The actual administration of Patents is exhibited to us by a Return which the House has been good enough to order on my motion. That return shows how the rate of multiplication has increased, especially in Scotland and Ireland.
There have been granted for—
| England. | Scotland. | Ireland. | In England for the Colonies. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In 1650—None. | ||||
| 1700 | 2 | |||
| 1750 | 7 | |||
| 1800 | 96 | 13 | 2 | 6 |
| 1825 | 250 | 62 | 33 | 87 |
| 1850 | 523 | 227 | 531 | 191 |
| 1866 | 2,121 | 2,121 | 2,121 | none |
| 1867 | 2,292 | 2,292 | 2,292 | none |
There were in operation in the United Kingdom at the end of last year no fewer than 11,369.
The House is aware that the Patent-office makes a classification of Patents. The classification for 1866, the latest year that could be given in the Return, shows that there are nearly 300 classes, and there were Patents granted that year affecting those classes to the number of more than thirty each on the average. Taking the manufacture and refining of sugar as a test of other classes, the Return shows that in that trade there were granted more than thirty “affecting processes or operations” (without including hundreds of others of a more general character, to which manufacturers of all sorts are subjected, as, for instance, Patents for motive power, heating, &c.). Many noteworthy matters will meet the eye of any person who examines the Return, such as the following: For medical, curative, and similar “revelations,” there were granted about 80; for improvements tending to safety, nearly 350; affecting food, about 400; affecting steam-boilers, about 160; steam-engines, about 120.
But we have yet to consider the most material points in the Act. To these I now call attention. The conditions or limitations which the statute makes necessary are extremely significant. They are in these words—“Not contrary to the law nor mischievous to the State, by raising prices of commodities at home or hurt of trade or generally inconvenient.”
On these words Sir Edward Coke remarks—
“There must be urgens necessitas and evidens utilitas.”