Register of Patents.

Sect. 23.

23. (1.) There shall be kept at the patent office a Register of book called the Register of Patents (a), wherein shall patents. be entered the names and addresses of grantees of patents (8), notifications of assignments and of transmissions of patents (y), of licences under patents (d), and of amendments (e), extensions (Š), and revocations () of patents, and such other matters affecting the validity or proprietorship of patents as may from time to time be prescribed (1).

(2.) The register of patents shall be primâ facie evidence of any matters by this Act directed or authorised to be inserted therein.

(3.) Copies of deeds, licences, and any other documents affecting the proprietorship in any letters patent or in any licence thereunder, must be supplied to the comptroller in the prescribed manner (A) for filing in the Patent Office.

Two registers have hitherto been kept: (1) the Register of Patents, containing all matters affecting the validity and title of patents, and (2) the Register of Proprietors, containing matters relating to the title to letters patent.

For the future one register only will be kept, containing all matters referred to in sub-sect. (1).

No trust, express, implied, or constructive, is to be Trusts not entered on the register (sect. 86).

entered.

The register is to be deemed a continuation of the Continua registers kept under previous Acts (sect. 114).

tion of

former

The name, address, and description of the patentee, registers, together with the title of the invention is entered on the Name, register by the comptroller upon the sealing of the address, patent (Patents Rules, 64).

title.

When a person becomes entitled to a patent or any Assignshare or interest therein by assignment, either for the ments and

transmissions.

Sect. 23. United Kingdom and the Isle of Man, or for any place therein (sect. 36), or by transmission or other operation of law, e.g., by will, intestacy, bankruptcy, mortgage, &c., a request for the entry of his name in the register as such complete or partial proprietor of the patent is to be addressed to the comptroller at the Patent Office in Form L (Patent Forms), bearing a 10s. stamp (see first schedule to Patent Rules). The request is to state the name, address, and description of the person claiming to be entitled to the patent or to any share or interest therein, and the particulars of the assignment, transmission, or other operation of law in question so as to show the manner in which the patent or share therein have become vested in him (see below). The request may be signed by the person or his agent duly authorised. The assignment or other document containing or being evidence of the transmission is to be forwarded to the comptroller along with an examined copy. Where the document is a matter of record, an official or certified copy is to be left along with the request (Patents Rules, 65—69).

By will.

On intestacy.

On bankruptcy.

Licences.

Amend

ments.

Revocations.

Agree

ments.

The evidence of the assignment or transmission above referred to will be, in assignments and mortgages, the assignment or mortgage. Where title is claimed through a will, the probate, and in intestacies, the letters of administration must be sent. In Bankruptcy the evidence of the title of the trustee is the certificate which operates as an assignment of the debtor's property (Bankruptcy Act, 1883, s. 54).

In the case of licences application for registration is to be made in Form M (Patents Forms), stamped with a 10s. stamp. The original licence and an examined copy must accompany the application (Patent Rules, 74).

Amendments will be entered by the comptroller. The fee is paid on application (see sect. 18).

The person in whose favour the order is made is to leave at the Patent Office an office copy of the order of revocation, when the purport of such order will be registered (Patents Rules, 71).

Application for entry of order of Privy Council is to be made in Form S (Patents Forms), stamped with a 10s. stamp, accompanied by an office copy of the order (Patents Rules, 71).

All agreements by which a person acquires any interest in a patent ought to be registered: application being made as in the case of an assignment (Patents Rules, 65).

By sect. 87 the person whose name is entered in the Sects. register has, subject to any rights appearing from the 23-25. register to be vested in other persons, power absolutely to assign or grant licences as to, or otherwise deal with registrathe same and to give effectual receipts for any considera- tion. tion for such assignment, licence, or dealing, but power

is given to enforce any equities in respect of such patent.

Effect of

24. (1.) There shall be paid in respect of the Fees in several instruments described in the second schedule schedule. to this Act, the fees in the schedule mentioned, and there shall likewise be paid, in respect of other matters under this part of the Act, such fees as may be from time to time, with the sanction of the Treasury, prescribed by the Board of Trade; and such fees shall be levied and paid to the account of Her Majesty's Exchequer in such manner as the Treasury may from time to time direct.

