UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
SCHOOL OF LAW
LIBRARY
HANDBOOK OF PATENT
LAW OF ALL COUNTRIES
W. P. THOMPSON & CO.,
ESTABLISHED 1873.
CHARTERED PATENT AND REGISTERED
AGENTS
FOR PROCURING BRITISH AND FOREIGN PATENTS,
REGISTERING DESIGNS AND TRADE MARKS.
Ifnimtstumal ^OMtnr far ^arxigii anfr
galmtors.
Sole Offices
12, CHURCH STREET, LIVERPOOL.
PRINCIPALS.
W. P. THOMPSON, F.C.S., M.I.Mech.E., F.I.C.P.A.
G. C. DYMOND, M.I.Mech.E., F.I.C.P.A.
H. E. POTTS, M.Sc. (Liverpool), Honours in Chemistry, F.I.C.P.A.
J. V. ARMSTRONG, M.T.I., F.I.C.P.A.
W. H. BEESTON, R.P.A.
HANDBOOK OF PATENT
LAW OF ALL COUNTRIES
W. P. THOMPSON
Fellow of the Chemical Society
Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents
Fellow of the Australian Institute of Patent Agents
Honorary Patent Agent of the Society of Dyers and Colourists
Member of the Patent Law Association, Washington
Head of the International Patent Bureau, Liverpool
and Certified United States
Patent Attorney
EIGHTEENTH EDIT/ON, COMPLETELY REVISED.
LONDON
STEVENS & SONS, LIMITED, 119, CHANCERY LANE
1920
COPYRIGHT
T
PREFACE TO THE EIGHTEENTH
EDITION
THE present edition has been completely revised. It is not
written with the object of enabling every man to be his own
Patent Agent, for it is simply impossible for any one to become
a good Patent Agent without years of training, and without
having special adaptability to the work. Its aim is to act as
a useful guide to patentees, manufacturers, and investors in
patents. It is also written with a view of answering the multi-
tudinous inquiries as to the law of patenting which the author's
firm daily receives in the course of its business.
In former editions, the average fees for procuring Patents at
home and abroad were inserted. These were only very ap-
proximate, as the costs of patents differ widely according to the
complexity of the invention, and from other causes. The
Council of the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents, under the
authority of the Board of Trade, have issued a minimum list
of prices of Patents and Trade Marks for all countries which
their members are governed by.
The great treaty between the belligerents in the late war
contains clauses whereby their citizens can yet patent, in the
other countries parties to that treaty, all inventions patented
in any of those countries since I August, 1913, if applied within
a given period in each country after the signing of the treaty
which took place 10 January, 1920. Several other countries
have given similar advantages, especially Sweden, Norway,
Denmark, Spain and Colonial Dominions of Great Britain.
vi PREFACE
I am indebted to many of my firm's agents for so kindly
revising the parts relating to their respective countries.
That the book may be worthy of the kind favour which the
previous editions so amply received, and be a genuine assist-
ance to Patent Agents, Inventors, Manufacturers, and Patent
Investors generally, is the earnest wish of the Author.
12, CHURCH STREET,
LIVERPOOL.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE v
BRITISH PATENT LAW z
WHO CAN PATENT i
JOINT INVENTION 3
WHAT CAN BE PATENTED ........ 4
WHAT INVENTIONS ARE MOST PROFITABLE .... 5
RIGHTS CONFERRED BY PATENTS 6
PATENT AGENTS 7
PROCEDURE FOR OBTAINING A BRITISH PATENT . . 8
PROVISIONAL PROTECTION 9
FIRST EXAMINATION . n
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION 12
SECOND EXAMINATION I3
ADVERTISING '. I4
OPPOSITION I5
PATENTS OF ADDITION I7
WORKING AND ABUSE OF MONOPOLY I7
SUBSEQUENT TAXES Ig
PROLONGATIONS 20
DISCLAIMERS AND AMENDMENTS 20
PRINTED COPIES 22
COMPULSORY LICENSES 22
RIGHTS OF THE CROWN 22
INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION . . . . ... .22
NOVELTY 23
EXHIBITIONS, UTILITY, PENALTIES 25
SEARCHING 26
REVOCATIONS 27
INFRINGEMENTS 29
LEGAL PROCEEDINGS 3o
LICENSES AND ASSIGNMENTS 32
HOW TO SELL A PATENT .
33
INVESTING IN PATENTS 34
DESIGN REGISTRATION . . 36
PATENT MEDICINES 40
REGISTRATION OF TRADE MARKS .40
WHAT CAN BE REGISTERED 4I
PART "A" AND PART "B" MARKS 42
EFFECT OF REGISTRATION 45
AMENDMENT OF REGISTER, SEARCHES 46
CLASSES OF TRADE MARKS 47
PENALTIES 50
FOREIGN REGISTRATION OF TRADE MARKS . . . .51
COPYRIGHT 53
FOREIGN PATENT LAWS ALPHABETICALLY UNDER THE HEAD-
ING OF EACH COUNTRY 55
vii
Previous Editions
Entered according to Act of Congress,
in the years 1889, 1892 &• 1895 respectively, by
W. PHILLIPS THOMPSON,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington ;
Also Copyright in part, 1878, 1880, 1883, <S- 1886.
Part of the matter also entered at Stationers' Hall, in 1874,
1878, 1883, 1886, 1889, 1892, 1895, 1898, 1904, & 1908
as " Handbook of Patent Law," and " Handbook of Patent
Law of all Countries."
A I' rights reserved.
HANDBOOK OF PATENT LAW
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
(Patent and Design Acts 1907 and 1919.)
(Trade Mark Act, 1919.)
Population, 45,600,000.
KINDS OF PROTECTION.
There are four species of industrial protection : —
1. Patents of invention for sixteen years,* and Patents for
additions to and improvements on inventions covered by
prior patents and to expire with them.
2. Registration of ornamental designs for five years, renew-
able for five and possibly five further years.
3. Registration of trade marks for fourteen years, renewable
again and again, for fourteen years, and " Patent Medi-
cines."
4. Copyright of books, music, &c.
PATENTS OF INVENTION.
A Patent, or exclusive privilege, to an inventor for a limited
period is, in reality, a contract between the Crown, on behalf
of the nation at large, and the inventor. The latter gives to
the public what it did not possess before — the full details of a
new invention ; the Crown, in return, gives the inventor the
exclusive right, subject to certain conditions, of working that
invention for a limited period, at the end of which time the full
benefit of the discovery passes to the public.
WHO CAN PATENT.
Any person or persons, native or foreign, adult or minor (not
at the time an alien enemy), provided that he, or they, or one of
* Till 1920 they were only granted for fourteen years, but all those re-
maining in force are extended to sixteen years without any payment or
condition, except that patents normally expiring before Jan. i, 1920, are
endorsed " License of right." Existing licenses on these patents can, if
desired by the holders thereof, be extended to the end of the additional
grant of two years, but endorsed " License of right." For meaning of these
words see page 18. Annual taxes are payable on the two years' extension.
I
2 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
them be the true and first inventor or inventors, or the importer
or importers of the invention from abroad, or the executor or
administrator (by appointment of a British court) of the de-
ceased inventor, or the assignee of an invention patented abroad,
can make application for a patent. A pending application of a
deceased inventor can be granted to his executor or administrator
within one year of the said inventor's death.
A patent may be applied for by one or more inventors, con-
jointly with applicants who are not inventors, and in this way
a capitalist or other person assisting the inventor, or purchasing
an interest in it, before the application — or even a body corporate,
such as a limited company — can secure an interest in it. As
a rule it is undesirable to make a body corporate one of the
applicants, as it is not quite certain whether in such case every
member of the said body has not an independent right to use
the invention. If, however, a patent be assigned or licensed
to a body corporate, the individual members thereof have no
separate right.
