Intellectual Property Office
class="gem-c-govspeak govuk-govspeak govuk-!-margin-bottom-0">
6.01
An applicant may seek to establish a priority date for an application in accordance with s.5 of the Patents Act 1977. The applicant must normally do this at the time of filing under rule 6(1). If the claim to priority is not made at the date of filing it may be made later under rule 6(2) providing all the conditions of that rule are met. See para. 6.15-6.20.
6.02
The normal period for claiming priority is 12 months from the filing of the earlier application. Exceptionally permission may be granted for a late declaration of priority to be made under s.5(2B). In this instance the time period is 14 months from the filing of the earlier application. See para. 6.21-35
6.03
Part 5 of F1 should be completed with the relevant information. The country and date of filing should be given at the date of filing and a period of 16 months is allowed for the earlier application number to be provided under r.8(1) otherwise the priority declaration will be disregarded. This period is extendable by a period of two months under the provisions of r.108(2). A further discretionary extension may be allowed under the provisions of r.108(3).
6.04
The declared priority may be in respect of one or more patent applications in one or more convention countries (Annex 6A - List of Convention Countries)
6.05
When carrying out the preliminary examination (see Chapter 7), the Formalities Examiner should check any declaration to ensure it does not exceed the 12 month period prescribed in s.5(2A). The only exceptions to this rule will be when a rule110 certificate is in force at the time of filing of the later application ([see Chapter 12]) or when a late declaration under s.5(2B) has been allowed.
6.06
If a defective declaration is discovered, the applicant should be notified that the priority date is invalid and that they must provide a corrected and valid date within 2 months of the notification otherwise the priority claim will be disregarded.
6.07
A priority claim cannot be based upon an earlier Design registration either in the UK or abroad. Any such claim should be rejected. However, the subject matter of a German gebrauchsmuster application, or an application for registration of a Utility Model, or a French Certificate of Utility may be considered a relevant application for the purposes of s.5(2).
6.08
A priority claim based upon a US Provisional application should not be objected to by the Formalities Examiner. Any questions with regard to the validity of such a claim to priority will be addressed when a challenge is made through the courts.