{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/patents-rules-1990/schedule-2/paragraph-2",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/patents-rules-1990/schedule-2/paragraph-2.json",
  "legislation": "uksi/1990/2384",
  "legislation_title": "The Patents Rules 1990",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/patents-rules-1990",
  "path": "schedule/2/paragraph/2",
  "kind": "paragraph",
  "number": "2",
  "heading": "Availability of cultures",
  "text": "(1) Save where paragraph 3 below has effect, a request that the comptroller certify a person as a person to whom a depository institution may make available a sample of a micro-organism—\n(a) before publication of the application for a patent, to a person who has made a request under section 118(1) in the circumstances mentioned in paragraph 1(3)(c) above; and\n(b) at any later time, to any person,\nshall be made on Patents Form 8/77 (which shall be filed in duplicate) together, in the case of a micro-organism of which a culture is deposited under the Budapest Treaty with an international depository authority, with the form provided for by the Regulations under that Treaty.\n(2) The comptroller shall send a copy of any form lodged with him under subparagraph (1) above and of his certificate authorising the release of the sample—\n(a) to the applicant for, or proprietor of, the patent;\n(b) to the depository institution; and\n(c) to the person making the request.\n(3) A request under subparagraph (1) above shall comprise, on the part of the person to whom the request relates, undertakings for the benefit of the applicant for, or proprietor of, the patent—\n(a) not to make the culture, or any culture derived from it, available to any other person; and\n(b) not to use the culture, or any culture derived from it, otherwise than for experimental purposes relating to the subject matter of the invention,\nand—\n(i) subject to (iii) below, both undertakings shall have effect during any period before the application for a patent has been withdrawn, has been taken to be withdrawn, has been treated as having been withdrawn, has been refused or is treated as having been refused (including any further period allowed under rule 100 or rule 110(1) or (4) but excluding, where an application is reinstated under either of those rules, the period before it is reinstated);\n(ii) if a patent is granted on the application, the undertaking set out in subparagraph (a) above shall also have effect during any period for which the patent is in force and during the period of six months referred to in section 25(4); and\n(iii) the undertaking set out in paragraph (b) shall not have effect after the date of publication in the Journal of a notice that the patent has been granted,\nand, in this subparagraph, references to a culture derived from a deposited culture of a micro-organism are references to a culture so derived which exhibits those characteristics of the deposited culture essential for the performance of the invention.\n(4) For the purpose of enabling any act specified in section 55 to be done in relation to the culture for the services of the Crown, the undertakings specified in subparagraph (3) above—\n(a) shall not be required from any government department or person authorised in writing by a government department for the purposes of this paragraph; and\n(b) shall not have effect in relation to any such person who has already given them.\n(5) An undertaking given pursuant to subparagraph (3) above may be varied by way of derogation by agreement between the applicant or proprietor and the person by whom it is given.\n(6) Where, in respect of a patent to which the undertaking set out in subparagraph 3(a) has effect,—\n(a) an entry is made in the register under section 46 to the effect that licences are to be available as of right; or\n(b) a compulsory licence is granted under section 48,\nthat undertaking shall not have effect to the extent necessary for effect to be given to any such licence.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1990/2384/schedule/2/paragraph/2",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T14:56:36.113772+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."
}