{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/patents-act-1949/section-12",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/patents-act-1949/section-12.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/Geo6/12-13-14/87",
  "legislation_title": "Patents Act 1949",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/patents-act-1949",
  "path": "section/12",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "12",
  "heading": "Time for putting application in order for acceptance.",
  "text": "(1) An application for a patent shall be void unless within such period, beginning with the date of filing of the complete specification, as may be prescribed, or within such longer period as may be allowed under the following provisions of this section, the applicant has complied with all requirements imposed on him by or under this Act, whether in connection with the complete specification or otherwise in relation to the application; and where the application or any specification or, in the case of a convention application, any document filed as part of the application, has been returned to the applicant by the comptroller in the course of the proceedings, the applicant shall not be deemed to have complied with the said requirements unless and until he has refiled it.\n(1A) The period prescribed for the purposes of the foregoing subsection shall not be shorter than twelve months or longer than four years.\n(2) The period allowed by subsection (1) of this section shall be extended to such period, ending not later than three months after the date on which the period allowed under that subsection (apart from any extension thereof) would otherwise have expired, as may be specified in a notice given by the applicant to the comptroller, if the notice is given and the prescribed fee paid before the expiration of the period so specified.\n(3) If at the expiration of the period allowed under the foregoing provisions of this section an appeal to the Appeal Tribunal is pending under any of the provisions of this Act in respect of the application (or, in the case of an application for a patent of addition, either in respect of that application or in respect of the application for the patent for the main invention) or the time within which such an appeal could be brought in accordance with the rules of that Tribunal (apart from any future extension of time thereunder) has not expired, then—\n(a) where such an appeal is pending, or is brought within the time aforesaid or before the expiration of any extension of that time granted (in the case of a first extension) on an application made within that time or (in the case of a subsequent extension) on an application made before the expiration of the last previous extension, the said period shall be extended until such date as the Appeal Tribunal may determine;\n(b) where no such appeal is pending or is so brought, the said period shall continue until the end of the time aforesaid, or, if any extension of that time is granted as aforesaid, until the expiration of the extension or last extension so granted.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "Words substituted retrospectively by Patents Act 1957 (c. 13), ss. 1(1)(a), 2(2)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F2",
      "text": "S. 12(1A) inserted retrospectively by Patents Act 1957 (c. 13), ss. 1(1)(b), 2(2)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F3",
      "text": "Words substituted retrospectively by Patents Act 1957 (c. 13), ss. 1(1)(c), 2(2)"
    },
    {
      "type": "C",
      "label": "C1",
      "text": "S. 12(3) extended by Patents Act 1957 (c. 13), s. 2(5)"
    },
    {
      "type": "C",
      "label": "C2",
      "text": "References to Appeal Tribunal to be construed as including references to Patents Court: Patents Act 1977 (c. 37), Sch. 4 para. 11"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/12-13-14/87/section/12",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T11:19:59.574435+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}