asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce in order to expedite the processing of worthwhile patent applications, if he will introduce legislation to enable patent applications which have not been verified to be exposed under appropriate protection if 18 months elapse from the day they were first submitted to the Patent Office; if he will have a thorough examination made of practices in patent offices abroad with a view to incorporating into the Irish patent systems any reforms which have substantially reduced the backlog of patent applications in other countries; and, if not, why.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Patent System.
75.
I presume that what the Deputy is asking is to have the patent law amended so as (a) to give, at the end of 18 months from the priority date of an application for a patent, some kind of provisional protection to an invention in respect of which a complete specification has been filed and, (b), to provide for a system of deferred examination such as has been introduced in other countries in the hope of reducing the backlog of patent applications.
Under our law it is already the practice of the Patent Office to publish complete specifications 18 months from the priority date of an application for a patent but no rights are attached to this publication.
With regard to deferred examination, my information is that it has certain disadvantages and is not universally accepted as a useful reform. For instance a Committee on Patent Law who have recently reported in Britain have recommended against it. It will, however, be fully considered by me in connection with a re-examination of our patent law that will be necessary when the final form of the European Patent Conventions is known. At that stage I will also consider the possibility of attaching certain limited rights to publication 18 months after the priority date.
I can assure the Deputy that the patent laws and practices of other countries are kept under review by the Patent Office with a view to the introduction into our law and practice of any change which would improve the system.