Now, the question arises, What does the word " inventor "
mean ? In the time of James I, when the Statute of Monopolies
was passed, the generally accepted meaning of the word " in-
ventor " was the man who first becomes possessed of an invention
in the realm, either by discovering it himself, or by importing
the discovery of another ; and most of the earlier patents were
for imported inventions. The word is derived primarily, as
is well-known, from the Latin in venire, to come in, and the courts,
ever since the time of James I, have construed the word " in-
ventor " to mean the individual in the realm to whom the
invention has first come, whether by importation or dis-
covery.
In old times it was held unconstitutional for the king to grant
a monopoly to a foreigner resident abroad. The Statute of
Monopolies made all monopolies illegal except those granted
to the true and first inventor thereof, for a new invention in
the realm, which " others " (that is, others in the United Kingdom)
did not, at the time of grant, use. Monopolies to foreigners
abroad were already considered illegal. Hence for many years
all foreign inventions were patented in this country as communi-
cations to Patent Agents in the country, who thus became the
true and first " inventors " or importers as trustees for the
real owners and discoverers. Latterly, inventors abroad have
taken out patents in their own names, and the office freely
grants such, and so far their legality has not been questioned.
For the above, and for other reasons, however, it is somewhat
safer and better for foreigners residing abroad to apply for
patents through a resident in this country as communications.
An exception to this is made expressly when the inventor is
a citizen of or resident in one of the countries forming the Union
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 3
for the Protection of Industrial Property (see page 22), and the
patent is applied for within twelve months of the date of the
earliest foreign patent for the same invention and under the rules
of the Convention. It must then be taken out in the name
of the foreign patentee or his assignee.
Where a patent has been applied for by a resident in this
country as a communication from a foreigner resident abroad,
and that patent is afterwards assigned to the foreigner (or even
a body corporate with his consent), there is no doubt that the
latter can legally hold such patent, and carry on actions for
infringement thereof, unless he be an alien enemy.
JOINT INVENTION.
When an invention is the joint production of two minds, it
should be patented in their joint names ; for should it be proved
that the patentee obtained from another individual a material
part of the invention, the patent will be invalid.
Should, however, an inventor employ another individual
to perform experiments with a view to making a specific discovery,
the discovery so made is, in the eye of the law, made by the em-
ployer, and can be patented by him without using the name of
the aforesaid employee, the latter being looked upon as merely
an instrument employed by the inventor.
An employer has no right or title to the inventions of his
employees, except such as those mentioned in the previous
paragraph, where the employee has been employed purposely
to work out the details of a general idea unfolded to him by his
employer. Even should there be a special agreement between
master and servant, that all inventions of the latter made during
the period of service shall become the property of the former,
the patents securing said inventions must be applied for in the
name of the employee, alone or conjointly with that of the
employer, but can be afterwards assigned to the employer.
Two or more individuals obtaining a patent in their joint
names, or joint owners in a patent without a special agreement,
are not partners, but each has an equal and co-extensive right to
work the patent to his own individual advantage, or to sell or
bequeath his entire share, but not a part thereof. He cannot
license others, and neither patentee is responsible for the liabilities
of the other, but all owners have a joint interest in all royalties
received by any one of them. It is very desirable, in all cases
of dual ownership, that there should be a definite written agree-
ment between the parties from the start.
A patent can be seized by a sheriff, and in case of bankruptcy
of owner it forms part of the estate, and can be sold for the benefit
of the creditors.
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
WHAT CAN BE PATENTED.
Any new art, manufacture, or composition of matter, new
combination of two or more known things producing an ad-
vantageous result, or any new chemical or other process, or
improvement on existing processes or manufactures, can be
patented.
" In the case of inventions relating to substances prepared
or produced by chemical processes, or intended for food or medi-
cine, the specification must not include claims for the substance
itself, except when prepared or produced by the special methods
or processes of manufacture described and claimed or by their
obvious chemical equivalents ; provided that, in an action for
infringement of a patent where the invention relates to the pro-
duction of a new substance, any substance of the same chemical
composition and constitution is, in the absence of proof to the
contrary, deemed to have been produced by the patented process.
" In the case of any patent for an invention intended for,
or capable of, being used for the preparation or production of
food or medicine, the Comptroller can, unless he see good reason
to the contrary, grant to any person applying for the same, a
license limited to the use of the invention for the purposes of
the preparation or production of food or medicine, but not
otherwise ; and in settling the terms of such license and fixing
the amount of royalty or other consideration payable, the Comp-
troller is obliged by law to have regard to the desirability of
making the food or medicine available to the public at the
lowest possible price consistent with giving to the inventor due
reward for the research leading to the invention.
" Any decision of the Comptroller under this subsection is
subject to appeal to the court."
These, the words of the law, apply only to patents applied
for after January I, 1920.
If, in the opinion of the Comptroller of the Patent Office, an
application cover more than one invention, the grant is refused,
subject to an appeal to the Law Officer ; but the applicant has
the option of a patent for one of the inventions set forth in his
specification on the original application, and of making a fresh
application or applications for the others. These, if he desire
it, and if they be made within the requisite time allowed, are
dated as of the day of the original application, or, under excep-
tional circumstances, such later date as the Comptroller may
direct.
Following the decisions of the Law Officers, the unwritten
rule adopted by the examiners appears to be as follows : — Any
two or more distinct and very novel or " pioneer " inventions,
dependent for their successful operation upon each other, and
tending together to produce a new result, can be covered by one
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 5
application, as a combination (if not independent parts of some
well-known type of machine or process, as for instance the piston
and fly-wheel of an engine) and can even be claimed separately
under the same patent for the purposes described ; also two or
more ways of accomplishing the same result, if they have ap-
parently novel points in common, can be covered by one applica-
tion, but the office has been much stricter of late, and the practice
of the various examiners differs considerably on this matter.
A patent once granted cannot be objected to at law, on the
ground of its covering more than one invention.
A new application of a known thing or process can be patented,
provided it be not analogous to any known application thereof.
The new combination of two known means to effect an im-
proved result can be patented. Thus, the hot blast and anthra-
cite had both been used separately in the smelting of iron ;
yet a patent for using the hot blast in combination with anthra-
cite was decided to be valid, the combination producing great
industrial advantage.
A patent specification may refer to subject-matter of another
prior valid unexpired patent, but the patentee cannot of course
work the previous patent without a license from the owner
thereof. This license, however, he can generally obtain from
the patentee, or (should the latter be unwilling to grant it other-
wise) by petition to the Board of Trade and a court, as hereafter
explained under the head " Working, etc.," page 17.
WHAT INVENTIONS ARE MOST PROFITABLE.
Patents for improvements in the manufacture of machines,
small objects, or processes in common use, are usually much
more profitable than those for steam-engines, blast furnaces,
ships, or other large and costly structures. Bessemer, who made
more than a million sterling out of his steel-making patents, is
a comparatively rare exception to this rule.
In an official report of a chief examiner of the United States
Patent Office appears the following : — "A patent, if it is worth
anything, when properly managed, is worth, and can easily be
sold for, from ten to fifty thousand dollars. These remarks
only apply to patents of minor or ordinary value. They do not
include such as the telegraph, the planing machine, and the
rubber patents, which were worth millions of dollars each. A
few cases of the first kind will better illustrate my meaning.
" A man obtained a patent for a slight improvement in straw-
cutters, took a model of his invention through the Western
States, and, after a tour of eight months, returned with forty
thousand dollars (£8,000) in cash, or its equivalent.
" Another inventor obtained extension of a patent for a
machine to thrash and clean grain, and sold it in about fifteen
6 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
months for sixty thousand dollars (£12,000). A third obtained
a patent for printers' ink, and refused fifty thousand dollars
(£10,000), and finally sold it for about sixty thousand dollars
(£12,000).
" These are ordinary cases of minor inventions, involving,
no very considerable inventive powers, and of which hundreds
go out to the Patent Office every year. Experience shows that
the most profitable patents are those which contain very little
invention, and are often, to a superficial observer, of little value."
Another species of patent, almost always highly profitable,
is that of small improvements on existing processes in the arts.
