HC Deb 17 December 1919 vol 123 cc600-1

(1) At the end of Sub-section (1) of Section eighteen of the principal Act which relates to the extension of the term of a patent, the following proviso shall be inserted:— Provided that the Court may in its discretion extend such period within which such a petition may be presented. (2) At the end of Sub-section (4) of the same Section there shall be inserted the words "including in particular any loss or damage which may have been occasioned to the patentee, as such, by reason of hostilities between His Majesty and any foreign State, except in cases where the patentee is the subject of any such foreign State. (3) In Sub-section (5) of the same Section, for the words "for a further term not exceeding seven years, or, in exceptional cases, fourteen years," there shall be substituted the words "for a further term not exceeding five years, or, in exceptional cases, ten years.

After Sub-section (3), insert the words (3) At the end of the same Section, the following Sub-section shall be added:— (6) Where, by reason of hostilities between His Majesty and any foreign State, the patentee such has suffered loss or damage (including loss of opportunity of dealing in or developing his invention owing to his having been engaged in work of national importance connected with such hostilities) an application under this Section may be made by originating summons instead of by petition, and the Court in considering its decision may have regard solely to the loss or damage so suffered by the patentee: Provided that this Sub-section shall not apply if the patentee is a subject of such foreign State as aforesaid, or is a company the business whereof is managed or controlled by such subjects or is carried on wholly or mainly for the benefit or on behalf of such subjects, notwithstanding that the company may be registered within His Majesty's Dominions.

Lords Amendment read a second time.

Sir E. POLLOCK

I beg to move, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment."

This is au important Clause, and is added really at the request of a number of Members who served upon the Committee. It gives an advantage to the patentee who has suffered loss or damage in consequence of the War. It enables him to bring his claim before the Court by an originating summons, and it enables him to ask that such loss or damage may be made good to him, and that his patent may not suffer by the action of the War. I call the attention of the House to it because we have now been able to meet a point which was pressed upon me many times in Committee, and to which a solution was not easy to find when the Bill was before the House.