XOVEMBER 1, 1919.1 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



Peace Problems and Progress. 



PROPOSED CHANGES IN BRITISH PATENT LAW. 



A BILL now before the British Parliament proposes to cancel 

 the compulsory working and license clause of the Patent 

 Act of 1907 and to substitute a series of alternative pro- 

 visions. Under this bill any interested person may apply to the 

 Comptroller, alleging that there has been an abuse of the 

 monopoly rights under a patent and asking for relief. Five sets 

 of circumstances are specified as constituting abuse; they are: 



(1) Non-working on a commercial scale in the United Kingdom 

 without satisfactory reason. 



(2) Prevention or h-ndering of working in the or on behalf, or 

 with the consent of. or without effective interference by, the patentee. 



(3) Demand for a patented article in the United Kingdom not 

 met to an adequate extent and on reasonable terras. 



(4) Any trade or industry- prejudiced by refusal of the patentee 

 to grant licenses on reasonable terms. 



(5) Any trade or industry prejudiced by conditions attached to 

 the patentee to the purchase or use of the patented article. 



The Comptroller is to be vested with remedies, also five in num- 

 ber, viz.: 



(1) He may endorse the patent with the words "Licenses of Right," 

 after which anyone can obtain a license on complying with certain 



(2) He mav order the grant of a non-exclusive license to the 

 petitioner. 



(3) He may, in certain circumstances, order the grant of an ex- 

 clusive license to the petitioner, or to some other person. 



(4) He may revoke the patent. 



(5) He may make no order. 



The bill proposes to lengthen the life of British patents to 16 

 years, to restore the term of provisional protection to 9 months 

 and extend the time for acceptance to 15 months. Patents un- 

 workable during the war and patents of addition are dealt with. 

 In actions for infringement patents are tc be upheld for as much 

 as is good without regard to the invalidity of any other claim in 

 the specification. The grounds upon which opposition may be 

 entered are also considerably extended. 



A NEW GERMAN TRADE SERVICE. 



The German Government has established the Foreign Trade 

 Bureau of the German Ministry for Foreign AfTairs for the 

 purpose of gathering, assimilating, and disseminating such com- 

 mercial information as may be of use to Germany in the pro- 

 motion of foreign trade. A council of 25 to 30 members with Dr. 

 Weidenfeld, formerly professor of economics at the University of 

 Halle, as chief, will direct the affairs of the Bureau and have 

 supreme control of all matters within its jurisdiction. 



Commercial information received by the Foreign Office, the 

 consulates and legations, will be published on the day of re- 

 ceipt, or if confidential will be transmitted to interested persons. 

 Members of both the diplomatic and consular services will here- 

 after receive an important part of their training in the Foreign 

 Trade Bureau. 



A NATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF GERMAN INDUSTRIES. 



The apparent need of industrial organization in Germany has 

 resulted in the formation of the National Union of German In- 

 dustry, to represent and promote German industries, to bring 

 about a uniformity of action, and to create a community of in- 

 terest with the workmen. 



As a consequence there now exist three great groups in the 

 country which represent the economic life and which will pro- 

 vide the basis for the necessary reorganization of the economic 

 system. They are (1) the workmen's trade unions, which have 

 been recognized by the employers ; (2) the associations of em- 

 ployers who were more or less connected with the former 

 Union of Manufacturers and the Federation of manufacturers; 

 and (3) the Imperial Union of German Industry. The industries 

 are to be divided into twenty trade groups. 



It is proposed to constitute a general committee composed of 

 140 representatives from the trade groups, 30 from agricultural 

 and local associations, and 10 from individual undertakings, to- 



getlicr with 10 other persons to be suggested by the council at a 

 general meeting. It will be seen that the scheme aims at the 

 centralization of the representation of German industries on 

 economic matters and in the relations between the employers and 

 the workmen. 



TAXATION AND THE HIGH COST OF LIVING. 



In suggesting the appointment by the Government of a non- 

 political body of experts to study the effects of the various kinds 

 of taxation which have been in force during and since the war, 

 Otto H. Kahn points out in a very informing booklet that the un- 

 scientific system of taxation adopted in this country since 1917 

 has played a considerable part in boosting prices to their present 

 excessively high levels. His belief that the entire matter of 

 excess profits and income taxes should be subjected to unprej- 

 udiced and competent critical review with the idea of making 

 recommendations to Congress finds approval in many quarters, 

 and most financial experts agree that a general staff on economic 

 and financial strategy during the reconstruction period would 

 prove as beneficial as the Army and Navy boards of experts 

 have in wartime. 



THE WORKERS' SHARE OF PROFIT AND RESPONSIBILITY. 



Profits without responsibility appears to be the workingman's 

 idea of the so-called partnership plan now advocated by organized 

 labor. A voice in management is demanded which permits the 

 workers to determine practically their own wages and hours, and 

 also to distribute profits without bringing to the combination any 

 responsibility, either financial, legal or moral. This means com- 

 plete unionization, domination and control of industry, and under 

 such a regime industry will die. 



There is much to be recommended in a co-partnership between 

 capital and labor, but it must be a real partnership in every sense, 

 with labor bearing its share of the responsibility. Profit-sharing 

 is really the crux of the matter, and the plan being advocated by 

 George W. Perkins benefits both employer and employe, elimin- 

 ating those features of profit-sharing which have made it a failure 

 in numerous instances. 



Assuming that every business must, first of all. earn operating 

 expenses, depreciation and a fair return gn honest capitalization, 

 and that the compensation paid to employes is for the purpose 

 of earning enough to meet their obligations, he proposes that any 

 profits over and above such sum be divided on some fair percent- 

 age basis between the capital used and the employes engaged, in 

 the latter case according to the compensation of the individual 

 worker. That these profits may remain in the business a reason- 

 able time, he proposes that capital's share be carried to surplus, 

 and that labor's share take some form of security representing 

 an interest in the business to be held for three to five years. 

 Thus an interest and responsibility on the part of labor is created 

 and the baneful effects of profit-sharing on a cash basis are elim- 

 inated. Such a plan has already proved successful in several 

 instances; it is eminently fair, and it represents the limit of safety 

 in any partnership between capital and labor. 



A BRITISH ESTIMATE OF RUBBER ACREAGE. 



-Addressing the Rubber Plantations Investment Trust in Lon- 

 don lately, the chairman, Mr. G. Croll, estimated that the area 

 of land under plantation rubber at the end of December, 1918, 

 ivas 2,750,000 acres, which on a basis of 400 pounds an acre 

 should yield 500,000 tons of rubber a year. He had hoped that 

 a use would be found first from the growth of the automobile 

 industry in the United States, where 1,000,000 cars were regis- 

 tered in 1913 ; 2,250,000 in 1916 and, according to the "Board of 

 Trade Journal." 6,000,000 in July. 1919. 



