)
Subject to section 67, the Tribunal must invalidate the patent if the
person requesting the invalidation proves that any one of the following grounds for
invalidation applies to the patent, namely –