Re N.V. Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken's Patent (No 2)

This matter concerned an appeal to the High Court of Australia from a decision of the Commonwealth Patent Appeal Board regarding a patent application by N.V. Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken. The core dispute revolved around the patentability of an invention relating to a method of producing a semiconductor device, specifically a transistor.

The High Court was required to determine whether the invention, as claimed, was a manner of manufacture within the meaning of section 6 of the Statute of Monopolies, and therefore a valid subject for a patent. This involved considering whether the claimed process was a practical application of scientific principles to produce a physical result, or merely an abstract idea or discovery.

The Court, applying established principles of patent law, found that the invention did not fall within the definition of a manner of manufacture. Windeyer J, delivering the judgment, reasoned that while the invention involved a novel and useful process, it did not constitute a vendible product or an improvement to existing vendible products. The process described was considered to be a mere discovery of a scientific principle, rather than its application in a way that would produce a new or improved article of commerce. The Court distinguished this from inventions that produce a physical substance or an apparatus.

Consequently, the appeal was dismissed, and the decision of the Patent Appeal Board, which had refused to grant the patent, was affirmed.