Courtaulds Ltd's Patent, Re [1952] HCA 53

High Court of Australia Taylor J. Courtaulds Ltd's Patent, Re [1952] HCA 53

ORDER Orders accordingly.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgment was delivered:—

Oct. 21 Taylor J.

This is an application made by originating summons pursuant to s. 84 (6) of the Patents Act 1903-1950 for an extension of the term of letters patent granted with respect to an invention in relation to a continuous spinning process for rayon thread or yarn. The term of the letters patent will, unless extended, expire on 17th November, 1952, and this application seeks an extension for a period of ten years from that date or such other term as the Court may see fit to order.

The applicant, Courtaulds Ltd., which is an English company, acquired its interest in the letters patent by an assignment from the Industrial Rayon Corporation in May 1947. The latter company is a company incorporated in the United States of America, and the evidence shows that in or about 1938 or 1939 it had introduced the subject invention into its continuous spinning plants at Painsville and Cleveland in the United States. During 1938 and 1939 the applicant commenced negotiations with the Industrial Rayon Corporation with a view to the acquisition by the former, or by the American Viscose Corporation, a United States company in which the controlling interest was, until 1941, held by the applicant, of various patent rights with respect to the invention, including the Australian letters patent, which were then the property of the Industrial Rayon Corporation. The outbreak of war brought an end to these negotiations for the time being and by 1940 it was quite certain that negotiations could not be resumed until at least after the cessation of hostilities.

In May 1945, after the cessation of hostilities in Europe, negotiations were recommenced and by October 1945, it is said, arrangements had been completed for the purchase by the applicant from the Industrial Rayon Corporation of the whole of the latter's patent rights with respect to the subject invention in European countries and in the countries of the British Commonwealth of Nations.