Marginal note:Inspection by the public
10 (1) Subject to subsections (2) to (6) and section 20, all patents, applications for patents and documents filed in connection with patents or applications for patents shall be open to public inspection at the Patent Office, under such conditions as may be prescribed.
Marginal note:Confidentiality period
(2) Except with the approval of the applicant, an application for a patent, or a document filed in connection with the application, shall not be open to public inspection before a confidentiality period of eighteen months has expired.
Marginal note:Beginning of confidentiality period
(3) The confidentiality period begins on the filing date of the application or, where a request for priority has been made in respect of the application, it begins on the earliest filing date of any previously regularly filed application on which the request is based.
Marginal note:Withdrawal of request
(4) Where a request for priority is withdrawn on or before the prescribed date, it shall, for the purposes of subsection (3) and to the extent that it is withdrawn, be considered never to have been made.
Marginal note:Withdrawn applications
(5) An application shall not be open to public inspection if it is withdrawn in accordance with the regulations on or before the prescribed date.
Marginal note:Prescribed date
(6) A prescribed date referred to in subsection (4) or (5) must be no later than the date on which the confidentiality period expires.
- R.S., 1985, c. P-4, s. 10
- R.S., 1985, c. 33 (3rd Supp.), s. 2
- 1993, c. 15, s. 28
- Date modified: