THE NEW PATENTS ACT.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13249, 17 October 1908, Page 8

THE NEW PATENTS ACT.

Tlie new British Patents and Designs Act came into full effect oii August 2Sth, a day, according to one writer, which will bo "a red-letter day in the " history of British trade." Tlie clause of thc Act which is to confer this great l>oncfit on British commerce runs as follows: — "At any time 1 not less than four " years after the date ot a patent, and " not less than ono year after the pass- " ing of this Act, any person may apply " to the Comptroller for the revocation "of the patent on the ground that " the patented article or process is '" manufactured or carried on ex- " clusively or mainly outsido thc " United Kingdom." An enquiry of course follows this application, and if the applicant's statements prove correct an order may be made revoking the patent immediately. Tlie machinery clauses of the Act extend ample protection to the manufacturer who can show tliat tho allegation is untrue. The immediate effect of tho Act, which has been pending for a year, is that some of the largest manufacturing firms in Germany and elsewhere" have lost no time in securing ample factory sites in England. Included in thoir number aro thc two greatest Gen-man chemical companies' a popular safety razor company, and the National Cash Register Company, while other firms which aro negotiating for land are concerned with telephone instruments, shoes, phonograph records, typewriters, mercerised cotton, rifles, patent goods, pottery, aniline dyes, and so forth. It is confidently asserted that in this way tho Act will secure the investment in England of twentyfive millions sterling of foreign capitnly*, and will do something to diminish tho severity of the unemployed problem. > Its benefits are not confined to these two features. Professor Kipping, President of the chemical section of the , British Association, pointed out that the establishment in Cheshire of great German chemical works, "would mean a demand for British " labour, and would thus create a sup- ' " ply of trained men for our own manu"facturers so soon as they would be '' "ready to use them. The German ' " chemists who came over to supervise r "the work would become members of ' " our chemical societies, and bring to 1 "us the qualities in which we • were 1 "lacking." The Professor was, how- ' ever, under no delusion as to the future 5 of the chemical industry—that belonged 1 to Germany, and England would never retrieve the ground she had lost. All ' sho could do now was to secure as much " of the profits of the trade as would ' accrue from carrying it on in England. " The fact that this new Act is, in one 3 way, an instalment of Protection has 0 not been lost sight of by tho Tariff Rer formers, nor, it may bo added, by for- • eign manufacturers, who look upon the • provisions as the thin end of the wedge s of Tariff Reform. They do not like the : prospect; indeed, they resent it, and at - tho International Trade and Patent Congress which was sitting at Stock- . holm when the British Act camo into p,j force, plans, it is alleged, were drawn 1 j up for a crusade against tho Act by tho 3 1 leading manufacturing nations. In „ | some way, which is not very clearly j set- forth, but which involves thc pass- ! ing of more restrictive patent laws and ! the negotiation of "Patent Treaties," ! GToat Britain is to be "brought to j '-terms.'' Whether it will bo possible to isolate her so effectually as is proposed remains to be proved, but in the " meantime thero is something amusing 0 in tho fury with which foreign nations 11 • regard any proposed action on tho part • ! of England which puts her in the same r i position towards foreign competition as n j they themselves occupy. h i ____=_______=-