Almost all the principal manufacturing firms that have risen
and become eminent during the last fifty years date their pros-
perity from some occasion, when, making an improvement
upon the then existing methods of manufacture (frequently
only in some insignificant detail), they obtained for a time
almost a monopoly of the trade. Thus a firm in Birmingham
are believed to have made some millions sterling out of their
patent for making screws pointed, so that they may enter the
wood more easily.
A firm of London candle manufacturers took out a patent
for making the lower ends of candles taper, instead of parallel, so
as to more easily fit the sockets, and to this small improvement,
" which any fool might have invented," but did not, a large part
of their present enormous business is owing.
The patent for making umbrellas out of alpaca instead of
gingham realised a princely fortune for its inventor, while the
simple patented idea of heating the blast in iron smelting has
certainly increased the wealth of this country by hundreds of
millions.
In most cases where men have risen to eminence through
inventions, they did not stop at a single patent, but kept on
improving, and buying also the improvements of their workpeople
and others. Howe, the inventor of the sewing-machine, was an
exception. He made a large fortune out of that one invention,
and left improvements on it to others. One firm among his
licensees, Wheeler and Wilson, by taking out fresh patents,
and working them, are said to have made more than one million
dollars (£200,000) a year net profits, during the continuance
of Howe's patent, after paying the owner of said patent his
magnificent royalties.
RIGHTS CONFERRED BY PATENTS.
A valid patent gives its owner the sole right, for sixteen years
(subject to his paying the taxes at the end of the fourth and
subsequent years), of making, using, selling (or importing)
the article or process patented, in the United Kingdom of Great
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 7
Britain, Ireland, and the Isle of Man, and on the adjacent seas,
but not in ships of those countries or colonies that grant similar
exemption to British shipping in their waters. This sole right is,
however, subject to the exceptions set forth in the articles
" Working, etc.," page 17, and " Revocation of Patents,"
page 27.
The period of sixteen years can sometimes be prolonged
(see page 20). Most existing patents have been granted for
only fourteen years, but the Act of 1919 extends them to sixteen.
It is an infringement of the patentee's rights to manufacture
for one's personal household use.
PATENT AGENTS.
The Government does not guarantee anything in the patent,
but simply gives the patentee a right to the exclusive use of his
invention, subject to certain limitations, and so long as nothing
against the validity of his patent shall be proved. It is a common
mistake to suppose that " a patent is a patent," and that so long
as an inventor has his letters patent he has a good and sufficient
title-deed. It is, indeed, an undoubted fact that a vast number
of the patents at present existing will not " hold water " (generally
through defective drawing up, or from want of novelty). This
is owing in a great part to the employment of " cheap agents,"
and inventors doing their own patenting. Nothing, indeed,
in the whole range of law requires such varied skill to draw up as
the final specifications of patents. With other law documents
there are books of precedents to keep one straight. This is not
and cannot be the case with patent specifications, and without
great care and skill and scientific knowledge on the part of the
man who draws these up, they are almost certain to be valueless.
It is for this reason that solicitors usually decline to take out
patents, but refer their clients to men whose special business
and training qualify them to draw up these documents.
Patents are frequently upset when attacked because it is
the bad patents that are attacked.
So great had this evil of incompetent practitioners become,
that in 1888 an Act was passed allowing no fresh individuals
to advertise themselves as " Patent Agents " without first
passing an examination. This has been very beneficial, but the
first effect of the Act was the registration of a large number of
inexperienced men anxious to come in without examination.
Unfortunately, the Act of 1888 did not forbid unauthorised
persons from practising, and large numbers took advantage of
this flaw. All these (unless at some time guilty of misconduct),
by the law of 1919, can be registered within a given time. It is
an offence (£20 penalty) for a non-registered person now to
practise. Nearly all Patent Agents of any standing are members
8 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
of the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents, and are known as
Chartered Patent Agents, and the Chartered Institute has now
the control of the register, and can bring actions to have agents
removed from the register 'on showing very good cause.
No single individual, however learned, can have an accurate
theoretical acquaintance with every branch of industry or science,
or what has been already patented therein, let alone the special
knowledge of patent law and practice required in a Patent
Agent. To meet this difficulty, the larger firms of Chartered
Patent Agents have several scientific heads of departments.
One takes the chemical patents, another the general mechanical,
a third the electrical, a fourth the textile, while a fifth may devote
himself to trade marks and designs, and so on.
PROCEDURE FOR OBTAINING A BRITISH PATENT.
An invention can be provisionally protected for nine months,
and this provisional protection can be changed at any time
during said nine months into a complete patent for sixteen
years (subject to forfeiture in case of non-payment of certain
stamp duties. See page 19). An invention can also be protected
by a complete application at the outset, instead of by a pro-
visional one, in which case no provisional application is required.
The specification in a provisional application merely describes
the nature of an invention, without giving it in ah1 its minute
details, or making any distinct claim. Nothing however can
be claimed in the complete specification not foreshadowed in
the provisional. A complete specification must, as its name
implies, fully describe the invention, and must clearly and dis-
tinctly point out exactly what parts are new and claimed as
the actual invention protected, and is a document requiring
the highest skill and long experience to draw up efficiently.
The following are the respective advantages of filing a pro-
visional or a complete application : —
PROVISIONAL. COMPLETE.
The invention may, from the After the acceptance of the
date of application, be used and complete application, and until the
published without prejudice or date of sealing the patent, or the
injury to the patent when granted, expiration of the time for sealing,
but the inventor cannot prosecute the applicant has the like privileges
infringers till he obtains his patent, and rights as if a patent for the
nor can he even then obtain damages invention had been sealed to him
for infringements made previous to on the date of acceptance of his
the acceptance of his complete application, except that he cannot
specification. prosecute infringers until the actual
He can even make fresh pro- patent is granted to him. He can
visional applications for cognate then claim damages for all infringe-
inventions or improvements to be ments subsequent to the date of
completed in the same complete the acceptance of his complete
specification without extra fees specification.
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
when completing, but in such cases
the claims for the fresh matter are
considered as operative only as
from the date of the provisional
specification on which they are
based.
The description of the invention
is kept secret until the acceptance
of the complete specification, and
should, from any cause, that speci-
fication be not accepted, it is not
published at all, and the applicant
can make a second application
at any time afterwards, if in the
meantime the invention be not
published.
Abundant time is left, after
protecting in England, for filing
foreign patent applications, and
for the inventor to get (by applying
for a patent in Germany or the
United States) the very exhaustive
report of the examiners of those
countries respectively on the novel-
ty of the invention (a very useful
document), before deciding what
claims to make in the complete
British specification.
This mode of procedure costs a
little more for the complete patent
than the other, but only the small
costs of provisional protection need
be paid when making the applica-
tion, and the remainder when filing
the complete specification.
During the provisional stage the
inventor can file fresh provisional
specifications for cognate inventions
on the same subject, and complete
both in a single complete specifi-
cation.
The claims in the complete speci-
fication cannot be added to after
acceptance, though they may be
curtailed or palpable clerical errors
corrected, and in some cases ex-
planations made. These altera-
tions entail extra expense.
The specification is printed and
published shortly after the applica-
tion has been accepted (unless the
applicant specially petitions to the
contrary), and owners of prior
pro visional protections still running,
seeing the invention, can draw
their claims wider to cover it,
and thus rob the later inventor.
Patents for several foreign coun-
tries, in order to be valid, must be
applied for before the publication
of a complete specification in
England.
The complete specification is
usually at once examined as to
novelty, and there is no hurry or
chance of loss of date in getting the
lis is the greatest
advantage of all.
case accepted. This is the greatest
A slight saving may be effected
by this method of application, but
the entire cost of the patent, with
the exception of the final fee, has
to be paid at once.
It is much more difficult and
expensive to get a cognate invention
engrafted into the complete speci-
fication, and possible only then if
the complete has not yet been
" accepted."
PROVISIONAL PROTECTION.
