§ Order of the Day for the House to be put into Committee read.
§ Moved, That the House do now resolve itself into Committee.—(Lord Templemore.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.
§ House in Committee accordingly:
§ [The EARL OF ONSLOW in the Chair.]
§ Clauses 1 to 5 agreed to.
§ Clause 6:
§ Elements of invention not formally claimed in Convention country.
§ 6. After subsection (2A) of Section ninety-one of the Patents and Designs Act, there shall be inserted the following subsection:
§ LORD TEMPLEMORE moved to leave out "subsection (2A) of" and insert "the subsection numbered (2A) directed by the last foregoing section to be inserted in." The noble Lord said: This is a drafting Amendment. The expression "the Patents and Designs Act" is defined in the Bill to mean the Act of 1907 as amended by subsequent enactments up to and including the Act of 1932. Strictly speaking, therefore, the new subsection (2A) inserted by Clause 5 of the Bill is not a subsection of "the Patents and Designs Act."
§
Amendment moved—
Page 5, line 34, leave out ("subsection (2A) of") and insert ("the subsection numbered (2A) directed by the last foregoing section to be inserted in").—(Lord Templemore.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ Clause 6, as amended, agreed to.
§ LORD TEMPLEMORE moved, after Clause 6, to insert the following new Clause:
§ Appeal from Comptroller's refusal of application under s. 91 of Patents and Designs Act.
§
". After the subsection numbered (2B) directed by the last foregoing section to be
566
inserted in Section ninety-one of the Patents and Designs Act, there shall be inserted the following subsection:—
'(2C) Any refusal by the Comptroller to accept an application for a patent, or to accept a specification, on the ground of non-compliance with any requirement of this section, shall be subject to appeal to the Appeal Tribunal.'
§ The noble Lord said: Your Lordships may remember that on the Second Reading of this Bill the noble Lord opposite, Lord Strabolgi, suggested that the opportunity afforded by the Bill should be taken to provide that decisions of the Comptroller on points arising under Section 91 of the Patents and Designs Act should be appealable to the Patents Appeal Tribunal. This Amendment is intended to give such an appeal from any refusal of the Comptroller to accept an application for a patent, or to accept a specification, on the ground of noncompliance with any requirement of Section 91. This will put decisions of the Comptroller relating to matters dealt with in that section in the same position, as regard appeals, as decisions upon most of the other points arising under the Act before acceptance of an application or specification. I think that this new clause will meet the point raised by the noble Lord, and I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
After Clause 6, insert the said new clause.—(Lord Templemore.)
LORD STRABOLGII am much obliged to the noble Lord for his explanation, and for moving this Amendment. I have one point only to raise in connection with it, which has been put to me by those who are very experienced in patent matters. They point out to me that it is not quite clear by what procedure the Comptroller will be able to satisfy himself when an application is made to him. Taking the particular clause, which my noble friend Lord Marks so warmly supported, about the inventor being able to have his name included in the patent: as I am advised, according to Section 1 (8) of the Bill, the Comptroller of Patents will have to be satisfied that the person claiming to be entitled to have his name mentioned in the patent is the inventor of the whole invention or of a substantial part thereof. I am sure the noble Lord in charge of the Bill will see the point there: what will be the procedure under which the Comptroller will so satisfy himself? This matter may arise in future in 567 regard to a foreign patent such as, under the Convention, receives certain protection here. The very fact that the inventor's name is mentioned in a foreign patent does not, I gather, automatically mean that he will have his name mentioned in the British patent. He has to apply, before the British patent is granted under the Convention, to have his name printed upon it according to the Act.
What does the Comptroller do? How does he satisfy himself that this is a genuine application and that the inventor has a right to have his name printed? For example, if the inventor files an application for a patent at the International Office at Berne and is granted a patent thereon, I understand that he expects that automatically for a certain period he is protected in this country. I think that is the whole object of the Convention. Then, if he applies to the English Patents Comptroller to have his name printed in the patent, what means has the English Patents Comptroller of knowing that the application is genuine? This is a difficulty that has been pointed out to me. I dare say it has been examined by the Board of Trade and the officials concerned, but I should be very much obliged if the noble Lord would have that matter looked into and see that the wording is quite clear, and that there cannot be any possibility of mistakes arising.
