Westralian Powell Wood Process Limited v The Crown [1921] UKPCHCA 2

Pay

Cooxen.*

1921.

Moy 30.

HIGH COURT

[PRIVY COUNCIL}

THE WESTRALIAN POWELL WOOD PRO- | CESS LIMITED. . eS || 'Petitioner,

axp

'ResponpeNt,

ON APPEAL FROM THE HIGH COURT.

Patent—Application of Commonwealth Act to State patents—Right acquired commencement of Commonwealth Act—Licence granted after "In the Commonwealth" —Right of licensee to determine co

(2), 92—Patent Act 1888 (W.A.) 52 Viet. No. 5), sec. 32.

By see. of the Patents Act 1908-1909 the term " patent" is define tom except whore otherwise clearly intended, "letters patent for a i granted in the Commonwealth."

'Held, that the words "in the Commonweslth" in that desiton copraphical, and, therefore, that the definition includes patents funder a State Actas wells those granted under the Commonwealth Ac

See. 6 of the Act provides (inter alia) that the Act shall not affect any' 'acquired before the commencement of the Act. Sec. 87 provides: Any contract relating to the lease of of licence to use oF work any article or patented process, whetber made before or after the eo

of this section, may at any time after the patent or all the patents by wb 'the article or process was protected at the time of the making of the hhas or have ceased to be in foree, and notwithstanding anything in

or in any other contract to the contrary, be determined by either giving three months' notice in writing to the other party:

"+ Present—Viseount Haldane, Lord Buckmaster and Lord Shaw.

29 C.L.R.] OF AUSTRALIA.

'The petitioner, a company which was the registered proprietor of a patent granted under the law of Western Australia before the Patents Act 1903 came into operation, by a contract made after that event bad happened granted to 'the respondent, the Government of Western Australia, a licence to use the patented process, and the respondent agreed to treat yearly a minimum 'quantity of timber by that process until July 1923 and to pay a specified royalty.