Section 55

The surrender may be limited to one or more claims of the patent.

Where a licence contract in respect of a patent is recorded in the

Register, the Registrar shall not, in the absence of any provision to the contrary in the licence contract, accept or record the said surrender except upon receipt of a signed declaration by which every licensee or

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sub-licensee on record consents to the said surrender unless the requirement of his consent is expressly waived in the licence contract.

Where a compulsory licence has been granted in respect of a patent, the Registrar shall not accept or record the said surrender except upon receipt of a signed declaration by which the beneficiary of the compulsory licence consents to the said surrender.

The Registrar shall record the surrender in the Register and cause it to be published in the Official Journal.

The surrender shall take effect from the date the Registrar receives the declaration and such declaration shall not be withdrawn.

Opposition of patent

*55A. (1) Where no proceedings under any provision of this Act is instituted at the Court in relation to a patent, any interested person may, within the prescribed period from the date of publication of the grant of the patent, commence opposition proceedings by filing a notice of opposition against the owner of the patent in relation to the grant of the patent to the Registrar in the prescribed manner on any of the grounds specified in paragraph 56(2)(a), (b) or (c) together with the payment of the prescribed fee.

If the interested person is not a resident, the security for costs of the opposition proceedings as determined by the Registrar shall be given by the interested person at the time of filing the notice of opposition under subsection (1).

After the filing of notice of opposition under subsection (1), any request or filing of documents made by the interested person or owner of the patent in relation to the opposition proceedings shall be made in the prescribed manner together with the payment of the prescribed fee.

*NOTE—Section 55A is not yet in force—see P.U. (B) 168/ 2022.

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The Registrar may form an ad hoc opposition committee to give recommendation to the Registrar in making a decision on the notice of opposition.

At the end of the opposition proceedings, the Registrar shall decide whether to—

Where the Registrar decides to maintain the grant of a patent under paragraph (5)(a) or (b), no application under section 56 shall be made by the interested person in relation to the patent concerned except by way of counterclaim for the invalidation under subsection 60(3) or appeal to the Court under section 88.

Where the Registrar decides to maintain the grant of a patent with any amendment under paragraph (5)(b), the amendment shall be deemed to have effect from the date of the grant of the patent.

Any decision of the Registrar under this section or any appeal from such decision of the Registrar under section 88 shall not prevent any party to any infringement proceedings from invalidating the patent on any of the grounds referred to in section 56.

In this section, “interested person” includes the Federal

Government and a State Government.

Invalidation of patent