Patents Act, 1970
8. Information and undertaking regarding foreign applications
(1) Where an applicant for a patent under this Act is
prosecuting either alone or jointly with any other person an application for a
patent in any country outside India in respect of the same or substantially the
same invention, or where to his knowledge such an application is being
prosecuted by some person through whom he claims or by some person deriving
title from him, he shall file along with his application-
(a) a statement setting out the name of the
country where the application is being prosecuted, the serial number and date
of filing of the application and such other particulars as may be prescribed;
and
(b) an undertaking that, up to the date of the
acceptance of his complete specification filed in India, he would keep the
Controller informed in writing, from time to time, of details of the nature
referred to in clause (a) in respect of every other application relating to the
same or substantially the same invention, if any, filed in any country outside
India subsequently to the filing of the statement referred to in the aforesaid
clause, within the prescribed time.
(2) The Controller may also require the applicant to furnish, as
far as may be available to the applicant, details relating to the objections,
if any, taken to any such application as is referred to in sub-section (1) on
the ground that the invention is lacking in novelty or patentability, the
amendments effected in the specifications, the claims allowed in respect
thereof and such other particulars as he may require.