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1936. NEW ZEALAND.

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

Presented 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. The total number of applications received during the year for the grant of letters patent and for the registration of designs and trade-marks was 2,858, which is the highest total since 1932, and is a continuation of the steady rise that has occurred in the last three years. During the year the total fees received by the Office in respect of patents, designs, and trade-marks amounted to £12,868 19s. 4d., showing an increase of £492 on the amount received in the previous year. Expenditure during the year amounted to £4,476 13s. 3d., the principal item under this head being salaries, amounting to £3,709 15s. The excess of receipts over expenditure for the year was £8,392 6s. Id., which constitutes a record for any one year since the inception of the Patent Office. The total surplus of the Office since Ist January, 1890, is £205,137 14s. 7d. Patents. There were 1,730 (1,766)* applications for the grant of letters patent received during the year, of which 887 (928) were filed with provisional specifications and 843 (838) were accompanied by complete specifications. The number of complete specifications lodged in respect of applications for which a provisional specification had previously been lodged was 233 (232). The total number of applications received up to 31st December, 1935, was 75,402, and the number of patents in force at that date was 7,758, made up as follows : Patents sealed and third-year fees paid from 31st December, 1932, to 31st December, 1935, 2,531 and 1,838 respectively ; sixth-year fees paid from 31st December, 1925, to 31st December, 1935, 3,388 ; and 1 patent in respect of which an extension of its term has been granted by order of the Supreme Court. The number of applications received in connection with telephony and telegraphy (including phonographs, &c.) show a further increase on the number recorded during the year 1934, 319 (306). Other increases noted were inventions relating to dairying, 50 (47) ; fibre-dressing (including ropemaking), 26 (17) ; heating and fuel-manufacture, 49 (33) ; illuminating (except gas-manufacture), 72 (59) ; kitchen utensils and cooking-appliances (including ovens), 53 (35) ; and metal-working (including welding, stamping, and plating), 29 (16). Decreases occurred in the number of applications recorded in the classes of invention relating to building-construction, 52 (61) ; engines (air, gas, and oil), 46 (60) ; marine and submarine (including lake and river engineering), 12 (24) ; medicine and surgical appliances, 21 (32) ; milking-machinery, 27 (44) ; and printing and photography, 17 (22). The widespread activity that is manifest in the realm of radio in so many countries of the world to-day is somewhat vividly reflected in the number of proceedings for the grant of letters patent that have been instituted in the New Zealand Patent Office during recent years in respect of inventions relating to wireless. The number of proceedings commenced in 1935 in the radio class not only constitutes a record in that class, but also greatly exceeds the number of inventions received in any other class in any year. It is consequently particularly interesting to note that according to present indications the peak has not yet been reached, and that an even more significant record should be established this year. Large and powerful organizations in various parts of the world are busily seeking to consolidate and widen their fields of operation by scientific research and by efforts to secure amendments advantageous to themselves in the international conventions relating to patents and copyright. It is of course obvious that manufacturers who have expended large sums of money in equipping up-to-date research laboratories and work-shops, and in maintaining a highly skilled staff, will expect an adequate return for the capital outlay involved. To safeguard this return, the manufacturer will naturally have recourse to the protection afforded by patent law, as a result of which he is able to produce and sell his improved article at a price that will recompense him personally and at the same time act as a reasonable encouragement and incentive to others. Patent law is primarily intended to benefit the public by fostering industry, and it is unnecessary to stress the extraordinary benefits that have already been enjoyed by the public as a result of the introduction and improvement of radio. The whole question of broadcasting has in fact become one of such importance to the public, from both the patent and the copyright point of view, that it has become increasingly necessary to see that national laws and international conventions in regard, to patents and copyright keep pace with the extraordinary progress

* The figures in parentheses are for 1934.