§ MR BARNES (Glasgow, Blackfriars)To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he is aware that the Patent Office fees yield a profit of nearly 100 per cent. over the cost of maintenance, and that the American Patent Office issue patent protection for seventeen years for fees less than those charged by the British office for fourteen years protection; and, having regard to all the circumstances, will he bring about a reduction of fees in this country in the interest of poor inventors.
(Answered by Mr. Lloyd-George.) I am aware that of late years the Patent Office fees have yielded a considerable profit; but at the present time, whilst the office expenses are rapidly increasing and new duties are being thrown on the office by the Patents and Designs Bill, I can give no undertaking to reduce them, nor do I believe that it would be to the interest of poor inventors to substitute for our present fees those chargeable in the United States, which would benefit the comparatively small number of successsful inventors at the expense of the much larger number of unsuccessful 1819 inventors, who can less afford to pay. The following statement shows the com
| Patent Fees in United Kingdom and United States. | |||
| United Kingdom. | United States. | ||
| Fee on application accompanied with provisional specification | £1 | Preliminary fee | £.3 |
| Fee on filing complete specification. | £3 | ||
| Fee on sealing. | £1 | Fee on allowance of patent | £4 |
| Fee for renewal at end of 4th year | £5 | No fees are levied subsequent to the above. | |
| And further renewal fees increasing by £1 annually to £14 at the end of the 13th year. |
§ Note.—Every United States patent remains in force for seventeen years. Of British patents over 6.5 per cent. are allowed to expire at the end of the fourth year, presumably because the patented invention has not proved a success. On these, therefore, the fees paid amount to £.) only, as compared with £7 in the United States. In regard to the additional £5 charged in the United Kingdom for patents renewed at the end of four years, it may safely be assumed that only such patents will be renewed as have met with some measure of success, in which case the fee is a comparatively unimportant matter to the patentee. Only 4 per cent. of British patents remain in force for the full term of fourteen years.