N.Z.’S PATENT LAWS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25364, 11 December 1947, Page 3

N.Z.’S PATENT LAWS

SPECIAL INQUIRY BY COMMITTEE

LEGISLATION AMENDED OVERSEAS Fron) Our Own Reporter WELLINGTON, Dec. 10. A special committee to inquire into Stent law and procedure in New Zeaid has been appointed by the Government. and was announced this evening by the Minister of Justice (Mr H. G. R. Mason). The committee is as follows: —Messrs H. E. Evans, the Solicitor-General (chairman), A. J. park, solicitor and patent attorney, J. R. Smith, a communications engineer. G. W. Clinkard, Secretary for Industrie s and Commerce, and S. W. Peterson, a representative of the Manufacturers’ Federation. It is expected that the committee will start its inquiry early next February. The order of reference follows closely that of a similar inquiry held in England. The committee will consider and report whether, and if so, what changes are desirable in the Patents’, Designs’ and Trademarks’ Act, and in the practice of the Patent Office and the Court in relation to matters arising from it; and in particular, will report on the initiation, conduct, and determination of legal proceedings arising under or out of the act, and the provisions of the act for the prevention of the abuse of monopoly rights. The committee will suggest any amendments of the statutory provisions, or of procedure, which will facilitate the settlement and reduction Of. cost of legal proceedings in patent cases, and which will encourage the use of inventions and the progress of industry and trade.

The Commissioner of Patents, Designs, and Trademarks (Mr A. H. Ihle) said to-night ithat the setting up of the committee would be welcomed by his department, as there had been no consolidation of the act since 1921. In 1946 there had been more than 3000 applications for patent licences, twothirds of which came from overseas. This year there were 2600, and it could be expected that there would be at least the same number next year. “Since the war there has been such a flood of technical data that it has been impossible for us to keep up with it,” said Mr Ihle. “At present we have eight technical advisers who are trying to classify all the new material coming to hand. Nearly every country has been revising its patent regulations lately, and it is most pleasing to see that we are now about to do the same thing.” Report to Government In a report he made to the Government a year ago, Mr Ihle said: “The reform of the patent system is a matter which has been receiving world-wide attention. In several. countries new patent legislation has been enacted. The wide divergencies in the evidence adduced shows the necessity for each country to consider the factual situation regarding the operation and effect of the patent system within its own boundaries.

“There has been a good deal of misunderstanding about the purpose* of the revision and possible amendments to the existing patent legislation. The reward of the inventor, and the encouragement of the development of national industry remain the fundamental purposes of the patent system. The review of the law is to ensure that the patent law and administration achieve those objects. “The economic factors involved from a national point of view are the need to cope with the rapid technological changes in the scientific development of industry, the need for national trade policies to serve wider public interests, the need for the removal of obstructions to new industrial techniques, and the need for greater flexibility in postwar industrial organisation.”