§ LORD LYNDHURSTpresented Petitions on the subject of the Patent Laws, complaining of the great expense attending the taking out of Patents for the United Kingdom, and suggesting certain alterations; and said that by an Act of last Session parties sending their inventions to the Great Exhibition had protection granted to them for a limited period (Designs Act Extension, 14 Vict., c. 8). That Act was about to expire very shortly, and if a measure was not speedily passed for the purpose of placing the law of Patents on a better footing, these parties would be put to very heavy expense in protecting their rights under the law as it at present existed. No time, therefore, should be lost in introducing a measure to amend the present law. He understood that the Vice-President of the Board of Trade (Lord Stanley, of Alderley) intended to bring forward a Bill on the subject similar to a measure which dropped last Session; and he also understood that his noble and learned Friend (Lord Brougham) was desirous of introducing a Bill containing several of the alterations which were made in the Bill of last Session after it had passed through their Lordships' Honse. Now he had heard that one of those alterations went to the extent of abolishing patent rights altogether; but he earnestly hoped his noble and learned Friend would not adopt that principle, because it would involve the infringement of the prerogative of the Crown, and restrict the use of the Great Seal with respect to patents. He wished that his noble and learned Friend would endeavour to come to some arrangement with the Vice-President of the Board of Trade, in order that their Lordships might have only one Bill brought before them; because, if they were to have two distinct Bills with conflicting clauses, he was afraid they would be compelled to adopt the same course as was pursued last year, and refer them both to a Select Committee. That would entail a very considerable waste of time before it could be decided which Bill should be proceeded with. He was sorry 763 the noble Lord the Vice-President of the Board of Trade was not now in his place, because he wished to press upon him also the desirability of coming to some understanding with his noble and learned Friend.
The EARL of MINTOsaid, he had had an opportunity that evening of conferring with his noble Friend (Lord Stanley, of Alderley), and he had inquired of him what progress had been made in the preparation of the Bill he had promised to introduce for the amendment of the Patent Law. His noble Friend had assured him that the Bill was all but prepared; and he therefore trusted that there would be little delay in laying it on their Lordships' table.
§ House adjourned till To-morrow.