ll.—lo

1930. NEW ZEALAND.

PATENTS, DESIGNS, AND TRADE-MARKS. FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER.

Presented lo both Houses of the General Assembly pursuant to Section, 128 of the Patents, Designs, and Trade-marks Act, 1921-22.

REPORT. I have the honour, in accordance with section 128, to submit my report on the administration of the Act during the past year. The total fees received by the Office during the year in respect of patents, designs, and trademarks amounted to £14,066 2s. This is very satisfactory, and represents an increase of £763 lis. Id. over the total amount received in 1928, and is the largest amount yet received in any one year. The expenditure during the same period amounted to £5,873 9s. 10d., leaving a surplus of receipts over payments of £8,192 12s. 2d. This is the largest surplus in the history of the Office, with the exception of that in 1922 (£9,033 14s. 7d.), but, as was explained in the report for that year, certain substantial liabilities incurred in 1922 were not passed in that year. The total surplus of the Office since the beginning of 1890 is now £158,222 lis. 9d. A total of 3,735 applications for the grant of letters patent and for the registration of designs and trade-marks was received. Patent and trade-mark applications, in point of numbers, both show a satisfactory increase in comparison with former years. The number of patent applications for the year is larger than for any previous year, and this, with the exception of 1920 (which was influenced by immediate post-war conditions), also applies to applications for registration of trade-marks. There has been a slight falling-off in the number of applications for registration of designs, and it is to be regretted that greater advantage is not taken of this simple and economical method of protecting the forms of industrial property falling under this head. Countries prom which Applications for Registrations op Trade-marks have been received. In last year's report, figures were published showing the number of letters patent sealed and the number of designs and trade-marks registered in New Zealand and in other States belonging to the International Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. These figures showed that New Zealand occupies a satisfactory position, next to Sweden and Norway, in respect of the abovementioned transactions relating to industrial property. An analysis of the countries from which applications for protection of industrial property are received in New Zealand also gives further information in relation to one of the broader aspects of the work of the Patent Office, and the tables set out below have accordingly been prepared. These tables, which in the present instance have been limited to applications for registration of trade-marks, show two decades —viz., the decade just completed, and the decade immediately following the severance of the office of Colonial Secretary and the office of Registrar of Trade-marks, in 1890, when the first annual Patent Office Report was presented to Parliament.