Abstract
DR. HERBERT LEVINSTEIN has done a service to chemical industry by directing attention, in an address on “The Grant of Trading Monopolies” delivered on March 6 to the Institution of Chemical Engineers, to the failure of our patent system to follow the political and industrial changes that took place after the passing of the Statute of Monopolies in 1623. The original ideal of the avoidance both of “idleness . . . and the drawing out of our treasures for foreign manufacture” contemplated the establishment of a new home industry as a corollary to every grant. Yet in 1932, while less than 17,000 patents in all were sealed, some 13,000 applications were made by foreigners who are not compelled by law to work their patented inventions in Great Britain. It is Dr. Levinstein's opinion that this is a defect now of relatively minor importance, since import duties have caused the foreign manufacturer to establish works in Great Britain. He suggests that a further defect is to be found in the fact that patent grants are esteemed so lightly that more than half are abandoned when a renewal fee of £5 becomes payable, and less than 4 per cent are maintained for the full period. Patent litigation he also finds too costly because it is too lengthy, and reminds us that an important chemical action recently occupied the courts for some 74 days and cost well over £100,000 !
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British Patent Law: Defects and Remedies. Nature 137, 424 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137424b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137424b0