AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 151, 29 June 1887, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

[Per s.s. Te A.nau.]

Reform of tub patent LAWS.

Melbourne, June 16. In the Assembly, Mr Clark's Bill to Amend the Laws has been read a second time. In his address to the House }Ir Clark said the leading features of the measure were as follows:—The fee for letters patent was reduced from L2O to L 5, and the whole sum is carried to the credit of the Consolidated Revenue. The assessment of tbe fee at this sum had been based fin tie theory that 'the Crown should not strive to make direct revenue out of patents, because the State derived an invaluable rain from the publication among its subjects of useful novelties in the arts and manufactures. From April the J9tb to May the 27th no less than, 41 patents were applied for. Of this number 34 were dealt with by the Examiner, and 7 referred to an expert, who received in.each case a fee of three guineas for undertaking the labour of examination of specifications and drawings, and< comparison of them with those belonging to patents in issue, With this reduction of fees, economy of administration, and increased demand forletters patent, it was confidently anticipated that the revenue thus derived would --firstly, provide the salary of an examiner and clerk; secondly, meet the expenses connected with the printing, required; i&irdly, pay the fees of the experts necessitated by occasional applications of extreme scientific technicality ; and. fourthly, leave I balance which it is proposed to judiciously expend in the -purchase and maintenance of a public library of patent publications, ancUn the construction of a suitable and CQmmodious Patents office. It might be - mentioned that since April 19th, the rcjluced fee of L 5 had been charged, but the present process o£ requiring a deposit of ISO, and afterwards refunding LIS, was »n awkward and circumlocutory one, which entailed unnecessary official labour in the Treasury and Patents Office, and which the present amending Act sought to obviate. The present cumbersome process of preparing patents would be dono away with after the proposed Act had passed into law. Mr Clark proceeded to read a series of provisions which would take effect in the event of the passing of the Act. Amongst other matters, the bill provided for a liberal scheme of provisional protection, which j_pijjd.be apconted on the payment of L 2.