§ 11. Mr. Patrick Jenkinasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he will make available in the Library of the House of Commons a copy of the memorandum submitted to him by a minority of the Patents Liaison Group, dealing with the changes in the Patents Act, 1949, which would be involved in the ratification by the United Kingdom of the Strasbourg Convention of 1963.
§ 13. Sir J. Hobsonasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will now publish as a White Paper or in some other form equally convenient to the public the memorandum of the three members of the Patents Liaison Group setting out their reasons for refusing to sign the report of that group on the effects of 1963 Strasbourg Convention on United Kingdom Patent Law, Command Paper No. 2835, together with the comments thereon of the chairman of the group; and why that memorandum by a minority was not published by him in the White Paper with the report.
§ Mr. DarlingAs was explained in the Foreword to Command Paper 2835, my right hon. Friend decided not to publish this memorandum with the Report of the Patents Liaison Group since it appeared to deal with matters outside the scope of the original request to the Group and to be concerned in the main with proposals for future action by the Government. He felt that it would be more appropriate for him to consider the memorandum together with other comments arising in connection with the Report. He is, however, very willing to respond to the requests made to me by the right hon. and learned Gentleman and by the hon. Member for Wanstead and Woodford that the memorandum should now be published, and has arranged for this to be done in the Board of Trade Journal for 25th February. He will at the same time publish the comments on it which the Chairman of the Group made at the time of its submission. Copies of both documents have today been placed in the Library.
§ Sir J. HobsonMay I thank the hon. Gentleman for that happy, if belated, conclusion?