Sir GEORGE FOSTER:

I have two

amendments which I propose to move to that clause.

Mr. BUREAU:

We had a Bill under consideration before to consolidate the Patent Act. I understand that that Bill was necessary to revise the fees and give to certain persons who during the war could not comply with the law the privilege of doing so now. Are those the only changes?

Sir GEORGE FOSTER:

The Consolidation Bill was withdrawn, and I have four amendments which I intend to move in this Bill which touch four different points covered in the Consolidation Bill. The first amendment is with reference to the fee to be charged for the patent. I move to amend section 1 by striking out the word "and" after the word "twenty-three" in the first line and substituting the following:

With the exception of the first two lines of sub-section 1 thereof, and section 47 of the .Patent Act, chapter 69 of the Revised Statutes of Canada, 1906, are repealed.

Mr. BUREAU:

It is rather confusing to follow the amendment because we have not the Patent Act before us and do not know what the first two lines are.

Sir GEORGE FOSTER:

I will explain them. In subsection 2 I move that there be inserted the following:

For each and every patent mentioned in any notice given to the Commissioner by the inventor, after the issue of a foreign patent, of his intention to apply for a patent, in Canada for such patent, $2.

The object of all this, in getting rid of sections 23 and 47, with the exception of the amendment I have moved in regard to section 23, is to make a change in the fee. At present the fee is $60, paid in three several payments of $20 each at intervals of twelve years. It is proposed to make it $35, payment to he made on application for the patent. That is to prevent litigation and trouble that have ensued, owing to lapses in the making of the second and third payments, in the last ten years before the war. We had to cure these troubles by special legislation in this

House, some 50 or 60 patents having lapsed, through negligence to pay the fee. The Private Bills Committee, to whom they had to go for adjudication and examination, have several times protested against that kind of legislation, and it has been protested against in the House. It is proposed to get rid of all that by putting on a fee of $35. I may say the fee in the United States is $40, and it is made in one payment. It is supposed that the payment of $35 in cash on the first application will really bring in a larger revenue than is now realized on the system of deferred payments, making them any size, because the payment will be made surely, and in the other case it is only made after twelve years, or six years, and in a gr'eat many cases it is not gone on with, and we miss these subsequent pay-mentsi. The other fees are practically the same.

Mr. JACOBS:

"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."

Sir GEORGE FOSTER:

It is worth

in this case pretty nearly two in the bush.

Mr. BUREAU:

As the law stands, the

applicant has to deposit $20 on his application.

Sir GEORGE FOSTER:

On application he deposits $15, and $20 on the granting of the patent.

Mr. JACOBS:

Is it proposed to make

any changes with regard to patents held by alien enemies during the war'?

Mr. DOHERTY:

The action taken during the war consisted simply of making provision to allow the parties to apply to make use of the patents. There was no action in the direction of confiscation-no appropriation of the property in the patent under the provisions of the Act. Permits were granted to persons in Canada to use the article, the patent for which belongs to an alien enemy-to use the article notwithstanding the existence of the patent.

Mr. JACOBS:

What became of the fees received by the department from these patents while they were working under these licenses?

Mr. DOHERTY:

Licenses were granted subject to payment of royalties which were collected from the license fees and handed over to the custodian of alien enemy property.

Mr. BUREAU:

Section 3 says:

Paragraphs (a) and (b) and subsection 2 ot section 51 of the Patent Act shall apply only to application for patents tiled before the coming into force of this Act.

The same difficulty arises there. We have these paragraphs suggested by the Senate, and we do not know what paragraphs (a) and (b) are. *

Sir GEORGE FOSTER:

The section

under the present Act is 51-

No person shall be exempt from the payment of any fee or charge payable in respect of any services performed for such person under this Act, and no fee, when paid, shall be returned to the person who paid it except, (a) when the invention is not susceptible of being patented; (b) when the petition for patent is withdrawn.

And the amendment provides that that shall only apply to applications for patents filed before the coming into for'ce of the Act.

Mr. BUREAU:

What is the purpose

of this clause?

Sir GEORGE FOSTER:

This is for

the purpose of removing the uncertainty as to the meaning of section 82 of the Treaty of Peace with Germany. The De-' partment of Justice has given the opinion that the protection applies only to patents in force on August 1, 1914. This

provides that it shall apply to patents granted thereafter during the period of the war. There is greater reason, it is felt, that it should apply to these, or equally as good reasons, as that it should apply to those that were in force on first day of August, 1914, when war broke out. That is to carry out and make it clear, and to remove the uncertainty which arose from the opinion of the Department of Justice that protection applied only to patents which were granted after that time.