BRITISH PATENT LAWS

Shannon News, 1 November 1927, Page 3

BRITISH PATENT LAWS

SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS. PERIOD FOR DEVELOPMENT. The opinion that the American patent laws are superior to the British was expressed by Sir James Henderson, is his/presidential address to the engineering- section of the British As-; sociation. He said that in Britain a patent is. granted only for a new method of manufacture which has \ to,, be described in the natent sheo^flpa-. tiorf so that anyone skilled in the art may put it into practice at once. In simple inventions which form the subjects of the great majority of patents this is actually the ease but there are undoubtedly instances where what appears'to be the inventor to a practical, scheme, and was honestly described by him as such, proves subsequently difficult to put into effect-on T account of technical difficulties, which he had not forseeu and the remedy, for , which may not be patentable. Such obstacles and their remedy cannot be revealed in the patent because they have not been encountered when the specification is written. under the present system a period of nine months is allowed between filing the provisional and complete specifir -j cations. This period, while ample In | the case of most inventions, is inadequate for full investigation of tho really great inventions. . In America, an applicant, by filing periodical amendments bf his specifications can keep the application pending in that Patent Office* for a number of years, during which he can be developing tho invention and add-\ ing to the .specifications required by the experience gained. Then when, the patent is eventually issued it runs, for 17 years from the date of issue, whereas a British patent dates for .16 'years from that date of application. In addition, an American patentee, on any question of priority of inven; tion ; is allowed to produce any evidence that is available to show conception of the invention up to not more than two years anterior to the date of his original application. In this way, an American inventor can spend several useful years in perfecting his invention before his patent is granted, while the British inventor has often to watch the most useful years of his patent being eaten-up in ! unproductive development. Sir James suggested an extensionof. the. present system of granting 1 patents of addition—that is a patent i for an improvement on a prior pa* tented invention. If a patent of addition could be granted to an inventor in approved cases on production of evidence of genuine difficulties encountered and successfully overcome, and if this patent of addition could be made valid for a definite term of years, one of the main fears of a patentee would be overcome.