§ MR. ALBAN GIBBS (London)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether the Government have it in contemplation to introduce a Bill 599 framed on the lines of the Patent Agents' Registration Bill of 1894, as amended by the Select Committee; or, if not, whether he will carry out the recommendations contained in page 6 of the report of that Committee, namely, that unless the Bill, as amended, or some Measure on similar lines, should become law at an early date, the Board of Trade should remove the register, and the appointment and control of the Registrar, and the examinations, from the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents, and make other arrangements to carry out the provisions of Section 1 of the Act of 1888?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADENo, Sir; I must refer my honourable Friend to a reply which I gave to a Question put by the honourable Member for the Strand on the 4th March last year. The position of matters is unchanged. The Board of Trade recommended amendments to the bye-laws submitted by the Institute under their Charter, framed so as to enable members of the profession of Patent Agents not members of the Institute to enter that body, and so obtain a position to take part in the government of the profession as a whole. If the proceedings under the bye-laws, still in progress, do not prove to have a satisfactory result, the Board reserve the power to take other action.