The Gazette 1995

JULY 1995

GAZETTE

B O O K

R E V I E W S

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and contains selected extracts from the Oireachtas debates which describe the background to each amendment. As the editors, who are both Civil Servants, point out in their Preface, these extracts were chosen "to be either representative or interesting. Sometimes a lone voice made a point not touched upon by other speakers but which seemed to be of interest. On other occasions, brief reference was made to very diverse areas of interest and it seemed necessary to mention these subjects in passing only". Appendices deal with the development of judicial awareness of the Constitution, the 1967 Report of the Committee on the Constitution and a Chronology of significant dates and events. This book will undoubtedly be of value to those interested in Irish history generally and in the Irish Constitution, its history and development in particular. It is a useful reference source for information not readily found j elsewhere. Statistics of the total electorate, total poll, votes for and against etc. show the support for each of the constitutional amendments. Proposed amendments which were not passed are also described. As for the legal practitioner, as previously mentioned, this book does not purport to compete with the established legal texts, nor does it do so. However, the collated text of the Constitution is certainly a useful ; feature. The extracts from the Oireachtas debates provide " a flavour o f the legislative arena from which the constitutional amendments emanated". They provide an understanding of the background to the amendments ! which should be of assistance to practitioners in crafting arguments for future cases.

Gill & Macmi l l an Anno t a t ed Cons t i tut ion of I r e l and With Comme n t a ry

Terrell on the Law of Pa t en ts

Fourteenth Edition, Sweet & Maxwell, Hardback, 1040pp. Stg£148.00.

Edited by J.Anthony Foley and Stephen Lalor. Published by Gill & Macmillan, Dublin 1995, Softback, pp353. £14-99. In his Foreword to this work, Mr. Justice O'Flaherty points out that for any new book to be worthwhile, it must either deal with entirely new subject matter not previously covered, or adopt a new perspective on a subject already established. There have been, of course, over the years, many learned commentaries on the Irish Constitution. This book does not purport to compete with the mainstream legal texts on the subject (there are, for example, very few references to decided cases), nor does it deal with the political background to the drafting of the Constitution. Rather, the specific focus of this commentary is on the development of the Constitution through its various amendments. Since the Constitution was adopted in 1937, there have been thirteen amendments made to it, one in 1939, one in 1941 and all the rest since 1972. The book contains a complete collated text of the Constitution incorporating these amendments. There is a clever method of presentation which shows the original text, the parts of it which have been deleted, and those parts which have been added. It is thus possible at a glance to ascertain what the text of the Constitution was at any given time. This brings the book up to page 160.

The many previous editions of this work indicate that Terrell is regarded by lawyers and patent attorneys alike as the standard text-book on patents. Until the thirteenth edition the work was equally so regarded by Irish practitioners. That edition and the one under review are perhaps of less relevance because of the sweeping changes made by the UK Patents Act, 1977 and latterly by the Irish Patents Act, 1992. The thirteenth edition appeared in 1982 and was the first to deal with the 1977 Act. The thirteenth edition appeared in 1982 and was the first to deal with the 1977 Act. Be f o re then there was little difference in substance between the now repealed UK Patents Act, 1949 and its repealed Irish counterpart, the Patents Act, 1964; apart from the rather innovative Irish provisions of the time on the question of absolute novelty. There are now greater differences between the respective countries' legislation even though in substance both still remain similar. Thus the UK 1977 Act contains elaborate provisions in relation to employees' inventions and the compensation allowable to employees for inventions devised by them but which legally belong to their employers. No such provisions exist in the Irish 1992 Act. Conversely, the Irish legislation allows for the grant of "Short term" patents, i.e., patents granted for ten years duration for inventions without the need on application to satisfy the Patents Office of the novelty of the invention. Short term patent protection is not available under the UK Act.

The Irish Controller's Sixty-Sixth Annual Report for year 1993

The second half of the book goes through the various amending Acts 208

Karl Hayes