TNAG-1495-FCO40-2053-Hong-Kong-intellectual-property-regime-1986 — Page 28

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4.10

The Banks Report (Cmnd 4407, 1970),

which Led to the new Patents Act, found against

petty patents. It argued that foreign experience

suggested the existence of petty patents would

not nece sarily diminish the work load on the

Patent Office; that any system for granting

monopolies even for a short period, without

proper examination, was open to abuse; that as

with any registration system there was always

considerable doubt as to the extent to which

such patents could be enforced; and that a second

patent system would give rise to legal complications

over what was capable of being protected by each.

The Chartered Institute of Patent Agents did not

accept these arguments.

4.11

The arguments in the Banks Report can

be refuted as follows

(i)

We have already argued in relation to service.

marks than an increase in the load on the

Patent Office should not be a conclusive

argument against change which fosters

innovation and commercial exploitation.

In any case the Patent Office can charge

to recover its costs fully.

(ii)

Before any rights were asserted we would

envisage that examination of the validity

of the patent could be demanded.

A

/registration

•