Application, investigation, opposition, etc.
15Refusal of patent without opposition
1
If at any time after the acceptance of the complete specification filed in pursuance of an application for a patent and before the grant of a patent thereon it comes to the notice of the comptroller, otherwise than in consequence of proceedings in opposition to the grant under the last foregoing section, that the invention, so far as claimed in any claim of the complete specification, has been published in the United Kingdom before the priority date of the claim—
a
in any specification filed in pursuance of an application for a patent made in the United Kingdom and dated within fifty years next before the date of filing of the applicant's complete specification ; or
b
in any other document (not being a document of any class described in subsection (1) of section fifty of this Act),
the comptroller may refuse to grant the patent unless within such time as may be prescribed the complete specification is amended to his satisfaction.
2
An appeal shall lie from any decision of the comptroller under this section.