Atomic Energy Authority Act 1971

3 Exclusions from transfers in respect of patents and other industrial property. U.K.

(1) There is excepted from paragraph (b) of section 1(1) and from paragraph (b) of section 2(1) of this Act any interest of the Authority in—

(a) any patent, registered design or registered trade mark, or

(b) any application for the grant of a patent, or for the registration of a design or of a trade mark, which is pending immediately before the day which is the appointed day for the purposes of section 1 or section 2 of this Act, as the case may be, or

(c) any invention in respect of which an application for a patent is pending as mentioned in paragraph (b) of this subsection or which, in pursuance of arrangements made in that behalf by the Authority, is recorded as having been made before the day mentioned in that paragraph.

(2) There are also excepted from paragraph (b) of section 1(1) and from paragraph (b) of section 2(1) of this Act—

(a) any rights, liabilities or obligations of the Authority in respect of any licence to use a patented invention, registered design or registered trade mark, or to use an invention, design or trade mark in respect of which an application for a patent, or for registration of the design or trade mark, is pending, whether any such licence was granted by or to the Authority, including any rights to grant sub-licences under any such licence;

(b) any rights, liabilities or obligations of the Authority arising under any assignment (whether by or to the Authority) of a patent, registered design or registered trade mark, or of the right to apply for or to obtain any patent or to apply for or to obtain registration of a design or trade mark; and

(c) any rights, liabilities or obligations of the Authority under any agreement in so far as it provides (whether conditionally or otherwise) for any such licence or sub-licence as is mentioned in paragraph (a) or any such assignment as is mentioned in paragraph (b) of this subsection to be granted or made in the future or for the furnishing of information or technical assistance relating to any invention, design or trade mark, whether actual or prospective.

(3) Where by virtue of subsection (1) or subsection (2) of this section any interest, rights, liabilities or obligations are excepted as therein mentioned, the exception shall include the copyright in—

(a) any literary work consisting of a document by which the interest, rights, liabilities or obligations were conferred or imposed or in which the subject-matter to which they relate is embodied, or

(b) any artistic work on which that subject-matter was based or from which it was wholly or partly derived.

(4) The Authority shall make available to each of the companies such facilities for, and information relating to, the use of any invention, design or trade mark in respect of which an exception is made by the preceding provisions of this section as may be agreed between the Authority and the company to be requisite for the purposes of the part of the Authority’s undertaking transferred to that company by virtue of this Act, or as, in default of such agreement, the Secretary of State may direct as being requisite for those purposes; and any such facilities or information shall be so made available in such manner, and on such terms as to payment or otherwise, as may be agreed between the Authority and the company or as, in default of such agreement, the Secretary of State may direct.

(5) In this section any reference to a patent, or to a registered design or registered trade mark, or to copyright, shall be construed as referring to a patent granted, or a design or trade mark registered, or to copyright subsisting, under the laws of any country or territory outside the United Kingdom as well as to a patent granted, design or trade mark registered, or copyright subsisting, under the laws of the United Kingdom.