H.—lo.

1907. NEW ZEALAND.

PATENTS, DESIGNS, AND TRADE MARKS: EIGHTEENTH 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."

Ik pursuance of section 128 of "The Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks Act, 1889," I have the honour to submit my report on the operations of the Patent Office for the year 1906. During the past year the business of the office has continued to increase, the number of applications and amount of fees received being considerably in excess of those for any previous year. The following table shows the number of applications, and revenue and expenditure, for the last two years : — Number of Revenue. Expenditure. Year. Applications. £ s. d. £ s. d. 1906 ... ... ... 2,483 5,641 0 6 2,237 19 1 1905 ... ... ... 2,262 4,970 2 6 2,297 9 8 Increase ... ... 221 670 18 0 (97 per cent.) (135 per cent.) Decrease ... ... 59 10 7 (2 - 5 per cent.) The expenditure is rather under that for 1905. The amount paid in salaries was about the same, the difference being chiefly accounted for by somewhat less binding being done last year than during the preceding twelve months. .£971 3s. 4d. (432 per cent.) of the expenditure, it may be mentioned, was in respect of work done by the Government Printing Office. The receipts, expenditure, and surplus of the office from the date of the commencement of the present Act on the Ist January, 1890, up to the end of last year are as follow: — Receipts. Expenditure. Surplus. Years. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. 1890 to 1906 ... ... 55,297 0 9 16,807 3 4 38,489 17 5 PATENTS. For some time past each year has shown a decided advance on the previous one in the number of applications received, and last year was no exception in that respect, the total number being 1,745. This considerably exceeds the number received in any previous year, and is equivalent to one application to every 540 persons in the colony. As the rate in Australia is one in 1,500, in Canada one in 960, in Great Britain one in 1,580, and in the United States of America one in 1,500, it will be seen that the rate in New Zealand is relatively a very high one. The progress of the office is illustrated in Table E, which shows that the applications for patents from 1896 to 1900 increased 50 per cent, over the total for the preceding five years, and the number received during the period 1901 to 1905 was 41 per cent, in advance of that lodged from 1896 to 1900. It may be mentioned for the purpose of comparison that the applications in the United Kingdom increased respectively 13 per cent, and 2 per cent, during the same periods, and in the United States 5 per cent, and 14 per cent. The number of specifications lodged was 2,055, 1,110 provisional specifications, and 635 compiete specifications with the applications, and 310 complete specifications lodged in respect of applications for which provisional specifications had already been filed. i—H. 10.