Patents Act 1949

49 Special provisions as to Crown use during emergency. U.K.

(1) During any period of emergency within the meaning of this section, the powers exercisable in relation to an invention by a Government department, or a person authorised by a Government department under section forty-six of this Act, shall include power to make, use, exercise and vend the invention for any purpose which appears to the department necessary or expedient—

(a) for the efficient prosecution of any war in which His Majesty may be engaged;

(b) for the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community;

(c) for securing a sufficiency of supplies and services essential to the well-being of the community;

(d) for promoting the productivity of industry, commerce and agriculture;

(e) for fostering and directing exports and reducing imports, or imports of any classes, from all or any countries and for redressing the balance of trade;

(f) generally for ensuring that the whole resources of the community are available for use, and are used, in a manner best calculated to serve the interests of the community; or

(g) for assisting the relief of suffering and the restoration and distribution of essential supplies and services in any part of His Majesty’s dominions or any foreign countries that are in grave distress as the result of war;

and any reference in that section or in section forty-seven or section forty-eight of this Act to the services of the Crown shall be construed as including a reference to the purposes aforesaid.

(2) In this section the expression “period of emergency” means the period ending with the tenth day of December, nineteen hundred and fifty, or such later date as may be prescribed by Order in Council, and any other period beginning on such date as may be declared by Order in Council to be the commencement, and ending on such date as may be so declared to be the termination, of a period of emergency for the purposes of this section.

(3) A draft of any Order in Council under this section shall be laid before Parliament; and the draft shall not be submitted to His Majesty except in pursuance of an Address presented by each House of Parliament praying that the Order be made.