March 9, 1922] 



NATURE 



295 



)loitation Committee would also advise on the 

 out of foreign patents, to be sold outright, 

 ^ever, so as to avoid the inconvenience of a 

 >vernment organisation having to maintain a question 

 i validity in a foreign country. 



^Some other matters of interest in this Report may 



briefly mentioned. Doubt is expressed as to the 



idness of the practice obtaining in one Department 



least, of stopping short at provisional protection 



the case of inventions of value for the preservation 



health or of life, or the general use of which could be 



forced by a Government Department ; completion 



the patent is now advised on the ground that very 



ten no commercial use can be made of an invention 



"unless a definite monopoly is granted to a manufacturing 



firm. Similarly, foreign patents for such inventions 



should be taken out. 



For the encouragement of meritorious research 

 workers, it is recommended in the Report that the 

 head of a department should be given the power to 

 promote successful investigators, or to secure for them 

 special increases of salary, within certain limits, and 

 without promotion out of their grade. The opinion 

 is also recorded that the remuneration of scientific 

 workers should be adequate and that they should 

 have reasonable security of tenure. 



While the Committee states it has not found that 

 Government Departments are more reluctant than 

 industrial firms to allow the publication of the results of 

 scientific investigations, it is strongly of opinion that 

 no obstacle should be placed in the way of research 

 workers who wish to publish such results, regard being 

 had to the national interest, and it proceeds to point 

 out that the Government will secure the services of 

 men of scientific ability and reputation, only if such 

 permission is not withheld except under exceptional 

 circumstances. 



A mode of procedure is recommended to secure for 

 the worker the opportunity of lodging a provisional 

 application at the Patent- Office without submitting 

 it through his superior officer, who would, however, 

 be supplied with a copy from the perusal of which he 

 could decide as to whether the invention should be 

 regarded as secret. Attention is directed to the import- 

 ance of advertising to all concerned the conditions 

 in force regarding the taking out of patents. 



Such are the main features of this important Report. 

 It cannot be denied that there existed an urgent need 

 for a detailed consideration of the whole patent question 

 for which different Departments of State had varying 

 provisions and regulations. The matter is one of 

 peculiar difficulty, on account of the personal associa- 

 tion of a worker with the idea which ultimately leads 

 to a successful patented process, while at the same time 

 NO. 2732, VOL. 109] 



he is in receipt of maintenance and facilities. In spite 

 of one phrase in this Report where the position of 

 Government servants not specially engaged on ex- 

 perimental work is being discussed, in the words that 

 " it was no part of the bargain made between them and 

 the Government Department concerned when they 

 entered into its employment, that they should make 

 discoveries or inventions," it can safely be said that 

 no such contract of service could reasonably be de- 

 manded. By maintaining a well-equipped establish- 

 ment with adequate facilities and conditions for a 

 well-chosen investigating staff, the employer has a 

 good ground for belief that an atmosphere will be 

 created in which at any time striking new ideas may 

 arise, but he cannot claim to expect more than this 

 in the way of striking developments. It is to this 

 balance of interests that the Committee has appUed 

 itself, and in the passage quoted earher in this notice 

 has defined the position of research worker maintained 

 by the Government, with regard to his claim to owner- 

 ship in inventions. While laying stress on the general 

 principles that the invention of such a worker is the 

 property of the State, and that the reward to the 

 inventor is contingent on the connexion of the invention 

 with the work for which he was engaged, the Report 

 makes clear that in settHng the question all the circum- 

 stances of the case will be taken into account, having 

 in mind, no doubt, such matters as the case when a 

 Department desires to keep the invention secret, the 

 merit and importance of the invention, together with 

 any peculiarity in conditions of employment. 



The tribunal suggested to adjudicate on such points, 

 in view of its neutral character, should go far to- 

 wards securing the confidence of the inventor, more 

 especially as he should no longer be able to point to 

 lack of uniformity in treatment by different branches 

 of the Service. From the body of decisions of this 

 tribunal there will, no doubt, gradually emerge suffi- 

 ciently definite guiding principles to enable new appli- 

 cations to be dealt with expeditiously and fairly. 



Much will depend on the interpretation of the 

 principles described above in the first decisions 

 arrived at by the Patents Board, and the extent to 

 which encouragement to the scientific worker, one 

 of the objects laid down in the terms of reference, is 

 to result will be watched with interest. 



Up to this point the Report is fairly clear, and there 

 is no reason why its recommendations should not be 

 carried out satisfactorily. It is to be hoped that it 

 will be equally successful in the much more difficult 

 task of exploiting inventions. Although, under the 

 existing system in some Departments, a Government 

 servant may be able to obtain permission to have 

 reassigned to him the non-Governmental rights of an 