§ LORD MARKSI am afraid the noble Lord is not quite familiar with the facts. If a person is granted a patent abroad and applies in this country to have that patent granted under the International Convention, that patent cannot be altered, and consequently, if the person has any name mentioned in it abroad, that name will also be mentioned automatically here.
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ Clauses 7 to 11 agreed to.
§ Clause 12:
§ Short title, citation, construction, printing and commencement.
§ (3) Where by this Act any enactment or word is directed to be added to or omitted from the Patents and Designs Act, or to be substituted for any other enactment or word, that Act shall be construed as if it had, at the time when the direction takes effect, been enacted with the addition, omission or substitution.
568§ A copy of the Patents and Designs Act, 1907, with the amendments effected by the Patents and Designs Act, 1914, the Patents and Designs Act, 1919, the Patents and Designs (Convention) Act, 1928, the Patents and Designs Act, 1932 and this Act, shall be prepared and certified by the Clerk of the Parliaments and deposited with the Rolls of Parliament, and His Majesty's printer shall print in accordance with the copy so certified all copies of the Patents and Designs Act, 1907, that are printed after the commencement of this Act.
§
LORD TEMPLEMORE moved to insert after subsection (2):
(3) For the purpose of identifying references in this Act to subsections and paragraphs contained in the Patents and Designs Act, regard shall be had to consequential renumbering authorised by subsection (2) of Section fourteen of the Patents and Designs Act, 1932, and carried into effect in copies of the Patents and Designs Act, 1907, printed on behalf of His Majesty's printer in accordance with that enactment.
§ The noble Lord said: This is merely a drafting Amendment. It is intended to remove any doubts as to the status of reprints of the principal Act with subsequent Amendments and a consequential renumbering of the subsections and paragraphs, made by the Stationery Office under subsection (2) of Section 14 of the Patents and Designs Act, 1932. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 8, line 26, at end insert the said new subsection.—(Lord Templemore.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ LORD TEMPLEMORE moved to leave out the first paragraph of subsection (3). The noble Lord said: This Amendment also is drafting. Words to this effect used to appear in printing clauses. It is thought that they were always superfluous. Moreover, in view of the modernised form of the present printing clause, they are even more incongruous than before. It is submitted that it is dangerous to leave such superfluous words in the Bill, in case some ingenious person were to endeavour to give the words an effective meaning which would almost certainly be a meaning that is not intended.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 8, line 27, leave out lines 27 to 32.—(Lord Templemore.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
569§ LORD TEMPLEMORE moved, in subsection (3), to leave out all words after "print" and insert" copies of the Patents and Designs Act, 1907, in accordance with the copy so certified." The noble Lord said: This is also merely drafting. The words in the Bill might be construed as precluding the Stationery Office from reprinting, as and when necessary, the Act of 1907 in its original form. The new form of words leaves it open to the Stationery Office to do this, while still achieving the real intention—namely to ensure that copies of the authorised reprint are made available to the public.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 8, line 40, leave out from ("print") to end of line 42 and insert ("copies of the Patents and Designs Act, 1907, in accordance with the copy so certified").—(Lord Templemore.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§
LORD TEMPLEMORE moved to insert, after subsection (4):
() Any reference, in an Act passed before this Act, to an enactment that is the subject of an amendment effected by a Merchandise Marks Act shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be construed as including a reference to that enactment as so amended.
In this subsection, the expression 'a Merchandise Marks Act' means—
§ The noble Lord said: This also is only drafting. It is a provision of the usual type for securing that references in other Acts of Parliament to the existing Merchandise Marks Acts shall, in proper cases, be construed as including references to those Acts as amended by this Bill. A similar provision with regard to the Patents and Designs Acts already occurs in subsection (4) of Clause 12 of the Bill.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 9, line 11, at end, insert the said new subsection.—(Lord Templemore.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ Clause 12, as amended, agreed to.
570§ Schedule: