Patent Licensing: Problems from the Imprecision of the English Language
![handle is hein.journals/ottlr4 and id is 70 raw text is: PATENT LICENSING:
PROBLEMS FROM THE IMPRECISION
OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Gordon F. Henderson, Q.C.*
I. INTRODUCTION
In the last decade, industrialists have placed an increased emphasis on
the patent right as an instrument in the sharing of industrial technology, '
and it can be expected that this trend will continue. The patent right may
be licensed alone or along with technical information. It may even be
licensed along with a trade-mark right as long as the strict statutory require-
ments of the Trade Marks Act as to the control of the standard of quality of
the wares or services are fulfilled.' There is a growing number of companies
formed for the sole purpose of bringing together potential licensors and
potential licensees of technical information.
One may speculate upon the forces impelling industrialists to share
the property right in an issued patent. No catalogue of such forces would be
complete but it might nonetheless include the cost and uncertainty of patent
litigation, the pressure towards diversification and the risks incident to over-
specialization, and government pressures directed towards the maintenance of
competition. Legislative enactments providing for compulsory licence pro-
ceedings create a climate for voluntary licence agreements. Often the funds
needed for further research can be acquired more readily through royalty
payments than through a policy of pricing the patented product at what
the market will bear under cover of the exclusive right of a patent. A
patentee should always consider licensing as a possible course of action and
should be familiar with the legal consequences.
A study of licensing involves a study of the law of contract.' A
*B.A., 1934, University of Toronto; Member of Ontario and Quebec Bars;
Fellow, Patent and Trade Mark Institute of Canada. Gowling, MacTavish, Osborne
& Henderson, Ottawa, Canada.
I An example of such emphasis is found in the successful formation and develop-
ment of the Licensing Executive Society, an association, as the name implies, of exe-
cutives interested in licensing of patents.
2 In Canada, registered user provisions are defined in § 49 of the Trade Marks
Act, Can. Stat. 1952-53 c. 49. Any registered user agreement or assignment of a trade
mark must not, in its operation, result in a loss of distinctiveness as required by § 18 of
the Trade Marks Act. Cheerio Toys & Games Ltd. v. Dubiner, [1966] Sup. Ct. 206,
48 Can. Pat. R. 226, 32 Fox Pat. Cas. 37 (1965); Wilkinson Sword (Canada) Ltd. v.
Juda, 51 Can. Pat. R. 55, 34 Fox Pat. Cas. 77 (Exch. Ct. 1966).
3 For a consideration of the law of contract as applied to patents see H. TutnER,
SOME NoTEs ON THE LAW OF CONTRACT, 72 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CHARTERED INSTI-
TUTE OF PATENT AGENTS C165 (1953-54).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/ottlr4&div=8&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Patent Licensing: Problems from the Imprecision of the English Language
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most