(2.) The Board of Trade may from time to time, if they think fit, with the consent of the Treasury reduce any of those fees.

The complete list of fees payable will be found in the first schedule to the Patents Rules.

The fee for provisional protection has been reduced from 57. to 17., and the first payment from 207. to 37. No reduction has been made in the total amount of subsequent payments, viz. 1507., but liberty is given to pay such sum by fixed instalments (see second schedule to Act and first schedule to Patents Rules).

As to enlargement of time for paying fees, see sect. 17. As to fees payable on applications pending on 1st January, 1884, see sect. 45.

Extension of Term of Patent,

patent on

25. (1.) A patentee may, after advertising in Extension manner directed by any rules made under this of term of section (a) his intention to do so, present a petition petition to to Her Majesty in Council, praying that his patent Council.

(a) No rules have as yet been made.

Queen in

Sect. 25. may be extended for a further term; but such petition must be presented at least six months before the time limited for the expiration of the patent.

(2.) Any person may enter a caveat (a), addressed to the Registrar of the Council at the Council Office, against the extension.

(3.) If Her Majesty shall be pleased to refer any such petition to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the said Committee shall proceed to consider the same (B), and the petitioner and any person who has entered a caveat shall be entitled to be heard by himself or by counsel on the petition.

(4.) The Judicial Committee shall, in considering their decision, have regard to the nature and merits of the invention in relation to the public, to the profits made by the patentee as such, and to all the circumstances of the case.

(5.) If the Judicial Committee report that the patentee has been inadequately remunerated by his patent, it shall be lawful for Her Majesty in Council to extend the term of the patent for a further term not exceeding seven, or in exceptional cases fourteen years; or to order the grant of a new patent for the term therein mentioned, and containing any restrictions, conditions, and provisions that the Judicial Committee may think fit.

(6.) It shall be lawful for Her Majesty in Council to make, from time to time, rules of procedure and practice for regulating proceedings on such petitions, and subject thereto such proceedings shall be regulated according to the existing procedure and practice in patent matters of the Judicial Committee (y).

(7.) The costs of all parties of and incident to such proceedings shall be in the discretion of the

(a) For form, see App. A.

(B) Assessor may be called in,

8. 28, sub-s. (2).

(7) See App. D.

Judicial Committee; and the orders of the Com- Sect. 25. mittee respecting costs shall be enforceable as if they were orders of a Division of the High Court of Justice (a).

Previous to the 5 & 6 Will. IV. c. 83, a patent could only be extended by Act of Parliament. That Act gave the Queen in Council power to extend a patent for a term not exceeding seven years. The 7 & 8 Vict. c. 69, authorised an extension in certain special cases for a term of fourteen years. The first-mentioned Act did not contain any statement of the principles which were to guide the Judicial Committee in recommending an extension. The only words used in reference to the matter were that the Committee should" proceed to consider the same (ie., the petition) after the manner and in the usual course of its proceedings;" but the 5 & 6 Vict. c. 69, referred to the desirability of extending the time "in cases in which it can be satisfactorily shown that the expense of the invention hath been greater than the time now limited by law will suffice," and the applicant for fourteen years had to show that such additional period was necessary in order to reimburse and remunerate him. This is not retained in the present section.

In moving the second reading of the bill, Mr. Chamberlain referred to this section as follows:

"Changes, however, were introduced by the Bill in the extension of patents. At present, the Privy Council decided every application for an extension, and considered first whether the inventor had made a sufficient profit from his business. Another rule was, that where it was shown that the inventor had made a sum of 10,000l., no application for an extension of the patent should be granted. That also seemed irrational, for while a sum of 10,000l. would be an enormous profit in some cases, it would be an insufficient reward for such an invention as that of Bessemer, who had revolutionised the whole iron industry. Under these circumstances, he proposed to put in a provision which should be a direction to the Judicial Committee to the effect that they should have regard to the nature of the invention in relation to the public, to the profits made by the patentee as such, and not by the manufacturer, and to all the circumstances of the case."

The proviso in sub-sect. 5, that the Judicial Committee

(a) R. S. C. Order XLII.