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1935. NEW ZEALAND.

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

Prevented to 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. A total of 2,827 applications for the grant of letters patent and for the registration of designs and of trade-marks was received during the year, being an all-round increase in the patents, designs, and trademarks divisions, of 109 on the number for the preceding year. The total fees received in respect of patents, designs, and trade-marks was the highest since 1931, being £12,376 ss. lid. for the past year, as against £11,694 11s. 10d. in 1933, and £12,034 19s. 4d. in 1932. It is also satisfactory to note that the surplus for the year under review (£7,666 19s. 2d.), is higher than the surplus for the two preceding years, and that the average surplus for the five year period 1930-1934 is higher than the average surplus for the preceding five years, 1925-1929, the figures being £7,704 11s. 4d. and £7,562 17s. 6d. respectively. The total surplus of the Office since Ist January, 1890, is £196,745 Bs. 6d. Patents. Applications for patents received during the year numbered 1,766 (1,761),* of which 928 (978) were filed with provisional specifications and 838 (784) were accompanied by complete specifications ; 232 (251) complete specifications were lodged during the year in connection with applications with which provisional specifications had originally been filed. As at 31st December, 1934, the total number of applications received was 73,672 and the number of patents in force at that date was 7,505 made up as follows : Patents sealed and third-year fees paid from the 31st December, 1931, to 31st December, 1934, 2,384 and 1,914 respectively ; sixth-year fees from the 31st December, 1924, to the 31st December, 1934' 3,204 ; patents in respect of which an extension of their term has been granted by order of the Supreme Court, 3. . The amount received in patent fees, £8,879 18s. 3d., was £618 m excess of the amount received in 1933. There were 3 (1) patents sealed after the prescribed time, and 3 (2) lapsed patents restored to the register. A very large number of applications were again received in connection with telephony and telegraphy, 306 (313). Increases were recorded in the classes relating to building construction, 61 (52) ; cultivating and tilling, 41 (29) ; electricity and magnetism, 84 (66) ; furniture and upholstery, 35 (29) ; illuminating, 59 (42) ; printing an«J photography, 32 (20) ; and tobacco, 25 (12) ; while there has been a decrease recorded in the classes concerning cooling and freezing, 19 (36) ; dairying, 47 (68) ; heating and fuel manufacture, 33 (51) ; kitchen utensils and cooking-appliances, 35 (48) ; and pipes, tubes, and hose, 21 (33). , . , My report last year showed that in 1931 a phenomenal rise had occurred m the number of inventions in the class relating to telephony and telegraphy, the increase being approximately 50 per cent, on the average for the preceding five-year period 1927-1931. The number of inventions under this head received in that year was the greatest number in the whole history of the Patent Office, and the records disclose that the peak reached in 1933 was substantially maintained last year, the figures being 306 in 1934, as against 313 in 1933. . The policy of the law relating to industrial and intellectual property—patents, designs, trade-marks, copyright—is that the monopolies and other rights arising as a result of the operations of the Patent Office must be in the public interest. This fundamental aspect of the matter becomes of increasing practical importance in these days of industrial aggregation, and particularly so at the present time in regard to the radio industry, in which considerable inventive and commercial activity is manifest. In this connection it should be noted that in modern times there is an increasng tendency for certain phases of patents and copyright to become legally and industrially interlocked. Thus we find that, although " news " is ordinarily regarded as belonging to the domain of copyright, a strong effort was made at the International Conference for the Protection of Industrial Property held in London m 1934 to have " news " included in the Convention as being a form of industrial property. On the other hand, persons interested in radio, &c, inventions are vitally concerned in a proposal that may be made to the International Copyright Conference, 1936, to limit the right of local legislatures to regulate the conditions under which copyright material may be communicated to the public by radio. _ we find that inventors are giving great attention to radio, sound-films, &c, by means of which copyright material is conveyed from the creator to the consumer. There is also a marked tendency for broadcasting, &c, inventions to pass into the hands of large combines, and for the owners of inventions to

* The figures in parentheses are for 1933.