2. Refusal of a patent without opposition (section 22)

Section 22 outlines refusal to grant a patent application by the Commissioner.

If it comes to the attention of the Commissioner (otherwise than as a result of opposition proceedings) that an accepted patent application has been prior published then the Commissioner may refuse to grant the patent application unless the complete specification of the patent application is amended satisfactorily.

The prior publication may either be by a New Zealand patent specification published within 50 years of the date of filing of the patent application, or in any other published document not excluded by section 59(1).

This decision to refuse to grant the patent application can be appealed to the High Court.