PATENTS AND TRADE MARKS

Otago Witness, Issue 3527, 18 October 1921, Page 8

PATENTS AND TRADE MARKS

CONSOLIDATING BILL. (FiiOit Oun Own Coii2b&pondent.) Yt ELLINGTON, October 12. The Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks Bill introduced in tile House ot Representatives to-day by a Yice-regal Message is in a large measure a consolidation of the legislation previously existing, it contains, uowever, certain new matter, some clauses being designed to improve the machinery provided lor tire registration of patents, etc., but ot ners containing new principles. Among the provisions laying down the circumstances in which a patentee may petition the court for an extension ot tile term of his protection is a clause laying it down that where, by reason ol hostilities with any foreign state, the patentee lias suffered io-ss or damage, including loss of opportunity of dealing in, or developing' Ins invention owing to his having been engaged in work of national importance connected with such hostilities, an application may be made by an originating summons, instead of by petition, and the court, in considering its decision, may have regard solely to the loss or damage suffered by the patentee. This provision is not to apply if tire patentee is the subject of the foreign state with which the hostilities have been carried on, or is a company, the business of which is managed or controlled by such foreign subjects, or carried on wholly or mainly for their benefit, even though trie company may be registered within the Empire. The Crown is to be given certain limited rights to use patented inventions. It is proposed that any Government Department, or its agents, contractors, or others, if authorised by tire Minister in charge, may use the invention for the services of the Crown on terms to be settled between the department and the patentee, with the approval of the Minister of Finance. In the event, of a disagreement as to the terms, or any other dispute as to the use of an invention in the service of the Crown, appeal is to be made to the court for a decision, and if the court is not itself able to decide the pomes at issue, it, nray appoint a referee or an arbitrator. In the case of inventions relating to substances prepared or produced by chemical processes, or intended for food or medicine, the specification shall not include claims for the sub-stance itself, except when produced or prepared by the special methods or processes of manufacture described and claimed, or by their obvious chemical equivalents. In the event of a claim for the infringement of a patent where the invention relates to the production of a now substance, any substance of the same chemical composition and constitution shall, in the absence of proof to the contrary, be deemed to have been produced by the patented process. In the case of an application for the protection of any such invention for a food or medicine, the registrar of patents is to issue a license limiting the protection to the _ invention as a food substance or a medicine. In settling the terms of the license and fixing the amount of royalty payable, the registrar is to have regard to the desirability of having the food or medicine supplied to the public at the lowest possible price, and at the same time endeavour to secure to the inventor due reward for the research leading to the invention. An appeal from his decision on such a point- may be made to tire court. These considerations are to apply only to patents applied for after the coming into force of the new measure. The registration of designs is to be made effective against the Grown in the same way as patents, with exactly the same provision for the use of a design by a Government department, as for the use of a patent. \ arious amendments of a technical character are to be made in the methods of registering trade marks. It is provided that where, in the case of an article or substance manufactured under any patent in force at, or granted after, the commencement- of the new measure, a. word trade mark is the only practicable name of the article or substance. All rights to the exclusive use of the name shall cease on the expiry of the patent. No word which is the only practicable -.name or description of any single chemical element or compound, as distin guislied from a mixture, shall bo registered as a trade mark. Where any mark at present registered and in use contravenes these provisions no application for its removal from the register is to be entertained until alter four years from the commencement of the new law. New rules are laid down for the registration of patent agents. It is laid down that, no person shall dcI scribe himself as a patent agent unless (a) in the case of an individual he is registered as such; (b) in the case of a firm, every partner of the firm is so registered; (c) in the case of a company commencing to carry on business after the coming into force of the present measure, every director arm the manager are so registered; (cl) in the case of a company carrying on business at the present time as a patent agency, a manager or a director of the company is eo ’egistered. After this measure comes into force no person shall he registered as a patent agent unless he is a British subject.