§ Mr. Wakefieldasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he is aware that inventors have no right to remuneration of any kind if their inventions are used by the nation for its own purposes for war or peace; that there is a clause in every Government contract debarring an inventor from receiving a royalty; and what steps he is taking to remunerate inventors and stimulate inventions.
§ Sir J. AndersonI presume from the reference to a clause in Government contracts that my hon. Friend has chiefly in mind an invention which is the subject of a patent. It is not the case that a patentee has no right to remuneration for Crown user. His rights are laid down in the Patents and Designs Acts, 1907–1942, and are not removed by the Clause referred to. That Clause merely has the effect that the patentee will be remunerated directly by a Government Department instead of by the particular Government contractor who may be using his patent. The Acts provide that in the case of Crown user the remuneration shall be as agreed with the Government Department concerned, the right of appeal to the Court being safeguarded. No legal claim is admitted where a patent has not been taken out by the inventor, butex gratia payments are made in suitable cases. With regard to the last part of the Question, I would refer my hon. Friend to my statement on presenting the Budget, and also to the reply which I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Yardley (Mr. Salt) on 25th January last.