Re Northey Rotary Engines Ltd's Patent [1950] HCA 26

ApplEIDu Cons

Sheets 16 Spade aN ey ENS tite id Pita uF 332 HIGH COURT (1950.

[HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.}

In Re NORTHEY ROTARY ENGINES LIMITED'S PATENT.

H.C. or A. Patent—Hxtension of term—Petition—Rotary air or gas compressors—Modified tion for which letters patent applied for in Merits—Sufficiency of remuneration—Loss due

form—Disconformity with inv

United Kingdom—Invention— to hostilities—Bxploitation of patented invention—Duty of patentee—Patents t 1903-1946 (No. 21 of 1903—No. 38 of 1946), ss. 84, 121.

pula ns 'The Court will not grant an extension under s. 84 of the Patents Act 1903- 1946 of a patent issued on an application under s. 121 based on a foreign prior application where it is manifest that there is disconformity between the

claims of the Australian patent and the basic foreign application.

To justify an extension of Letters Patent it must be shown that the inven- tion is one of more than ordinary merit or utility; that the patentee has

ted; that that inadequa

has not been due to

been inadequately remur

his own default, and that he has made all proper efforts to exploit the inven-

tion to his own profit.

In an application under s. 84 (6) of the Patents Act 1903-1946 the onus is upon the applicant to prove (i) loss, and (ii) that such loss was due to circum-

stances arising from hostilities.

Prririon.

A petition, based on merit and inadequacy of remuneration, was presented to the High Court by Northey Rotary Engines Ltd., Sturt Street, Townsville, Queensland, for an extension of the term of perce. Patent No. 19032/34, dated 25th August 1933, granted to Arthur John Northey, then of Parkstone, Dorset, England, whence he had proceeded from Australia in 1929. The letters patent were assigned by him, by deed dated Ith September 1936, to the petitioner, an Australian company. The invention, the subject: of the letters patent, related to rotary air compressors or vacuum.