 |
[Home] [Databases] [World Law] [Multidatabase Search] [Help] [Feedback] | |
United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office Decisions |
||
|
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office Decisions >> Schlumberger Holdings Limited (Patent) [2005] UKIntelP o20105 (20 July 2005) URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKIntelP/2005/o20105.html Cite as: [2005] UKIntelP o20105 |
||
[New search] [Printable PDF version] [Help]
For the whole decision click here: o20105
Summary
The applicant's agent filed a reply to a combined search and examination report over 28 months from the specified reply date, having been prompted by the Office's standard letter warning that the application would in due course be treated as refused. The agent explained that at the relevant time he was working part-time with a heavy workload and was reliant on reminders from colleagues about imminent deadlines, having no access to Schlumberger's deadline reminder system. In this case, he had not followed his usual practice of getting out the file when he received an e-mail with instructions to respond, but had instead answered a query in the e-mail and was expecting to be prompted by supplementary instructions which never arrived. The hearing officer did not consider this to be an isolated slip in a well-organised procedure, since the applicant did not have in place a system which would enable the agent to meet deadlines or pick up failures to do so.