Action Over Fluid Transmission B EFOR E Mr. Justice Vaisey, in
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the Chancery Division, on January 21, Fluid Flywheels, Ltd., Worton Road,
Isleworth, Middlesex, y draulie Coupling Patents, Ltd., Salisbury House, London Wall, London, EC.2, the Daimler Co., Ltd., Coventry, and the Birmingham Small Arms Co., Ltd., Small Heath. Birmingham, applied for an extension of letters patent granted on May 2, 1930, to Percy Martin and the Daimler Co., Ltd., for an invention for " improvements in or relating to power transmission and variable-speed gearing." The three patents in question expired on May 1, 1946.
The application was opposed by Guy Motors, Ltd., Fallings Park, Wolverhampton.
Mr. G. T. Aldous, for the applicants, said that their case was that owing to the war, Fluid Flywheels, Ltd., as patentee. had suffered loss or damage in the exploitation of the patents. But for the war that type of hydraulic transmission would have become the standard transmission in British motorcars,
just as similar types of fluid transmission had become standard on American cars.
Mr. G. S. W. Marlow, for Guy Motors, Ltd., said the company was opposing the application because it wanted to use the invention. There was not much dispute as to the usefulness of the invention.
Mr. Aldous: "We have granted a licence to the Associated Equipment Co., who manufacture the London buses, and we have offered to grant a licence to Guy Motors, Ltd., on the same terms, but it has been refused."
Mr. Marlow contended that the evidence did not justify an extension, or it should be much less than the six years claimed.
Mr. Aldous said his client was not making any application to the Royal Commission on awards to inventors.
His lordship said he would extend the patents for five years and five months from the date of expiry, and there would be a regrant to Fluid Flywheels, Ltd., for that period.