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TITLE X ADDITIONS TO PATENTS

108.

(1) The owner of a patent in force may protect inventions that improve or further develop the invention that is the subject matter of the patent by applying for additions to the patent, provided that they can be combined with the subject matter of the principal patent to make a single inventive unit.

(2) Requests may also be made for additions to a patent application, although such additions may not be granted until the patent itself has been granted.

(3) The object of the addition shall not necessarily imply an inventive step in comparison with the subject matter of the principal patent.

109.

(1) Additions shall have the date of priority corresponding to their respective applications; their term shall be that of the patent and they shall not be subject to the payment of annual fees.

(2) Except for such purposes where the present Law specifies otherwise, additions shall be deemed to be an integral part of the principal patent.

110.

(1) At the request of the applicant, an application for an addition may be transformed into an application for a patent at any time during the procedure or within three months following the date on which the Registry of Industrial Property has communicated the inadmissibility of the application for an addition because its subject matter is not sufficiently related to the invention protected by the principal patent.

(2) Additions already granted may be transformed into separate patents at the request of their owner provided that he renounces the principal patent.

(3) Following an application to transform one of the additions into a patent, subsequent additions may remain as additions to the patent applied for, provided that there is still the necessary unity of the subject matter.

(4) Separate patents resulting from the transformation of additions shall be subject to the payment of the relevant annual fees and their term shall be that of the principal patent.

111.

Unless otherwise specified and for all purposes that are compatible with the nature of the additions, the provisions laid down in the present Law concerning patents shall apply to additions.

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