438 



NA TURE 



[September 30, 1922 



acts and ordinances. Simultaneously with the 

 demand in the 'sixties of last century for the total 

 abolition of patents, opinion was hardening upon the 

 desirability for the extension of a patent to countries 

 other than that in which it originated. In the Patents 

 Act of 1883, which replaced the Act of 1852, no power 

 was given for extending the territorial limit of a patent, 

 nor in the Acts which now govern patents in this 

 country is any such power present. In spite of much 

 sporadic agitation, no practical steps were taken for 

 a patent of the United Kingdom to become operative 

 in India, the self-governing Dominions, the Colonies, 

 and Protectorates. This invoked Sir Robert Hadfield 

 to say that " It is a crying shame that in a great 

 Empire like ours we do not have one Empire Patent 

 to cover the whole of our Dominions." 



Although many societies and various learned bodies 

 had discussed the question and emphasised the need 

 of an Empire Patent, and, from time to time, had made 

 representations to Government, officialdom appears 

 to have been deterred by inherent difficulties in the 

 production of an acceptable scheme. It had not 

 perceived the possibility of formulating a practical 

 measure to satisfy the justifiable aspirations and fair 

 demands of inventors. But steady pressure and 

 persistent endeavour are meeting with reward, for 

 there are now indications of Governments treating 

 seriously the proposals for an Empire Patent. A 

 notably important advance was made in 1921 at a 

 conference of Prime Ministers and representatives of 

 the United Kingdom, the Dominions, and India, when 

 a memorandum, prepared in the Board of Trade, was 

 discussed by a special committee. The conference 

 agreed with the recommendation of its committee that 

 representatives of the Patent Offices of His Majesty's 

 Dominions should sit in London to consider the 

 practicability of an Empire Patent. Accordingly 

 sittings were held in June last, and a report of the 

 conference has since been published. 1 



The report is not for popular reading ; indeed in 

 the main it is highly technical, and in its entirety can 

 be understood only by those to whom the details of 

 patent law and practice are of everyday concern. 

 Further, its importance and significance are not to be 

 measured simply by what it states expressly, since its 

 implications and inferences must be gathered before 

 its true import can be realised. 



The discussion at the conference ranged round the 

 present situation of affairs ; the desirability for an 

 Empire Patent ; various schemes for obtaining the 

 Patent and their practicability ; and alternatively the 

 possibility of rendering uniform the patent laws 



1 British Empire Patent Conference. Report of the Conference held 

 at the Patent Office, London, from 12th June 1922 to the 23rd June 1922. 

 8vo. Pp. 28. (London : H.M. Stationery Office.) is. net. 



NO. 2761, VOL. I io] 



throughout the Empire. The conference, while 

 emphasising the importance of the preservation of the 

 autonomy of the self-governing Dominions and of 

 India, and insisting upon the rights and facilities at 

 present enjoyed by inventors, concluded that an 

 Empire Patent is desirable. Five schemes of the many 

 that had been brought to notice were selected for 

 special examination, the conference taking for its basis 

 a memorandum prepared by the Comptroller General 

 of Patents in 1919. A few particulars of these schemes 

 are set out in the report. Looking over these, it is 

 apparent that for each much can be urged. In one, 

 it may be, large expenditure is involved, although the 

 advantages to be secured are great ; in another, 

 expenditure is comparatively small, with corresponding 

 diminution in beneficial results. That difficulties will 

 be encountered whatever scheme may ultimately be 

 adopted is well known, but so far as can be judged, no 

 such difficulty will be met as cannot be surmounted 

 in the presence of a spirit of give-and-take, a spirit 

 which must permeate the various legislatures and 

 governing bodies before a uniform plan of action can 

 be agreed upon. 



According to one of the schemes, there is to be 

 established a single central patent office for the issue 

 of grants which should be operative throughout the 

 Empire, local patent offices being abolished. This 

 scheme was not approved, " having regard to practical 

 difficulties," the chief of which were the distance apart 

 of the units of the Empire and the loss of time which 

 accordingly would be involved in transacting the 

 necessary business. Another scheme contemplated 

 the retention of local patent offices from which the 

 usual territorial patents would issue, the issue taking 

 place without examination into the novelty of the 

 inventions to be protected. In addition, a central 

 office would be established for the recording of the local 

 patents and for their resultant extension to the Empire. 

 The central office on being called upon by its patentees 

 would also undertake a limited examination for novelty, 

 and when the patent specification was suitably amended 

 as a result of the examination, a note would appear 

 that the examination had thus taken place. This 

 scheme was not recommended, owing, it would seem, 

 to the resulting abolition of the existing compulsory 

 examination into novelty. The third scheme entailed 

 the granting of Empire Patents in each self-governing 

 Dominion and in India, each office being fully equipped 

 with the registers and material necessary for the ex- 

 amination into novelty. In view of the expense and 

 difficulty involved in setting up the offices and of the 

 uncertainty as to the quality and value of the patent 

 so granted, the conference found the scheme to be 

 wholly impracticable. According to the " Preferred 



