HC Deb 22 May 1919 vol 116 cc586-8W
Sir C. KINLOCH-COOKE

asked the Secretary to the Treasury what are the powers and functions of the Royal Commission of Awards to Inventors?

Mr. BALDWIN

This Commission has been constituted with two main objects:

  1. (1) Primarily it will act in the place of the Treasury under Section 29 of the Patents Act, 1907, and decide what awards are to be made to patentees for the use by Government Departments of their patents. In these cases, the patentee has a statutory right to have his remuneration settled by the Treasury, and the Commission has been substituted for the Treasury (subject to the assent in each case of the patentee) for administrative convenience. The functions of the Commission extend to advising the Treasury whether the Treasury should give their approval under the Section to agreements which have been arrived at between patentees and Government Departments.
  2. (2)Beyond this strict statutory right, the Treasury have been in the habit of authorising the Government Departments to make awards as an act of grace to persons whose inventions, designs. drawings or processes have been used by the Departments, although in strict law there is no monopoly enforceable against the Crown and there is no legal right to any payment. Naturally, such awards are made only in cases of exceptional merit, and they are in general much smaller than the payments which would be made in cases where there is a statutory right under the Patents Act.
it is under this heading that there will probably be much the most numerous— though not the most important—class of claims. I may add that it includes the cases of all officers and persons employed by Government Departments who are subject by the rules of their service or otherwise to terms which debar them from taking out patents on their own account or entitle the Government to the benefit of any inventions they may make.

It should be generally known, and will save much misconception and disappointment, if I state that there appear to be at least three conditions necessary to qualify a claimant for remuneration under this heading. In the first place, a mere general suggestion is not enough; there must have been a reduction of the suggestion to a definite workable form which was put into practice substantially, though not necessarily, in every detail. A mere suggestion that nets might be used against submarines, or aerial nets against aeroplanes, would obviously not of itself be enough. In the next place the user of the invention by the Government Department must be due to the inventor. If inventor A communicated his invention to a Department and caused it to be used first, a subsequent inventor B of substantially the same invention could have no claim to remuneration. And thirdly, the invention must be one of exceptional utility before a grant of public money can be sanctioned apart from any legal obligation. This has always been the practice of the Treasury.

I have mentioned merely the three main conditions which claimants of this class should fulfil. But it will, of course, be recognised that it is hardly possible to lay down any hard and fast rules in awarding what is in every case mere ex gratia remuneration. The whole subject-matter must obviously be regarded from a very broad, though sympathetic, standpoint. And it would be in the highest degree inadvisable to attempt to fetter the discretion of the Commission in any way.

The reason for the creation of the Commission was that the number and complexity of the cases which were brought before the Treasury cast an undue burden upon that Department; and, at the same time, it was thought essential that there should continue to be some one body which could co-ordinate the awards made by the different Departments so that all should be made upon the same basis. It is not part of the duty of the Commission to determine the ownership of any invention as between rival claimants; its only duty is to decide whether an inventor has, or has not, a claim to be rewarded by the Crown. I understand that where there are rival claimants to an award in respect of the same, or substantially the same, invention the Commission will hear their claim successively, and thus each of them will have an opportunity of suggesting to or through those representing the Crown any questions which would tend to throw doubt on the claims of his rivals, and thus indirectly to support his own case.

The sittings of the Commission will be open to the public, unless it is thought that for the safety of the Realm the particular invention which is being discussed should be kept secret.

The address of the Commission is: 2, Queen Anne's Gate Buildings, Westminster, S.W. 1.