§ MR. REES (Montgomery Boroughs)To ask the President of the Board of Trade whether, under the Patents and Designs Act of 1907, British inventors will be liable to have their patents revoked, on the ground that the patented articles or processes are being manufactured or carried on exclusively or mainly outside the United Kingdom, in cases in which British manufacturers have declined to accept reasonable offers made by the patentee of licences to manufacture or work the patent inside the United Kingdom.
(Answered by Mr. Churchill.) The patents in question will be liable to be revoked unless the patentee gives satisfactory reasons why the patented article is not manufactured or the patented process is not carried on to an adequate extent in the United Kingdom. It will be for the Comptroller in the first instance, subject to an appeal to the Court, to determine, after hearing the evidence on both sides in each particular case, whether the reasons given for non-working are satisfactory or not. It is, of course, impossible for me to say that the mere fact that one or more British manufacturers to whom the patentee may have made overtures, with the object of inducing them to work his patent, have not seen their way to accept such overtures can safely be relied upon by a patentee as a defence to an application for the revocation of his patent under the Act or to an action for infringement.