§ Lords Amendment: No. 26, in page 71, line 16, after "include" insert "at least three".
§ Sir G. HoweI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.
The amendment relates to a point raised in Committee by my hon. Friend the Member for Bedford (Mr. Skeet), who is not here today. It was suggested that the provisions of the clause as it stood would cover a large number of patent pooling agreements which ought not to be made registrable. The amendment is in response to representations that we received following the discussions in Committee and has the effect of making it a pre-requisite of registrability that a patent or design pooling arrangement must have at least three principal parties. It alters the scope of the clause so that it no longer catches bilateral agreements that were not intended to be caught by the substance of the legislation.
I hope that on the basis that the amendment represents a sensible response to the needs of industry, it will commend itself to the House.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§
Lords Amendment: No. 27, in page 7, line 23, leave out "each such patent" and insert
one or more such patents
§ Sir G. HoweI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.
I hope to move on some other occasion, That this House doth change that form of words.
§ Mr. Deputy SpeakerWith this we are to take the following Lords amendments:
§
No. 28, in page 71, line 24, leave out "design to each" and insert:
designs to one or more".
§ No. 29, in page 71, line 25, leave out "each" and insert "one or more"
637§ No. 30, in page 71, line 26, leave out "each" and insert "at least one".
§ No. 31, in page 71, line 28, leave out "each" and insert "one or more".
§ No. 32, in page 71, line 29, leave out "each" and insert "one or more".
§ Sir G. HoweThese amendments are of a comparable kind, although moving in the opposite direction, because they have the effect of altering the scope of this provision and closing a loophole to which the Opposition drew attention in Committee.
If the word "each" in the provision as now drafted were interpreted as "every", it would mean that a patent pooling agreement would be registrable only if an interest in all the patents in a pool were granted to all the principal parties. That was not the Government's intention. The amendment seeks to ensure that an agreement is registrable if an interest in any patent in the pool is granted to any of the principal parties. This is being done in response to the shrewd observations of the hon. Member for Glasgow, Craigton (Mr. Millan).
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Subsequent Lords amendments agreed to.