Failure to Supply Information, and Unregistered Agents

In one line

Not answering the Controller costs money by the day, lying to the Controller is still a crime, practising as a patent agent without registration costs money, and a company's managers answer for both.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 122 of the Patents Act, 1970 imposes a penalty for refusal or failure to supply information required under section 100(5) or section 146 and punishes knowingly furnishing false information; section 123 imposes a penalty for contravening the restrictions on practice as a patent agent in section 129; and section 124 makes a company and its responsible officers liable for offences under the Act.

Section 122: refusal or failure to supply information

Section 122(1): the penalty. If any person refuses or fails to furnish:

(a) to the Central Government any information which he is required to furnish under section 100(5); or

(b) to the Controller any information or statement which he is required to furnish by or under section 146,

he shall be liable to penalty which may extend to one lakh rupees, and in case of the continuing refusal or failure, a further penalty of one thousand rupees for every day after the first during which the refusal or failure continues.

Section 122(2): the offence. If any person, being required to furnish any such information as aforesaid, furnishes information or statement which is false, and which he either knows or has reason to believe to be false or does not believe to be true, he shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to six months, or with fine, or with both.

The split matters. Silence is a penalty, imposed by an adjudicating officer under section 124A. A lie is an offence, tried by a criminal court. The Jan Vishwas Act converted the first and left the second alone, because a knowing falsehood is a different kind of wrong.

What the two clauses of sub-section (1) cover. Clause (a) is the information about the extent of Government use which section 100(5) entitles the patentee to require and which the Government may call for from a Government undertaking. Chapter 970 works it. Clause (b) is the statement of working under section 146, on Form 27, and the answer to a notice under section 146(1). Chapter 680 works it.

And the daily penalty is what gives it teeth. A patentee who simply never files Form 27 accumulates one thousand rupees a day.

Section 123: practice by non-registered patent agents

The provision, as amended. If any person contravenes the provisions of section 129, he shall be liable to penalty, which may extend to five lakh rupees, and in case of the continuing default, a further penalty of one thousand rupees for every day after the first during which the default continues.