A PATENT IN DISPUTE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLVIII, Issue 10944, 16 June 1927, Page 3

A PATENT IN DISPUTE.

COLOURED PHOTOGRAPHY. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, June 14. An action arising out of an invention for coloured photography came before the Chief Justice in the Supreme Court to-day. The plaintiffs, Frank Broomfield, civil engineer, and four others, claimed that the defendants, Edward Nicol Sutherland, merchant, and three others, were trustees for a process invented by William Reid, for the purpose of reproducing the natural colours of objects in cinematography and as trustees had received £15,820 for the purpose of exploiting the invention. It was alleged that while acting as trustees defendants had failed l to file a complete patent specification ; that they had sold shares; that they had charged brokerage and remitted the moneys to inventor and another a few months after they knew the venture had failed; and that they had otherwise failed to exercise proper diligence as trustees. Plaintiff therefore claimed to have the trust administered by the court. The defence filed stated that the patents protection for the process was allowed to lapse in New Zealand on the joint advice of the (patent agents and solicitors for the reason that new pror tections were being taken out in England. They said that no interests had been sold or brokerage charged on the sale of shares for fully six months before the date of the alleged failure of the invention and that all other transactions had been carried out and recorded in a reasonably practical man- ' nor. Defendants further claimed that 1 they wanted to wind up the affairs of the trust at the wish of most of the interest holders in order to facilitate the formation of a limited liability companl of beneficiaries who desired to proceed with the venture. Defendant further claimed that there were only a few minor matters remaining to be concluded in connection with the trust, and that the taking of accounts by the court would entail considerable expense and delay, which the majority of interest holders were anxious to avoid.