41
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O.
Reference -
· 885
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
TRINIDAD.
Governor Lord Harris.-It would be of great
TRINIDAD.
advantage if the Imperial Legislature were to pass a Governor, No. 49, April 22, 1853- law for Patents general to the Empire.
The want of such a law has been forcibly brought to my attention lately by the circumstance that two Patents have recently been passed in this Colony in favour of persons supposed to have discovered improvements in sugar-making.
Patents have, I heir, been refused in other Colo- nies, with the hope of gaining advantage of the process after it should be made known here, without any profit accruing to the patentee.
It is evident that it is very hard on the patentee, and must invariably occur in this part of the world, in which there is a cluster of Colonies all interested in the manufacture of sugar.
Mr. Attorney-General Warner.-I have not been able to ascertain what were the powers of the King of Spain with regard to the grant of Patents for inventions at the time of the conquest of this Colony, nor whether such powers were ever exercised by the Viceroys of the Spanish possessions in the Indies. These powers,
whatever they were, would vest in the Crown of England. But there is no instance, since the conquest of this Colony, of any Patent having been granted by the Crown in exercise of powers existing under the laws of Spain, or by any Governor in the name of the Sovereign.
The Governor and Council have, I conceive, a legislative power to grant to inventors the exclusive benefit of their inventions; and since the passing of the Act 15 & 16 Vict., cap. 83, two Ordinances have been passed by the Council for that purpose.
A Patent granted in England is, I conceive, prove- able in this Colony by the production of the original Patent under the Great Seal, or by an exemplifica- tion under the Great Seal, or by an examined copy.
ANTIGUA.
ANTIGUA.
Governor Mackintosh,-There is no local law in
Governor, No. 41, April 21, 1853. Antigua empowering the Colonial authorities to grant Patents, such power resting in the Crown alone; and that by the law of evidence recognised here, Patents must be proved, as in the mother- country, either by the production of the Letters themselves or an exemplification of them under the Great Seal.
MONTSERRAT.
The Council are of opinion, in consideration of the open competition which must now be faced with foreign sugar-producing countries, from which protected inventions are supposed to be derivable on terms casier than can ever be the case from the mother-country, that it would be inexpedient that this island should be embraced in any general scheme which may be contemplated for the exten- sion of the area of the operation of Letters-Patent for inventions. Such an opinion, in which I am inclined to think that the Legislature of this island would agree, may not, perhaps, be quite consonant with the tenour of certain prayers which occasionally may have been proffered from hence for the more complete identification of Colonial with Imperial interests; but I am not prepared individually to advance a different one.
MONTSERRAT,
Mr. Queen's Counsel Semper.-There is no law of
Governor, No. 42, June 22, 1853, this island by which Patents may be granted by any
local authority.
2. In regard to Patents granted in England which may extend to the Colonies, 1 apprehend that the mode of establishing the necessary proof in an action for an infringement of the inventor's rights, would be the same as in the like case in England.
The combined effect of the Patent Act, 15 & 16 Vict., cap. 83, and of the 14 & 15 Viet., cap. 99, appears to me to divest such a proceeding in the Colonies to which Patents might be extended, of M