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Patents sealed in the Years 1908, 1909, 1910, 1913, and 1914, and kept in Force by Payment of Renewal Fees. New Zealand—Act of 1908.

New Zealand—Act of 1911.

It will be seen that in New Zealand for the period referred to 34 - 2 per cent, of the patents sealed were maintained by the payment of the fee due by the fifth year, and 151 per cent, by the payment of the fee due by the eighth year, the percentage of the patents granted to residents of this country maintained at the times mentioned being 315 and 108 respectively; and that 421 per cent, of the patents sealed under the Act of 1911 in 1913-14 were kept in force by the payment of the fee due by the fourth year, the proportion of such patents maintained to those granted to residents of New Zealand being 44 per cent. The proportion per cent, of the patents maintained in Great Britain by the payment of the fees due hy the fifth and eighth years was 343 and 160 for the years mentioned. Examination of Specifications. The result of the limited examination of specifications, Ac, investigation of the novelty of inventions in respect of which, as has already been pointed out, no special, provision has yet been made, was as follows :— Number of applications received from Ist June, 1916, to 31st May, 1917 (inclusive) ... ... ... ... ... ... 1,367 Applications in respect of which amendment under section 5, or compliance with other formalities, required before acceptance ... 341 Applications in respect of which amendment on account of want of novelty required before acceptance ... ... ... ... 49 Not accepted ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 24 Classification. The checking and revision of the classification, to the necessity of which I have; referred in previous reports, is a work which should be undertaken as soon as an opportunity is afforded of putting it in hand. Countries from which Applications received. Last year 884 applications were received from residents in New Zealand, 2 more than in the previous year; and 447 from applicants outside New Zealand, 29 more than in 1916, of which number 215 were from the Commonwealth, 117 from Great Britain, and 82 from the United States of America. Trend or Subject-matter of Inventions. A considerably larger number of applications than usual were received on the subject of internal-combustion engines, 52 (22), and inventions in respect of cultivating appliances, 49 (32).

Year. 1908 1909 1910 j 1 Total. 762 660 790 Pat Total. Pi t I I 'ati tents sealed. Foreign. 512 428 542 Fee due by Fifth Year paid. N'.Z. Total. Foreign. N.Z. 250 250 172 78 232 246 169 77 248 262 187 75 ! , !_ Fee due by Total. 107 99 129 y Eighth Year paid. Foreign. N. Z. 78 29 78 21 J 00 29 I Great Britain. 1905 1906 1907 14,911 16,488 16,180 ! [ I ■ . 5,016 5,778 5,547 2,320 2,755 2,566 |

Fee due by .Fourth Year paid. Total. Foreign. N.Z. 1913 1914 660 799 I i 395 547 265 252 198 100 98 417 287 130