An inventor or inventors, or the legal representatives of a
recently deceased inventor, with or without other individuals
joining him or them in the application, can obtain provisional
protection by application, prepared in due form, deposited at
the Patent Office. Skill and experience are required to properly
draw up the specification, and inventors, as a rule, will find it
best to employ an experienced Patent Agent for this purpose.
While the law of 1852 was in force we recommended all in-
ventors to have a search made as to novelty before protecting.
Now, however, since protection can be obtained so cheaply,
and the Government make a search when the complete applica-
tion is filed, when any non-novel claims can be cut out or amended,
io GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
and as under the present law disclaiming (as will be afterwards
described) has become almost a matter of right, instead of favour,
it will usually be found the wiser plan to obtain immediate
protection where there is a reasonable ground for believing the
invention to be valuable and new. During the nine months that
next ensue (or ten months with a small fine) the inventor can
freely work, sell, and show his invention without injury to his
rights, provided he, during the period allowed, files a complete
specification, and he will have ample opportunity of, finding
out whether his invention be new, or to what extent it is old,
especially if he introduce it to the trade at large, or apply for
a United States or German patent, in which case the Govern-
ment of that country will make a search as to the novelty of
the invention and furnish a full report.*
The patent dates from the day when correct papers (see
below) are deposited in the Patent Office, or, if correctly addressed
and officially posted to it, from the hour when such papers should
in the ordinary course of post have been delivered, even though,
through some accident, the parcel be delayed or lost in
transmission.
Under provisional protection the inventor cannot sue infringers
until his patent be sealed, when he can obtain damages for all
infringements made after the acceptance of his complete speci-
fication. The industrial use or sale without license of a patented
machine after completion of the patent, though the machine
or article was made before the acceptance of the complete speci-
fication, is an infringement of the patent. A patent for the in-
vention applied for and completed by another party during
the provisional protection does not prejudice the patent after-
wards obtained on such provisional protection, except when such
patent has secured a prior date under the Union for the Protection
of Industrial Property (see" International Protection," page 22).
If, while the invention is provisionally protected, the applicant
makes an improvement thereon, he can take out a second pro-
visional protection for it, and combine both provisional in one
complete specification. The claim for the new matter will
date as regards priority from the date of first filing a description
of it at the Patent Office. If new matter not in any provisional
be otherwise inserted in the complete specification the Comptroller
can require its elimination or the date of the patent to be altered
to that of the filing of the complete specification, or he can grant
a patent for the matter found in both the provisional and com-
plete specification and allow the applicant to file a second ap-
plication for the extra matter to be dated as of the date of
the original complete application.
* The British Patent Office search is very good as far as it goes, but it
only extends to the British patent specifications filed within the last
past fifty years.
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
FIRST EXAMINATION.
Each application, as soon as practicable after filing, is referred
to an examiner, who ascertains and reports to the Comp-
troller, (ist) whether the nature of the invention has been, in
his opinion, fairly described ; (2nd) whether the application,
specification, and drawings, if any, have been prepared in the
prescribed manner ; (3rd) whether the title sufficiently indicates
the subject-matter of the invention, and (4th) whether there
be more than one invention set forth in the application. If the
examiner reports against the application on any of these enumer-
ated points, the Comptroller may require the application, speci-
fication, or drawings to be amended before he proceeds with the
application, and, if the case be very imperfect or informal, has
power to only grant protection from the date when the required
corrections have been made. The Comptroller does not, however,
exert this power except in extreme cases.
The applicant may appeal against the Comptroller's decision
to the Law Officers of the Crown.
If an appeal be made, the Solicitor-General hears the applicant
or his agent and the Comptroller, and decides whether the
application should be allowed, and upon what terms.
The examiners are nearly always experts in their departments,
and very able and courteous gentlemen, ably seconding the
Comptroller in his determination to make the examination
system the striking success which it has become. Towards the
end of the war, however, many of the best examiners were taken
away to assist other departments of the Government, and the
Patent Office has suffered in consequence, but is gradually
getting straight again.
The power of ordering amendment might be open to serious
abuse. There have, indeed, been cases where alterations made
at the instance of examiners have increased the scope of the
original invention possibly to the detriment of the subsequent
applicants. These alterations are kept secret, and only the
specification as actually amended is published. The law needs
a radical alteration here, as it opens a door for fraud, which under
the old regime was taken advantage of by unscrupulous patentees.
All that men can do is done by the present examiners to prevent
abuse, but the only safe rule (in force in nearly all other countries)
is that a document once filed can never be altered, but that its
contents can be qualified by a second document, dated as of
the day it is filed, stating the amendments demanded or made.
The published specification should be printed with these altera-
tions shown, or, as in America and other countries, the original
papers be open to inspection by the public. Where, indeed,
amendments or disclaimers are made after the sealing of the
patent, this rule is usually carried out in England.
12 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
If the application be considered in order, it is allowed to
date from the day of application (except in the cases above
mentioned and somewhat similar ones hereafter mentioned
in connection with the second examination), the applicant is
notified, and the provisional specification is kept secret till the
acceptance of the complete specification. •
The provisional application being allowed, the next step in
obtaining a patent consists in depositing —
A COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
This must be filed within the nine months of provisional
protection — or the month following on payment of a fine — or
the application is held to be abandoned and void.
But, if desired, the complete specification, with (if necessary)
drawings and specifying the features of the process or apparatus
claimed as novel, can be lodged in the first instance instead of a
provisional one.
The complete specification, whether in pursuance of a pro-
visional application or not, must describe the invention fully
and in detail, and the best mode known to the inventor of carry-
ing it out, and the invention claimed must be accurately and
particularly defined. If drawings be useful or desirable for the
better understanding, they must be furnished, drawn in an artistic
manner, in accordance with the rules.
The specification must also clearly distinguish and point out
exactly what is new and what is old in the invention ; and should
anything claimed as new be proved hereafter to have been
known, or be entirely useless, or in public use in the realm
previous to the application (except when surreptitiously obtained
from the inventor or merely exhibited in an international
exhibition as hereinafter set forth), the claim can be declared
void. (There is an expensive remedy for this, however, as will
be afterwards explained under the head " Disclaimers," page 20.)
An invention must be fully and unreservedly explained in
the specification, without concealing any part, and so that any
competent workman, conversant with the branch of manufacture
to which it is nearly related, could work the invention without
any other instructions than those the specification affords ;
otherwise the patent wiU not be valid.
Any deceit in the specification invalidates the patent (as, for
instance, if an ingredient be mentioned as forming an essential
part of a compound, which ingredient, however, the inventor
knew was of no manner of use in it). Similarly, if it be found
that the inventor concealed any part of his invention, or set
forth an inferior mode of working, knowing of a superior one,
his patent is void on the ground of bad faith.
In the case of communications from abroad, however, no
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 13
evidence of deceit or fraud on the part of the communicator
can invalidate the patent. But if it be proved that the person
to whom the invention is communicated and who takes out the
patent had made a concealment of this nature, or has obtained
the invention by fraud, the patent can be upset at law.
Patents taken out under the convention (see page 22) are dated
as of the date of the foreign patent, and one year after this date
the applications are made public whether allowed or not.
SECOND EXAMINATION.
Where a complete specification has been lodged after a pro-
visional, it is referred to an official, who examines it to see
if the invention claimed in the complete is the same as
that set forth in the provisional specification (or specifica-
tions, if there be more than one). All complete specifications
are examined to see whether they have been described in whole
or in part in any prior British specification published during
the immediately preceding fifty years. To assist the examiner
in this matter, the Comptroller may require the applicant to
supply samples in the case of chemical inventions. If the
invention be found to be novel at the date of the application,
clearly described and claimed, and the claims all based on the
provisional specification (or specifications) being completed, and
the documents explicit and in accordance with the rules, and
not embracing more than one invention, the specification is
accepted unless the applicant has unreasonably delayed. If,
however, the invention be anticipated in whole or in part, or
otherwise objectionable, the applicant has the option of : —
1. Amending the specification, in which case it is again ex-
amined, and possible again objected to by the examiner, and so
on for several times, or
2. Inserting a reference to such prior specification in his own,
or
3. Appealing against the examiner's decision, or
4. If there be more than one invention, confining the specifi-
cation and claims to one invention, with the option of putting
in a further application or applications for the matter struck
out to bear the date of the original application or the date on
which the fresh application or applications are filed, as pre-
ferred ; but the protection only dates from the date so chosen.
