English Patents

The term for which a patent is originally granted is now 16 years and by the Patents Act 1919 the terms of existing patents were extended to that length subject to certain conditions (s. 6). A patentee may, after advertisement according to the rules of the Supreme Court, apply for an extension of the original term. The court, in considering its decision, pays regard to the nature and merit of the invention in relation to the public, of the profits made by the patentee as such, and of all the circumstances of the case. If it appears to the court that the patentee has been inade quately remunerated by his patent, it may extend the term of the patent to a further term not exceeding five, or, in exceptional cases, ten years, or may order the grant of a new patent for a certain term, with any restrictions or provisions it may think fit (Act of 1907, s. 18, and Act of 1919, s. 7). Loss or damage suffered by the patentee by reason of hostilities between His Majesty and a foreign State affords a special ground for exten sion (Act of 1919, s. 7).

A patentee may elect to have his patent endorsed "licences of right," with the result that any person may thereafter claim to have a licence under it on terms fixed by agreement or settled by the comptroller. The advantage to the patentee is that renewal fees are halved.

The Act of 1907.

A very useful new feature was introduced by the Act of 1907 by the provision as to patents of addition. An applicant for a patent or a patentee may apply for a further patent in respect of any improvement in or modification of his inven tion and request that the term limited in the new patent be the same as that of the original patent or so much of that term as is unexpired. The new patent, if granted, becomes a patent of addition remaining in force only so long as the original patent, and has the advantage that no renewal fees are payable. If the original patent is revoked, the patent of addition may be ordered to become an independent patent, and the fees payable and the dates when they shall become payable are to be determined by its date, but its duration is not 'to exceed the unexpired term of the original patent (s. 19 of the Act of 1907 as amended by the Act of 1919).

Patent privileges, like most other rights, can be made the sub ject of sale. Partial interests can also be carved out of them by means of licences, instruments which empower other persons to exercise the invention, either universally and for the full time of the patent (when they may be tantamount to an assignment of the patentee's entire rights) or for a limited time, or within a limited district. By an exclusive licence is meant one that restrains

the patentee from granting other licences to any one else. By means of a licence a patentee may derive benefit from his patent without entering into trade and without running the risks of a partnership.

One of the regulations of the Act of 1883 was that a patentee could be compelled by the Board of Trade to grant licences to persons who were able to show that the patent was not being worked in the United Kingdom, or that the reasonable require ments of the public with respect to the invention could not be supplied, or that any person was prevented from working or using to the best advantage an invention of which he was possessed. This regulation, however, remained practically a dead letter. By s. 3 of the Act of 1902, the hearing of petitions for a grant of compulsory licences was transferred to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, but the Act of 1907 substituted the High Court as the tribunal in the place of the judicial committee. The Act introduced considerable amendments in the law as to the grant of compulsory licences which, as stated below, have now been replaced by provisions in the Act of 1919. S. •38 of the Act of 1907 contains also a further remedy for the improper exercise of patent rights, making it unlawful in any contract in relation to the sale or lease of, or licence to use or work, any patented article or process to insert conditions prohibiting or restricting the use of articles supplied by a third person or requiring the purchaser or lessee to acquire from the seller or lessor other articles not pro tected by the patent. Such conditions are declared "null and void as being in restraint of trade and contrary to public policy." Another new and very important provision of the Act of 1907 was that dealing with the revocation of patents worked outside the United Kingdom. It had been a common practice to take out patents in the United Kingdom (especially in the dyeing industry) in order to close the British market to all except the patentees and their licensees, the patented articles or processes being worked entirely abroad. S. 27 of the Act of 1907 enacted that at any time not less than four years after the date of a patent any person might apply to the comptroller for the revocation of a patent on the ground that the patented article or process was manufactured or carried on exclusively or mainly outside the United Kingdom. The comptroller was given power to make an order revoking the patent forthwith or after a reasonable interval, unless the patentee could show satisfactory reasons.