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Sunrise Agro Ltd furnished working statements to the Controller under section 146. A journalist asks whether the Controller may make this information public. Which is correct?

The Controller may publish information received under section 146(1) or section 146(2) in the prescribed manner. Section 146(3) gives this power without requiring the patentee's consent, so the working statements furnished by Sunrise Agro are not strictly confidential.

  1. AThe information is strictly confidential and cannot be published
  2. BThe Controller may publish information received under section 146(1) or (2) in the prescribed mannerCorrect
  3. CThe Controller may publish it only with the patentee's written consent
  4. DThe Controller may publish only information received under section 146(1), not 146(2)

Explanation

Section 146(3) provides that the Controller may publish the information received under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) in the prescribed manner. No consent is required by the text, and the power covers both sub-sections. Confidentiality is therefore not an absolute bar.

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