The official examination is not an absolutely complete one,
as it is only British patents of the previous fifty years that are
examined, and not, as in Germany and the United States, foreign
patent specifications and books also, which, if they contain
the i nvention and are open to public inspection here, are equally
fatal to the validity of an English patent.
If the examiner be not satisfied, the Comptroller hears the
14 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
applicant if the latter desire it, and then determines whether
a reference to any, and if so, what, prior patents ought to be
made in the specification by way of notice to the public. If the
examination shows that the invention is completely forestalled
by a single prior patent, the Comptroller can refuse the patent
if he thinks fit, subject to appeal to the Solicitor-General.
It is extremely rare for the Comptroller to exercise this dis-
cretionary power.
If the examiner decides that the complete specification goes
beyond the provisional one (or ones) in claiming new matter,
such new matter can still be made the subject of fresh application
as of the date when the complete specification was filed ; or the
Comptroller, with the applicant's consent, can cancel the pro-
visional specification, and treat and date the case as applied
for on the day when the complete specification was filed.
It is no part of the examiner's duty to examine into the validity
of the specification or the novelty of the invention, otherwise
than as regards the immediately preceding fifty years of British
complete patent specifications, but to pass the application for
hitherto unpatented matter common to both provisional and
complete.
Should considerable delay have been caused by amendments,
the Comptroller may at his discretion seal the patent with a
later date than that of application.
If the complete specification be not accepted within eighteen
months from the date of the application (unless delayed by appeal
to the Law Officer) protection ceases, and the invention becomes
public property. The Comptroller is, however, allowed at his
discretion to, and always does when so required, extend the
time one, two or three months on payment of fines.
HEARING AN OBJECTION.
As official citation on the actual printed specification of one
or more patents as anticipations is very injurious to the value
of a patent, it is very desirable that all prior specifications brought
forward by the examiner should be carefully considered and
argued and got rid of, or the specification amended.
An appeal can be made from the decision of the Comptroller
to the Solicitor-General.
ADVERTISING.
When the complete specification is accepted by the Comp-
troller, it is (unless delayed on petition to not exceeding eighteen
months from date of application or twenty-one months with a
fine) immediately advertised as open to public inspection, and any
one can examine it at the Patent Office, or obtain a copy of it
on paying the cost of transcribing.
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 15
It is also put in the hands of the King's printers and printed
in due course, usually about three weeks after acceptance.
Copies can then be purchased by the public at low rates.
OPPOSITION.
During the ensuing two months after acceptance of the com-
plete specification and practically for two years from the date
of application even after sealing, any person is at liberty to
oppose the grant of the patent, or apply for the revocation of
the patent if already granted, on the ground that the applicant
has obtained the invention from him, or from some one of whom
he is the legal representative, or that it has been the subject
of one or more prior patents, dated not more than fifty years
prior to the date of the application being opposed, or has been
published in the United Kingdom prior to the application by any
document available to the public, or that the invention has
already been claimed in another complete specification which was
not published at the date of application for the patent on the
said invention the grant of which is opposed, but which was
filed at an earlier date and which consequently will be of prior
date when granted, or that it includes an invention not set forth
in the provisional specification for which the opponent has since
the filing of the provisional specification applied for a patent,
or on the ground that the invention or its mode of action is not
sufficiently or fairly described in the complete specification,
or that the invention is claimed in a specification which, though
filed after the date of the application opposed, will when granted,
by reason of the convention, take a date earlier than such ap-
plication. A patent specification using words untrue or in-
jurious to another is held to be " unfairly described." If an
opposition be entered, the matter is adjudicated upon by the
Comptroller of Patents, but the parties have the right of appeal
to the Attorney- or Solicitor-General hi the case of an unsealed
application, or to a court if the patent be sealed already. If
the opposer or appellant have no domicile or place of business
in the realm, he may be required to give security for costs or
be non-suited
If the points in dispute involve technicalities beyond the
knowledge of the Law Officer, the latter is allowed to call in a
man eminent in the line of business to which the invention
relates to assist him as assessor. This, however, he very rarely
does. The Comptroller and Law Officer can make either
party pay a part or all of the other's costs, as they may think
just. The costs under the Comptroller depend on the amount
incurred and are assessed by him. Usually the Law Officer
allowed, under the old law, from three to ten guineas, but it is
expected these costs will now be raised, as they were much too low.
16 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
In these oppositions it is not necessary to employ a barrister,
and, indeed, with few exceptions (i.e. where counsel makes a
speciality of patent work), a good patent agent makes at these
hearings a better advocate than a barrister.
In oppositions the person who first makes an application for
the patent is held, in default of conclusive evidence to the contrary,
to be the first inventor, and, though the same matter may be
covered by both patents, unless the earlier applicant be proved
to have taken it from the other, he is adjudged sole owner of
the new matter common to both patents (if claimed by him),
and the second cannot use it without the first's permission.
Two or more inventors effecting the same result, but by
different means, can each obtain a valid patent for his mode of
procedure, provided said modes are substantially different.
A patent granted to the true and first inventor is not invali-
dated by a prior application made in fraud of him, nor by any
sale, publication, or working of the invention made subsequent
to the fraudulent application, and during the period of provisional
Erotection ; and where a patent has been revoked or cancelled
y order of the court on the ground of fraud, the Comptroller
of Patents or the court may, on the application of the true
inventor made in due form, grant the true inventor a patent
in lieu of and bearing the date of the fraudulent patent ; but
the new patent will be only issued for the remainder of the
term for which the revoked patent was granted.
This clause is construed not to apply to inventors resident
abroad taking out patents as communications. In a case
where A. in New York had invented a machine in 1886, and in
1887 B. entered his employ, saw the machine, and forwarded the
particulars to C., a British Patent Agent, who took it out as a
communication from B., the day before D., another Patent Agent,
applied for it as a communicant from A., it was decided that
as A. and D. could not prove that C. (the agent) had obtained the
invention dishonestly, the latter was the " true inventor " and
the fraud committed by B., the communicator abroad, was
immaterial to the case.
Also in a case where B., a person abroad, was shown to have
stolen the invention from a subsequent applicant, also resident
abroad, the officials allowed the patent to the first applicant (B)
on the ground that they cannot take cognizance of a fraud
committed outside the realm. The courts, however, possibly
may grant justice in these cases, but no such case as yet been
tried.
An application being allowed is immediately published, and is
open to opposition for two months.
Since the year 1915, patent applications receive a serial
number, such as No. 1234/1920, but directly they become
accepted they receive a second number comprising six figures,
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 17
such as No. 123,456, under which number the patent is to be
subsequently known.
SEALING.
If no opposition be entered, or the case be decided in favour
of the applicant, the patent is passed for sealing with the Seal
of the Patent Office, and if sealed, is dated as of the day of the
original application, except under special circumstances men-
tioned under the heads First and Second Examination. The
patent is granted for sixteen years from its date. Patents
granted for fourteen years, and which had not expired on January
T, 1920, are by the new law extended to sixteen years, but if
expiring before January 10, 1920, shall for the extension be
endorsed " license of right " (see " Working, etc.," below).
It will not be sealed, however, except on formal application
and payment of the sealing fee, within the period allowed.
Where, however, the sealing is delayed by an appeal to the
Law Officer, or by opposition to the grant of the patent, the
patent may be sealed at such time as the Law Officer may direct,
otherwise it must be sealed within eighteen months of the date
of application (or twenty-four months where the time for filing or
accepting the final specification has been officially extended) ;
after this it cannot be sealed except under special circumstances
when by payment of fines an additional term up to three
months can be obtained. If the person making the application
dies before the expiration of eighteen months from the date
of application, then the patent may be granted to his
legal representatives, and sealed at any time within twelve
months after the date of his death.
