Patents Act, 1970
135. Convention applications
(1) Without prejudice to the provisions contained in section 6,
where a person has made an application for a patent in respect of an invention
in a convention country (hereinafter referred to as the "basic
application"), and that person or the legal representative or assignee of
that person makes an application under this Act for a patent within twelve
months after the date on which the basic application was made, the priority
date of a claim of the complete specification, being a claim based on matter
disclosed in the basic application, is the date of making of the basic
application.
Explanation: Where applications have been made for similar
protection in respect of an invention in two or more convention countries, the
period of twelve months referred to in this sub-section shall be reckoned from
the date on which the earlier or earliest of the said applications was made.
(2) Where applications for protection have been made in one or
more convention countries in respect of two or more inventions which are
cognate or of which one is a modification of another, a single convention
application may, subject to the provisions contained in section 10, be made in
respect of those inventions at any time within twelve months from the date of
the earliest of the said applications for protection:
PROVIDED that the fee payable on the making of any such
application shall be the same as if separate applications have been made in
respect of each of the said inventions, and the requirements of clause (b) of
sub-section (1) of section 136 shall, in the case of any such application,
apply separately to the applications for protection in respect of the said
inventions.