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their ideas commercially.
Many companies
operate only in the domestic market and do
not need the greater certainty that a fully
examined patent gives as the basis for seeking
protection overseas. Many only need easy access
to shorter term protection because the products
which stem from their inventions have a short
life time. Many do not want to go to the effort
and expense of getting a full blown patent before
it is clear that the invention is marketable.
The result probably is that many inventions lie
unexploited for lack of any protection. We
have been struck by the fact that small businesses
and those that act for them are in favour of an
easier system for giving limited protection.
Patent agents employed full time in large
companies are neutral if not hostile. The fact
that many industrial fora are dominated by these
agents suggests that the small man's views have
not hitherto been properly taken into account.
4.9
The possibility of introducing a petty
patent in the UK has been looked at in the past,
but not since the 1977 Patents Act. That Act
strengthened British patents by introducing more
rigorous requirements for absolute novelty (i.e.
world-wide) and a high level of non-obviousness
/(i.e. something
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