PATENTS OF ADDITION.
Inventions for improvements on a then existing patent by
the same applicant can be obtained, to expire with the original
patent.
On these patents no renewal taxes are payable at the end of
the fourth and subsequent years. A patent of addition once
granted cannot be upset on the ground that it ought only to
have been granted as an original patent.
" WORKING " AND " ABUSE OF MONOPOLY RIGHTS."
Any person interested may bring application in the form of
a complaint to the Comptroller either : —
r. That a patent, after the expiration of four years from its
date, being for an invention capable of being worked in the
United Kingdom, is not being so worked on a manufacturing
scale, or
i8 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
2. Is being prevented from being so worked through the im-
portation of the patented article by the patentee or persons against
whom the patentee has not taken proceedings for infringement, or
3. That the demand for the patented article in the United
Kingdom is not met on reasonable terms, or
4. If by reason of the patentee refusing to grant licenses,
trade is prejudiced, and that it is to the public interest that a
license or licenses should be granted, or
5. That the conditions under which alone the patentee will
grant licenses are unfair.
The Comptroller on hearing the parties and being convinced
that there has been an abuse of monopoly rights may order
the patent to be endorsed " license of right," whereupon : —
(a) Any person shall at any time hereafter be entitled to a
license on equitable terms for all parties, to be settled by the
Comptroller, but to include the terms and conditions set forth
hereinafter under heading (b) and (c).
(b) The license may be framed so as to prevent the licensee
from importing the patented article into this country from
abroad.
(c) If the Comptroller be satisfied that the objects of this
" abuse of monopoly " clause cannot be attained by the exercise
of these powers, he may order the patent to be revoked as may
be specified in the order, unless in the meantime such conditions
as may be prescribed in the order be fulfilled. The Comptroller
can extend the interval specified.
(d) If the Comptroller consider the provisions of this section
will be best attained by making no order, he can refuse the
application for a license and decree costs as he sees fit.
(e) If the exigencies of finding capital make it in the opinion
of the Comptroller, desirable to grant an exclusive license, the
license shall be so framed as to give the patentee the maximum
royalty compatible with the licensee working the invention
on a commercial scale and at a reasonable profit, and to guarantee
the patentee a minimum yearly sum as royalty, and the license
shall be revokable by the Comptroller if these conditions be not
carried out. The Comptroller in deciding who should have an
exclusive license shall prefer (without good cause to the contrary)
an existing licensee. An exclusive license shall take away
the patentee's right to use the invention. All applications for
compulsory licenses shall be published in the Illustrated Official
Journal (Patents), and all parties interested shall have the oppor-
tunity of delivering statements and counter-statements. The
Comptroller can then, as he sees best, discuss the application or
appoint a hearing, when both sides can give evidence as in a couit
of law.
In a case of an infringement of a patent endorsed " license
of right " if the infringing defendant is willing to take a license
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 19
on terms to be settled by the Comptroller, he can only be mulcted
in damages to an amount of double the damages incurred, but
this rule is not available in the case of infringement by importa-
tion. The renewal fees on a patent endorsed " license by right "
are only half the regular fees.
A patentee can himself apply to have his patent endorsed
" license by right." Under some circumstances, on the applica-
tion of the patentee, the Comptroller can remove the endorse-
ment, provided the patentee pays forthwith the moiety of the
annual fees already at that time remitted.
From the decision of the Comptroller or of an arbitrator
appointed by him and the parties conjointly (except when the
submission to the arbitrator shall have been made final), appeal
shall be to the Supreme Court.
SUBSEQUENT TAXES.
A patent once sealed and issued is free from all further payment
or formalities until the end of the fourth year, at and after which
period (except in the case of a patent of addition) the following
stamp duties or taxes are payable, or the patent becomes void : —
Before the end of 4th year
„ 5th „
and so on increasing £i each year. The Patent Agents generally
look after these taxes, charging a small fee therefor.
The Board of Trade has power to reduce these taxes, which
are much too high, and bring large profit to the Treasury.
One or more of all these duties can be paid at once in advance, if
desired, and in some instances, when one is selling a foreign patent
dependent for its existence on the continuance of the English
patent, the purchaser requires that the English annual taxes
shall be paid up in full. Once paid they cannot be got back.
If an inventor fails in the payment of any of these taxes as
they become due, the Comptroller grants a prolongation of not
exceeding three months for paying the tax, with a fine for the
delay ; after this period has passed a special application to the
Comptroller for reinstatement is the only possible way to revive
the patent. Notice of such proposed reinstatement must be
advertised as the Comptroller may direct, at the expense of
the applicant, so as to give an opportunity for interested parties
to oppose. The costs of this procedure are heavy, as the stamp
duty is £20, and the costs of proving the facts and advertising
are often very considerable. The patentee is debarred from
obtaining damages for infringements committed after the patent
expired and prior to the actual revalidation of the patent.
In case of a patent being lost or destroyed, a duplicate will
be issued to the inventor or owner on his proving the facts of
20 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
the case to the satisfaction of the Comptroller, and paying the
prescribed fees.
PROLONGATION.
At the expiration of sixteen years from the date of a patent,
the invention becomes public property unless the inventor can
obtain a prolongation of his patent from the Supreme Court.
This can sometimes be obtained if the invention be a very im-
portant one, and the inventor has used due diligence in working
it, has not received a fair and reasonable profit for its use, and
still has an interest in the patent. But all this he must prove
to the satisfaction of the court.
The application has to be made and duly advertised at least
six months before the expiration of the period for which the
patent was granted, and the applicant must be prepared with
elaborate statements of accounts and proof of their correctness.
Any profits obtained by the applicant on foreign patents for
the same invention should also be set forth. Any interested
party can oppose the grant of such extension, and the court
has power to grant costs to either party.
When, by reason of war between this country and another,
the patentee as such, not being an Alien enemy, has suffered
loss or damage, including loss of opportunity of dealing in or
developing his invention owing to his having been engaged in
work of national importance connected with such war, he can
apply to the court by " originating summons " for an extension,
and the court, in considering its decision, may have regard solely
to the loss or damage so suffered by the patentee.
DISCLAIMERS AND AMENDMENTS.
It very frequently happens that something has been claimed
in the specification that was unpatentable, or without utility,
or utterly unworkable, or which was in the public use or published
in this country before the date of application ; or there is some
error or obscurity.
Such a defect often makes the patent invalid. When, there-
fore, a patentee finds such a flaw, he should immediately apply
for leave to amend his specification, including, if necessary, the
drawings forming part thereof, by way of disclaimer, correction,
or explanation, stating the nature of such amendment and the
reasons for the same.
The request and the nature of such proposed amendment must
then be duly advertised in the prescribed manner, and at any
time within one month from its first advertisement any interested
person may give notice at the Patent Office of opposition to
the amendments.
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 21
Where such notice is given, the Comptroller hears both parties
(or if there be no opposition he examines the documents, and if
necessary he hears the applicant), and then decrees whether,
and subject to what conditions, if any, the amendment shall
be allowed, subject to an appeal to the Law Officer.
The Law Officer, when appealed to, hears the applicant and
opponent, if any, if in his opinion the latter be entitled to be
heard in opposition, and ratines, alters, or reverses the decision
of the Comptroller as he may consider just, with or without
costs.
If the appeal be by an opposed applicant against the decision
of the Comptroller, the Law Officer hears both the parties and
the Comptroller. From the Law Officer's decision there is no
appeal.
In case of a disclaimer, the judge cannot grant damages for
infringements prior to the date of the disclaimer unless he is
satisfied that the original specification was drawn " in good faith
and with reasonable skill and knowledge," and it is very rarely
that a judge is satisfied of this when a disclaimer has been made.
No amendment can be allowed that would make the specifi-
cation, as amended, claim an invention substantially larger than
or substantially different from the invention claimed by the
specification as it stood before amendment.
