Statutory guidance

Directions: hours of business and excluded days

Published 15 July 2011

© Crown copyright 2011

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hours-of-business-and-excluded-days/directions-hours-of-business-and-excluded-days

1. Introduction

  1. The comptroller has made the following directions under section 120(1) of the Patents Act 1977.

  2. These directions come into force on 15 July 2011.

  3. The directions of the same title which were given in December 2007 and came into force on 17 December 2007 are revoked.

2. Interpretation

  1. In these directions:

    'the office' means the Patent Office

    'the Act' means the Patents Act 1977

    'business' means business transacted by the public under the Act or any class of such business

    'excluded day' means a day excluded for any such business or class of business

    'applications' means applications for patents filed under the Act

    'forms' means documents containing the information required by the relevant Patents Forms as set out in directions under section 123(2A) of the Act

3. Hours of business

  1. The office shall not be taken to be closed at any time for the filing of applications in respect of which no declaration for the purpose of section 5(2) of the Act is made.

  2. From Monday to Friday, the office shall be taken to be closed at the following hours for the transaction of business of the classes specified -

    (a) at midnight for the filing of applications, forms and other documents (except for the filing of applications in respect of which no declaration for the purpose of section 5(2) is made), and

    (b) at 5pm for all other types of business not detailed above

4. Excluded days

  1. The following shall be excluded days for all purposes under the Act, except for the filing of applications in respect of which no declaration for the purpose of section 5(2) is made:

    (a) all Saturdays and Sundays

    (b) Good Friday and Christmas Day

    (c) any day specified as or proclaimed to be a bank holiday in or under section 1 of the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971.


  2. Tuesday 4 January 2000 is an excluded day for all purposes under the Act.

John Alty
Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks
July 2011

5. Guidance on the directions

(a) These notes are not part of the directions. They are intended to provide background and additional information.

(b) The Interpretation Act 1978 applies to these directions. Therefore, all the definitions set out in the Patents Act apply to these directions. Further, amongst other things, generally any words importing the masculine gender include the feminine and words in the singular include the plural and words in the plural include the singular.

(c) Section 120(1) of the Patents Act allows the comptroller to give directions specifying the hours during which the office is closed for the transaction of business under the Patents Act, and the days that are excluded for any such purposes.

(d) These directions replace the directions that were given in December 2007 and came into force on 17 December 2007.

(e) The hours of business have been revised to allow the office to be open at all times for the filing of new applications in respect of which no declaration for the purposes of section 5(2) of the Act is made. This will mean that new applications which do not contain a declaration of priority from an earlier application will be awarded the date they are received in the office as their official filing date.

(f) Any queries about these directions should be addressed to Patents Legal Section:

Intellectual Property Office
Concept House
Cardiff Road
Newport
South Wales
NP10 8QQ
United Kingdom

Telephone: +44(0)30 0300 2000
Telephone: +44(0)16 3381 4000
Minicom: +44(0)30 0020 0015

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