Industrial and Commercial Property (Protection) Act, 1927

Acts which do not amount to anticipation.

56.—(1) An invention covered by a patent granted or registered in Saorstát Eireann shall not be deemed to have been anticipated by reason of its publication in—

(a) a specification left in the Patent Office in London pursuant to an application made in that Office not less than fifty years before the date of the application for the patent, or

(b) a provisional specification left in the Patent Office in London before the commencement of this Part of this Act and not followed by a complete specification, or

(c) a provisional specification left in the Office and not followed by a complete specification.

(2) A patent shall not be held to be invalid by reason only of the invention in respect of which the patent was granted, or any part thereof, having been published prior to the date of the patent, if the patentee proves to the satisfaction of the court that the matter published was derived or obtained from him, and that the publication was made without his knowledge or consent, and, if he learnt of the publication before the date of his application for the patent, that he applied for and obtained protection for his invention with all reasonable diligence after learning of the publication:

Provided that the protection afforded by this sub-section shall not extend to a patentee who has commercially worked his invention in Saorstát Eireann otherwise than for the purpose of reasonable trial of the invention prior to the application for the patent.