An amendment, too, which will reduce a patent from' a large
field of invention down to some insignificant detail in that field
is generally refused. Thus where a man claimed an improved
process of, and apparatus for canning meats, and it was shown
that the entire apparatus and process were old except a special
arrangement of lid, a patent was refused for the latter, though
a new and useful part of the original invention.
Leave to amend is conclusive as to the right of the party to
make the amendment allowed, except in case of fraud ; and the
amendment, in all courts and for all purposes, is deemed to form
part of the specification.
The foregoing provisions for disclaiming do not apply when,
and so long as, any action for infringement or other legal pro-
ceeding in relation to a patent is pending.
In an action for infringement of a patent, and in a proceeding
for revocation of a patent, the court or a judge may by order
allow the patentee, subject to such terms as to costs and other-
wise as the court or a judge may impose, to disclaim for the
purpose of such action any part of the invention specified in
such order, and give the disclaimer in evidence.
This clause is, however, of little use, as the judges almost
invariably make it a condition of allowing the disclaimer that
all the costs of the action up to that date be paid by the patentee.
As, too, the disclaimer is restricted in this case to the actual
matter at issue, it is generally best, if a disclaimer be necessary,
22 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
to abandon the action, pay the costs, make the disclaimer,
and commence a fresh action. See also " Legal Proceedings,"
page 30.
PRINTED COPIES.
Printed copies of the specifications and drawings (with dis-
claimers, if there be any) of all British patents still in force
(but not of abandoned provisional specifications of later date
than 1883) can be obtained at a small price if in print. Copies
of all patents were formerly kept in stock, but a former Comp-
troller destroyed all but a limited number of copies of each
specification ; and now it is impossible to obtain printed copies
of many of the early .patents, especially those that are of value
and in demand, except by ordering six copies, in which case the
Government will usually reprint and supply them in a few days'
time at a very reasonable charge.
The Patent Office have, however, recently made arrangements
to supply photo-copies of any patent specification or document
in the Patent Office Library at reasonable prices.
COMPULSORY LICENSES.
See page 17, Working and Abuse of Monopoly Rights.
RIGHTS OP THE CROWN.
The Crown by itself, or its agents, contractors, or others duly
authorised, has also the right of using the invention for any
Government department, and of requiring the invention to be
kept secret, on terms agreed upon between the inventor and the
Government officials, ratified by the Treasury ; or (if no satis-
factory agreement can be come to) on terms as settled by the
court or arbitrator.
INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION.
An international Convention or Union for the Protection of
Industrial Properties exists between the following, viz. : Great
Britain, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Ceylon, Czecho-
slovakia, Cuba, Curacoa and Surinam, Denmark, Dominican
Republic, France, and its colonies, Gambia, Germany, Greece,
Holland and its Colonies, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Malta, Mexico,
Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia,
Seychelles, South Africa, Southern Nigeria, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunis, and the United States
of America. A similar treaty exists between Great Britain on the
one side, and each of the following States on the other, viz. :
Paraguay and Uruguay, as regards patents, trade marks, and
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 23
designs, and Ecuador and Roumania as regards designs and trade
marks only. Canada also gives the advantages of the convention
to British patentees, but Canadian subjects have not reciprocal
rights, as Canada is not an adherent to the Union. •
The first application for a patent for an invention in any of
the countries of the Union procures to residents or to persons
having industrial commercial establishments here, or in any
other State of the Union, protection for twelve months in the
rest of the Union. This period of priority begins with the date
on which the applicant lodged his application for the original
patent, and not from the date of the acceptance, and foreign
patents should be applied for before the lapse of this protection.
This protection is much lessened in value in most of the
European countries in that if any one begins manufacturing the
invention, or making bond fide arrangements to begin the manu-
facture, in the realm before the protected patentee applies for a
patent in that country, he can go on using the invention during
the entire duration of the patent without paying royalty.
The complete application by a foreigner under the conven-
tion for a patent in Great Britain must be made in the case of
patents (with a special form) within twelve months of the appli-
cation abroad, and in the case of designs and trade marks
within four months of the application abroad, if right of priority
be required, and it must be restricted to the exact matter already
protected abroad, and the patent is dated as of the day of ap-
plication in the foreign country. These privileges are now
extended to patents applied for in many countries since August
i, 1913, if applied for within six months of the signing of the
Treaty of Peace after the great war (Jan. 10, 1920).
NOVELTY.
An invention to be patentable must be unknown to the public
in the United Kingdom at the date of the patent application,
or during the priority rights granted under the convention or
treaty aforesaid. It may, however, have been publicly known
and used in foreign countries or colonies only, before the date
of application. The sale or public exhibition of articles made
in accordance with the invention in any portion of the British
Isles, or a complete and accurate description of it in a journal
or book, printed or circulating in the kingdom before such date,
would invalidate a patent. Copies of the specifications and draw-
ings of American and of some Continental patents are now
forwarded to the British Patent Office Library, where they are
open to free inspection. This constitutes a legal publication,
though they may not have been examined by the public. If,
however, the invention be not so sufficiently described as to
enable a man, skilled in the line of business to which it relates,
24 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
to work it successfully without experiments or invention on
his part, such a partial or defective publication will not invalidate
a patent afterwards applied for.
The possessor of an invention, specimens of which he had
sold or used publicly, or exposed for sale before being protected
by an application for a patent at home (or abroad under the
circumstances above set forth on page 22) cannot validly patent
it ; nor (it is generally thought, but the point is not absolutely
decided) can any one obtain a sound patent for a process which
he has already used secretly for a period of years, and sold the
produce thereof in the realm. A patent is not, however, now
held invalid by reason only of the invention having been taken
from the inventor and published without his knowledge or con-
sent, and if as soon as the inventor learns of the publication
he applies for protection with reasonable diligence.
Describing an unprotected invention in a paper read before
a learned society does not nullify the right to afterwards patent
it, but it is a very dangerous act, as any hearer or reader of it
in the society's transactions could make it public immediately
after, sufficiently to invalidate a patent afterwards obtained.
Further, the clause is inoperative unless the inventor duly
notifies the Government before reading the paper and on a £i
stamp.
Experimenting on the invention before patenting, if every
reasonable precaution has been taken to keep it secret, and the
working has not been for profit, does not invalidate a patent
afterwards obtained. Thus it was decided that where a machine
for laying cables had been used for laying a single cable, and,
proving a great success, was patented on the return of the ship,
there had been only an experimental use insufficient to entail
the invalidity of the patent, it being impossible to ascertain
whether it could usefully perform its work without a trial.
On the other hand, the use of a newly invented crane for five
months in the owner's yard, which was open to the railway
and to the view of customers calling on business, was held to
be a publication ; as five months was far more than sufficient
time to test it, and the continued use was for profit, and not for
the purposes of experiment.
The prior publication of an invention which, if it had been made
subsequent to the date of the patent, would be considered a
clumsy colourable imitation for the purpose of effecting the same
result, does not invalidate the patent by anticipation, but in
the practice of some of the Patent Office examiners such publica-
tion would be held fatal to the grant of a patent, if such publica-
tion was in a prior published patent specification.
Similarly a prior unsuccessful and abandoned experiment by
a third party, even though it embraces all the principles of the
invention, is not sufficient to invalidate the patent afterwards
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 25
obtained. The imperfect publication of an invention in an
abandoned provisional specification of a third party has been
held not to invalidate a subsequent patent for the same invention;
and in order to prevent abandoned provisional specifications
from interfering any more with subsequent applications, and
for other reasons, a short Act was passed in 1885 requiring the
Comptroller to keep such specifications secret from that date.
This Act practically cuts off from the public all abandoned
provisional specifications entered since the Act of 1883, as very
few of these were published at the time of the passing of the said
Act.
EXHIBITIONS.
