Patents Act, 1964

Previous communication display or working.

48.—(1) An invention claimed in a complete specification shall not be deemed to have been anticipated by reason only of the communication of the invention to a Minister of State or to any person authorised by such a Minister to investigate the invention or its merits.

(2) The exhibition of an invention at an international exhibition, certified as such by the Minister, or the publication of any description of the invention during the period of the holding of the exhibition, or the use of the invention for the purpose of the exhibition in the place where the exhibition is held, or the use of the invention during the period of the holding of the exhibition by any person elsewhere, without the privity or consent of the inventor, shall not be deemed to be an anticipation of the invention:

Provided that—

(a) the exhibitor, before exhibiting the invention, or permitting such publication, gives the Controller the prescribed notice of his intention to do so; and

(b) the application for a patent is made before or within six months after the date of the opening of the exhibition.

(3) Nothwithstanding anything in this Act, the Controller shall not refuse to accept a complete specification or to grant a patent, and a patent shall not be revoked or invalidated, by reason only of any circumstances which, by virtue of this section, do not constitute an anticipation of the invention claimed in the specification.