PATENT RIGHTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25173, 13 March 1943, Page 6

PATENT RIGHTS

WAR-TIME PROTECTION AMENDMENT BILL DEFERRED (F.0.P.R.) WELLINGTON. Mar. 12. Consideration of the Patents, Designs and Trade Marks Amendment Bill was postponed by the House of Representatives to-day until the parliamentary session is resumed in May. After the Minister of Supply, Mr D. G. Stillivan, in the absence of the Minister of Justice, Mr H. G. R. Mason, had moved the committal of the Bill, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Holland. said he had not expected the Bill to come forward at this stage, as he had understood there was no particular hurry for it. „ Mr Sullivan said that the Bill dealt with the legal rights of soldiers overseas and other people who, because of war conditions, could not take.advantage of their legal rights. The legal life of a patent was 16 years, and the legal right of these people to make application for an extension of the term of a patent was preserved. At present the State had a right to assume control of patents in the interests of the war effort, but no right to sell the products. That right was now given, as well as the right to use the products. The right of the patentee was conserved, and he would receive his royalty just as if there had been no intervention on the part of the State. The Bill was also designed to preserve the right of the patentee in regard to foreign transactions. It had been approved by the Statutes Revision Committee. , After Mr Holland had said the Bib was a very technical measure and that he had had one or two requests about it, the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, said he was prepared to defer consideration of the measure. > The debate on the Bill was thereupon adjourned.