§ MR. MACFIEasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether he has received any communications regarding a Conference relating to Patents for Inventions which is intended to be held at Vienna next August, and will state its object; whether Her Majesty's Government will be represented at that Conference; and, if he will lay upon the Table what documentary information Her Majesty's Government has received regarding it; and, whether the answers to inquiries which the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs made last year in regard to international arrangements as to inventions are now completed?
§ VISCOUNT ENFIELDSir, a Despatch was only yesterday received from Sir Andrew Buchanan, stating that, in accordance with a suggestion of the United States Government, the General Direction of the Universal Exhibition at Vienna intends to unite therewith an International Congress to discuss the question of Patent Rights. This information has not, however, been communicated to Her Majesty's Ambassador officially by the Austro-Hungarian Government, but by the United States Minister at the Court of Vienna. The question has not, therefore, reached a stage where Her Majesty's Government could take any action upon it. Reports upon the state of the Patent Laws in foreign countries have been received from Her Majesty's Secretaries of Legation, with a few exceptions, and are now in the printers' hands preparatory to their being laid before Parliament.