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1901. NEW ZEALAND.

PATENTS, DESIGNS, AND TRADE MARKS: TWELFTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE REGISTRAR.

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly pursuant to Section 128 of " The Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks Act, 1889."

I have the honour to submit; the report on the operations of the Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks Office for the year ended the 31st December, 1900. There has been a small increase in all classes of the business of the office during the year, and the revenue still maintains its elasticity. The actual revenue received was £3,396 17s. 3d., while the expenditure amounted to £1,027 ss. Bd., leaving a surplus of £2,369 lis; 7d. Full particulars are given in Tables B and C. The total number of patents applied for was 1,009, an increase of seventeen over the previous year. There was no marked increase in any particular class of invention, but the largest number of applications were made for inventions under the following headings : viz., boilers, &c, 29 (including 14 spark-arresters); building, 33; dredging, &c, 51 (including 28 for dredges and parts thereof); engines, &c, 46 (including 12 electric motors); illuminating, 46 (including 17 electric illuminating appliances); minerals, 105 (including 52 for saving and extracting gold); railways, 37 (including 11 coupling and draught appliances) ; and road vehicles, 55 (including 27 relating to cycles). There were also five applications in respect of linotype machines. As usual the large majority of the applications came from inventors resident in New Zealand, of whom there were 616. The United Kingdom came next with 120; the United States, 88; Victoria, 70 ; and New South Wales, 52. There were 10 women inventors all in New Zealand. There were thirteen applications under the International Convention, by which a right of priority is secured in those countries which are parties to the Convention. A change has been made in the method of sending out the English specifications supplied to this office through the kindness of the Comptroller-General of Patents, London. These have hitherto been retained at the publishers until several volumes were collected, when they were bound and sent out, a considerable time thus elapsing, in some cases two years or more, between the date of the publishing of a specification and of its receipt in the colony. The specifications are now sent out every month in small lots, and as soon as received are available for inspection. When a sufficient number of volumes have come to hand they can be bound in the colony equally as well as the work has been done in London at rather less cost. The following table is of interest as showing the number of patents that were considered of sufficient value to be kept alive by payment of the renewal fees: —

The Appendix hereto contains the following tables : — A. Balance-sheet of Income and Expenditure for the Year ended 31st December, 1900. B. Table showing Revenue and Expenditure for each of the Last Eight Years. C. Particulars of Fees received from the Ist January to the 31st December, 1900. D. Staff of Officers and Salaries.

Year. Number of Applications received. Number of Letters Patent granted. Number of Patents on which Second-term Fee paid. Number of Patents on whioh Final Fee paid. 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 614 589 606 625 756 816 992 364 348 326 334 349 362 478 80 78 84 99 88 113 118 37 23 37 47