INVENTIVE GENIUS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22708, 22 October 1935, Page 5

INVENTIVE GENIUS

MECHANISED TALKING QUESTION OF COPYiyGHT PATENT OFFICE REPORT The annual report of the Patent Office recently presented to the House of Representatives remarks on the phenomenal rise that has occurred in the number of inventions in the class relating to telephony and telegraphy, which class includes radio, sound films, etc. The peak was reached in 1933, and the figures for 1934, the year that the report covers, shows that this peak is being substantially maintained, the figures being 306 in 1934 as against 313 in 1933. Commenting on this, the report says- “ The policy of the law relating to in dustrial and intellectual property — patents, designs, trade marks, copyright —is that the monopolies and other rights arising as a result of the operations of the Patent Office must be in the public interest. This fundamental aspect of the matter becomes of increase , ing practical importance in these days of industrial aggregation, and particularly so at the present time in regard

to the radio industry, in which consider- i able inventive and commercial activity ' is manifest. In, this connection it should be noted that in modern times there is an increasing tendency for certain phases of patents and copyright to become legally and industrially interlocked. Thus we find that, although ‘ nows ’ is ordinarily regarded as belonging to the domain of copyright, a strong effort was made at the International Conference for the Protection of Industrial Property held in London in 1934 to have ‘news’ included in the convention as being a form of industrial property. On the other hand, persons interested in radio, etc., inventions are vitally concerned in a proposal that may be made to the International Copyright Conference, 1930, to limit the right of local legislatures to regulate the conditions under which copyright material may be communicated to the public by radio. Further, we find that inventors are giving great attention to radio, sound films, etc., by means of which copyright material is convoyed from the creator to the consumer. There is also a marked tendency for broadcasting, etc., inventions to pass into- the bands of large combines, and for the owners of inventions to enhance the value of their monopolies by becoming the owners of correlated copyright. There are thus growing up various powerful groups whose interests in patents and copyright are almost inseparably interwoven.

These interests, being purely commercial, do not invariably harmonise with the public interest. It is therefore necessary, as occasion arises, for the international conventions relating to patents and copyright, and for the domestic legislation, to ensure that monopolies granted to foster public wellbeing are not allowed to defeat their own ends by enriching private c: terpriso unduly at the expense of the State as a whole ” DETAILS OF APPLICATIONS. A total of 2827 applications for the grant of letters patent and for the registration of designs and of trade marks was received during the year, being an all-round increase in the patents, designs and trade marks divisions of 109 on the number for the preceding year. Applications for patents received during the year numbered 1700 (1701), the figures in parentheses referring to the previous year. In addition to the already noted telephony and telegraphy figures, increases were recorded in the classes relating to building construction, 01 (52); cultivating and tilling, 41 (29) ; electricity and magnetism, 84 (00) ; furniture and upholstery, 35 (29); illuminating, 59 (42) ; printing and photography, 32 (20) ; and tobacco, 25 (12) ; while there has been a decrease recorded in the classes concerning cooling and freezing, 19 (30) ; dairying, 47 (08) ; heating and fuel manufacture, 33 (51); kitchen'

utensils and cooking appliances, 35 (4S) ; and pipes, tubes and hose, 21 (33). Of 1700 applications for patents, 021 came from persons resident in New /calami, 307 from Great Britain, 112 from Germany, 97 from Victoria, /9 from New South Wales! and from the United States, 31 from Holland, and the remainder in smaller numbers from various countries, including one from Mexico. Trade mark applications and applications for the regist liition of designs showed a somewhat similar geographical distribution. As is generally the case, the greatest number of applications for the registration of trade marks concerned foods, these numbering 170. Articles of clothing were the next class, with 80, closely followed by the chemical class, 85. Then came instruments, 00; toilet preparations (perfumery, soap, etc.), 58; and the class under which candles, matches, oils, starch and laundry preparations are grouped, 35.