REGISTRATION OF UNITED KINGDOM PATENTS (AMENDMENT) BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

11.40 a.m.

The Minister for Commerce and Industry (Mr J. M. Jumabhoy): Mr Speaker, Sir, I move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

Government's attention has been drawn to the inadequacy of section 9 of the Registration of United Kingdom Patents Ordinance, (Chapter 181 of the Revised Edition), as this section does not afford protection to patentees and others in the local Register of Patents between the date of filing of the provisional application in the United Kingdom and the filing of the complete specification.

Under the United Kingdom Patents Act, 1907-1946, all patents based on non-convention applications were dated as at the date of the application in the United Kingdom. Under the United Kingdom Patents Act, 1949, however, patents are dated as at the date of filing the complete specification and some considerable time may elapse between the provisional application and the date of filing the complete specification. Therefore, if the patentee or others commenced the manufacture or sale of the invention in Singapore between the date of filing of the provisional application in the United Kingdom and the date of the filing of the complete specification, the validity of the certificate of registration issued locally might be assailable and the registration might even be invalidated.

It is considered desirable, therefore, to give to the grantee of the United Kingdom patent or to others who commence the manufacture or sale of the invention in Singapore between the date of the filing of the provisional application in the United Kingdom and the date of the filing of the complete specification adequate protection when an application is subsequently made for the registration of the United Kingdom patent locally. Clause 2 of the Bill seeks to give effect to this intention.

Clause 3 of the Bill, which replaces Section 11 of the Ordinance, makes it necessary for particulars of the title of the licensee of a patent to be entered in the Register of Patents and, unless such particulars have been registered, it shall not be admitted in evidence unless the court otherwise directs. This clause is designed to bring our law into line with the corresponding provisions of the law in the United Kingdom. Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole Assembly.

Assembly immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the BilI.-[Mr J. M. Jumabhoy].

Bill considered in Committee; reported without Amendment; read the Third time and passed.