The sole purpose of this Bill, as its Long Title indicates, is to implement certain international conventions. The amendments contained in the Bill do not affect the basic principles of our law in regard to industrial property and copyright, which is embodied in the Acts of 1927 and 1929. The 1927 Act is a voluminous statute of 187 sections which covers the three distinct subjects of (a) patents; (b) trade marks and designs; and (c) copyright.
The Act of 1929 was short amending Act which was designed to effect certain minor amendments in the 1927 Act. There has been no amending legislation on this subject in the long period between 1929 and the present time, with the exception of (1) a short Copyright Act passed in 1929 to deal with pre-Treaty copyrights, (2) a short amending Act passed in 1947 to implement an international agreement for the preservation or restoration of rights of industrial property affected by the Second World War, and (3) a very short amending Act passed in 1949 to revise a section of the Principal Act relating to the fees to be charged by the Controller of Industrial and Commercial Property in respect of applications.
As stated, the purpose of the Bill is to bring our existing law into conformity with three international conventions, that is, to carry out the international commitments which we entered into in signing these conventions.The three conventions are: —
"(1) The revised Industrial Property Convention signed at London in 1934,
(2) The revised Berne Copyright Convention signed at Brussels in 1948, and
(3) The Universal Copyright Convention signed at Geneva in 1952."
There has been delay in implementing these conventions — the London convention in particular. The reason was that it was considered in the years after 1934 that a number of other amendments to the law about patents and trade marks might be necessary. Examination of this whole question was delayed by the war, and after the war it was found that the conventions on copyright also were likely to be revised as a result of further conferences which it would be possible to hold on the return of normal conditions.
Such conferences were in fact held in 1948 and in 1952 and it was then considered that, for the purpose of implementing outstanding conventions it will be desirable to introduce a single statute for that purpose only. Accordingly the present Bill is confined to the amendments of existing law necessary to implement the conventions, and it is not designed to effect the various changes in our law which might be necessary or desirable to make it cover all the developments which have occurred in recent years in the fields of industrial property and of copyright.Proposals for amendments have been put forward from various quarters, and these will be examined with a view to the introduction of such amending legislation as the Government may decide upon.
As regards the first convention, the object of the International Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property is to develop and unify the laws and practices of member countries in relation to the protection of industrial property and to secure the grant of reciprocal rights between member states. The convention was revised at the London Conference of 1934 which was attended by a delegation from this country. The convention is a world-wide organisation embracing some forty-three member states. It is administered by the International Union for the Protection of Industrial. Property, a body with headquarters in Berne, which is concerned with patents, trade marks and designs.
Under our existing law every application for a patent, except those made under the international convention, must contain the name of the true and first inventor, but the true and first inventor is not mentioned in the patent. Section 2 of the Bill provides, in accordance with the revised convention, for the mention, on his request, of the name of the true and first inventor in the patent granted for an invention.
Section 4 extends to aircraft and land vehicles temporarily imported into the State the immunity from action for infringement of patent rights now enjoyed by certain foreign vessels in respect of inventions used in the machinery or appliances connected with the vessel.
Sections 5 and 6 relate to designs. It will be no longer necessary for an article to which a registered design is applied to bear a prescribed mark to denote that the design is registered; and the registration of a design will not in future be cancelled merely on the grounds that it is not being utilised industrially in this country.
Section 7 grants applicants for patents under the convention the same rights to a single patent for cognate inventions as are at present accorded to non-convention applications.
Many of the amendments required to implement the conventions involve more changes in procedure or in the periods of time in which certain things are to be done. Examples of this kind of amendment are the provision to prevent abuse of monopoly rights in Section 3, the international arrangements connected with applications for patents, and for registration of designs or of trade marks in Section 7.
Two of the three international conventions with which we are here concerned deal with the subject of copyright. This country is a member of the International Union for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, commonly called the Berne Copyright Union. The international convention commonly known as the Berne Copyright Convention was drawn up in 1886 and was revised at various international conferences since then. The most recent revision, that with which we are now concerned, was carried out at Brussels in 1948. The revised convention signed on behalf of this country on that occasion was signed by the undermentioned other states: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, India, Iceland, Italy, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Morocco, Monaco, Norway, New Zealand, Pakistan, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the Holy See, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Czechoslovakia, Tunis, South Africa, Yugoslavia.
The convention provides for reciprocal rights between countries which are members of the Berne Union and the main principle of the convention is that a work first published in any member country is accorded the same protection in each of the other countries of the union as if it were first published in each of those countries.
Fundamental changes are not required to bring our legislation into conformity with the Brussels revision of the Berne Convention. Implementation of the revised convention is effected by Sections 9, 10 and 12 of the Bill. Section 156 of the 1927 Act provides that any time after the expiration of 25 years from the death of the author of a published work reproduction of the work is permitted provided the publisher pays the copyright owner 10 per cent royalties. This provision conflicts with the Brussels revision and its repeal is necessary in order to enable this country to accede to the convention.Section 9 of the Bill accordingly grants absolute protection for the full agreed term of copyright, i.e. the author's or artist's lifetime and 50 years after his death. In the case of works of joint authorship Section 10 extends the period of copyright to 50 years after the death of the author who dies last in lieu of the existing provision of 50 years after the death of the author who dies first. Section 12 in effect extends copyright protection to all cinematographic works; and also alters the definition of "simultaneous publication" in the 1927 Act from within 14 days to within 30 days.
The second convention relating to copyright is the Universal Copyright Convention. This convention was the culmination of action begun by Unesco in 1947 and it was signed at a world conference held in Geneva in 1952. This was the first occasion on which the United States of America and the other countries of the Pan-American Union entered into an agreement with the countries of the Berne Union in the matter of copyright. Because of the many interests covered by this convention, the measure of agreement embodied in it is necessarily restricted to basic principles; implementation of it will not involve any fundamental change in our law.
The following states in addition to this country were represented at the Geneva Conference and signed the Convention, on that occasion: Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Cuba, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Guatemala, Haiti, the Holy See, Honduras, India, Italy, Liberia, Luxembourg, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Portugal, Salvador, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay, the U.S.A., Yugoslavia.
Sections 8, 11 and 13 of the Bill arise out of the Universal Copyright Convention. Section 8 provides that copyright in a protected work shall, as regards translation into the Irish language, cease to exist at the expiration of seven years from the first publication of the work instead of ten years as at present, unless the author has the work translated into Irish in the meantime. Section 11 enables the Government to protect by Order the works of a national of a contracting State first published in a non-contracting State. Section 13 provides protection for the unpublished and published works of the United Nations, its organs and specialised agencies, and the Organisation of American States, and it empowers the Government to extend copyright protection to such other international organisations as they may think fit and specify by Order. Implementation of the Conventions will not involve any additional costs of administration. I recommend the principle of the Bill for approval by the House.