APPLICATION FOR EXTENSION OF LETTERS PATENT NO. 21780/35 GRANTED TO ERNEST GABRIEL ZOUKRA

©.12280/485

HE, Daw, Gov, Print, Met

IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

APPLICATION FOR EXTENSION OF

si PATENT NO.21780735 GRANTED TO ERNEST GABRIEL ZOUKRA.

othe

ORAL

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

/ / i

Judgment delivered at__ Sydney on__Monday, 28th May 1951.

APPLICATION FOR EXTENSION OF LETTERS PATENT NO. 21780/35 GRANTED T0 ERNEST GABRIEL ZOUKRA

JUDGMENT WILLIAMS J.

APPLICATION FOR EXTENSION OF LETTERS PATENT

NO. 21780/35 GRANTED TO ERNEST GABRIEL ZOUKRA

JUDGMENT WILLIAMS J.

This is an application under Section 84(6) of the Patents Act 1903-1950 to extend the term of letters patent No. 21780/35, dated 13th March 1935, on' the ground that the patentee as such has suffered loss or damage on account of the recent hostilities. It is a case in which I need only consider the two requisites laid down by the section.

So far as the requisite of Mr. Zoukra not being a subject of a foreign State with which we were at war is concerned, it is quite clear that he is a British subject, so it all comes down to the question of what extension I should grant on account of this loss or damage.

I have no doubt that Mr. Zoukra is entitled to an extension, and an extension of a considerable term. I think the evidence establishes that he is in the first instance entitled to an extension in respect of the whole of the period of hostilities between September 1939 and September 1945 - that is six years.

The evidence also establishes that, since September 1945, Mr. Zoukra has been gravely handicapped in the manufacture of the patented apparatus, an improved sanitary closet, due to the short- age of caustic soda and of steel. But the difficulty in this case, as in every other such case, is to determine to what extent those shortages are due to the aftermath of the fighting and to what extent they are due to social, economic and industrial disturbances which, unfortunately, have greatly affected Australian production since the conclusion of hostilities.