§ 64. Major PROCTERasked the President of the Board of Trade how many complete specifications have been postdated under Section 6 (3, b) of the Patents and Designs Act, 1932, and the chief reasons which have led to such post-dating?
§ Dr. BURGINThe number of applications post-dated, under the provisions of Section 6, Sub-section (3, b), of the Patents and Designs Act, 1907, as amended by the Patents and Designs 2778 Act, 1932, is 138. The reason in each case was that specified in the Subsection, namely, that the examiner had reported that the invention particularly described in the complete specification was not substantially the same as that which was described in the provisional specification.
§ Major PROCTERIs the hon. Member aware that the figure given shows a substantial increase over previous years, and that the practice of post-dating has, in the case of certain poor inventors, resulted in compelling them to invalidate their own patents? Will the right hon. Gentleman instruct his Department to curb this drastic action, and permit the added matter to be treated as a cognate provisional, where such added matter is the natural development of the original idea?