The exhibition of an unpatented invention at an industrial
or international exhibition, certified as such by the Board of
Trade, or the publication of the invention during the period of
the holding of the exhibition, or use of the invention by others
elsewhere without the knowledge or consent of the inventor
during the period of exhibition, will not invalidate the sub-
sequent patent, provided the inventor, previous to exhibiting,
gives due notice at the Patent Office of his intention to so exhibit,
and provided he applies for a patent within six months of the
date of opening the exhibition. As, however, provisional pro-
tection is now so very cheap, and expensive litigation might
result before the inventor obtained his rights, if another applied
for a patent during the period of exhibition and prior to
patenting by the original inventor, this clause in the law is of
very doubtful advantage.
UTILITY.
In order that a patent may be sustained, it is essential that
it should be useful ; but this point, though usually all-important
as regards its value to the inventor, is never investigated by the
officials when examining an application with a view to granting
a patent.
PENALTIES.
Where any person claiming to be the patentee of an invention,
by circulars, advertisements, or otherwise, threatens another
person with legal proceedings in respect of an alleged infringement
of the patent, any person or persons aggrieved thereby may bring
an action against him, and may obtain an injunction against the
continuance of such threats, and may recover such damage (if
any) as may have been sustained thereby, if the alleged infringe-
ment to which the threats related was not in fact an infringement
of any legal rights of the person making such threats. This
section does not apply if an action for infringement be com-
menced and prosecuted with due diligence.
26 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
Any person who represents that any article sold by him is a
patented article, when no patent has been granted for the same,
or describes any design or trade mark applied to any article
sold by him as registered which has not been registered, and in
the case of a design, marks it as registered after the registration
has expired, is liable for every offence on summary conviction
to a fine not exceeding five pounds. This enactment has been
held to apply even in cases where the article was at the time
provisionally protected.
In such latter cases, however, the article can be marked " Pro-
visionally Protected," "Protected under the Patent Act," or
" Patent Applied For."
If, too, a person marks articles as patented for which he has
only obtained provisional protection, he runs the risk of losing
costs in subsequent actions for infringement which he may
bring, the inf ringer making the plea that, seeing the word " pa-
tent " on the articles falsely placed thereon during provisional
protection, he had made a search and ascertained that they were
not then patented, and when afterwards warned that he was
infringing the patent, he took no notice, believing the warning
to be as false as the original marking was. This is a good defence.
A person is deemed to represent that an article is patented,
or a design or a trade mark is registered, if he sells the article
with the word " patent," or " patented," " registered," or any
word or words expressing or implying that a patent or registra-
tion has been obtained for the article, stamped, engraved, or
impressed on, or otherwise applied to the article.
It is better to stamp all patented articles with the word
" patent," and the number, or if dated prior to 1916 date
also of the patent. See article under head " Infringements of
Patents," page 29.
PENALTY FOR USING THE PATENT UNFAIRLY.
Any contract of license or sale contrary to freedom of trade
in other articles than the patented one, or for the continuance
of payment of royalties on the patented invention after the patent
has expired, is unlawful and void. Except —
(a) A contract whereby a person is prohibited from selling
any goods other than those of a particular person.
(b) Where a licensor reserves to himself or his nominees the
right to supply or keep in repair new parts, or to supply such
articles, apparatus, or machinery as may be necessary for carrying
the patented process into effect.
SEARCHING.
It is frequently requisite to examine the records to see if an
invention has been previously patented or is an infringement
of an existing patent.
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 27
The cost of a search varies according to the nature of the
subject, and whether the particular class of inventions to which
the subject belongs is well indexed. Inventions for heating, for
steam-engines or boilers, guns, sewing-machines, looms, spinning
and electrical appliances, are usually the most troublesome to
search through, often taking, with the ordinary published indexes
only, a fortnight's hard work. In all the large cities and towns
in the British Isles complete sets of the British patent specifica-
tions, from the earliest times to the present date, are kept on
file at public libraries, so that inventors and manufacturers may
make their own searches ; and should they have the requisite
leisure and ability, this is decidedly the best course to pursue.
When making a search, the inventor should make a record of
the numbers and dates of all patents bordering on the invention.
This information will be found invaluable when drawing up the
final specification. In many cases the best and cheapest way
of making a search is to apply for a patent in Germany or in the
United States of America. The American and German examiners
search through the American, English, French, Swiss, and German
patents, and also through standard textbooks. If a patent has
already been granted in America for the invention, we can always
get a copy of the examiner's original report on the novelty of
the invention.
The granting of a patent without reference to any prior patent
shows that its claims are in the examiner's opinion not covered
by any British patents of the immediately preceding fifty years.
When a patent is published we can get copies of all patents
cited against it by the examiner.
REVOCATION OF PATENTS.
Any person within two years of the date of a patent can apply
to the Comptroller (if there be no action concerning the patent
pending in the courts) to revoke a patent on any ground on which
he, or a person of whom he is the successor in title, could have
opposed it before being granted. (It can also be revoked by
a court if four or more years after its date the patent be worked
mainly outside the United Kingdom, but this clause was sus-
pended during the Great War, and for six months after the
conclusion of Peace.) The applicant for revocation must, how-
ever, bring reasonable evidence that this is the case before the
Comptroller will require the patentee to bring in his defence.
From the Comptroller's decision there is an appeal. In the case
of inventions decided to be mainly working abroad the Comp-
troller or the court on appeal can grant an extension of time of
one, or in some cases two, years to get the invention at work
in this country.
An action for revocation of a patent by a court may at any
time be instituted by —
28 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
1. The Attorney-General in England or Ireland, or the Lord
Advocate in Scotland, or any person authorised by one of these
officials.
2. Any person alleging that the patent was obtained in fraud
of his rights, or of the rights of any person under or through
whom he claims.
3. Any person alleging that he or any person under or through
whom he claims was the true inventor of any invention included
in the claim of the patent.
4. Any person alleging that he or any person under or through
whom he claims an interest in any trade, business, or manu-
facture had publicly manufactured, used or sold, within the realm,
before the date of the patent, anything claimed by the patentee
as his invention.
A patent can be revoked, and a defence for an infringement
set up, on any one or more of the following grounds : —
1. That none of the patentees is the true and first inventor.
2. That he or they obtained a material portion of the invention
from others.
3. That the invention was not new at the date of the patent.
4. That the subject-matter was not patentable.
5. That the patent is more than four years old, and is worked
almost exclusively outside the United Kingdom.
6. That the patentee or patentees did not specify the best
mode known to him or them of carrying out the invention ;
or that he or they inserted or kept back any part or matter
with intention to deceive ; or that the specification does not
sufficiently describe the invention so that a person of ordinary
understanding, skill, and knowledge in the trade to which it
relates could work it without further information or experiment.
7. That the patentee does not work the invention himself
or by licensees sufficiently to fulfil the reasonable demands of
the public, and that these cannot be met satisfactorily by the
granting of compulsory licenses.
In an action for a revocation of a patent the person seeking
to upset the patent must deliver particulars beforehand of the
objections and evidence on which he means to rely. These
particulars can be amended only by order of the court or a judge,
and no evidence can be brought forward against the patent at
the trial, except such as is set forth in the particulars previously
delivered.
If the patentee finds from the particulars of objections that
his patent specification contains claims that are old, or a part
or parts that are bad at law, he can, by order of a court or judge,
enter a disclaimer, as already described (the legal proceedings
being suspended meanwhile), and put in that disclaimer as evi-
dence in his defence in the action instituted to revoke his
patent.
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 29
The defendant (owner of the patent) is entitled to begin, and
give evidence at the hearing in support of the patent, and also
to reply, if the plaintiff gives evidence against the validity of
the patent, subject to appeal to the court.
In an action for infringement of a patent the defendant can
allege as a ground of his defence that the patent is bad, and
apply for its revocation as a kind of counterclaim.
A patentee can avoid the costs of an action for revocation by
surrendering his patent to the Comptroller, when the latter
hears the parties and if he sees fit revokes the patent.
It is not an infringement of a British patent to use the in-
vention for the purpose of navigating a foreign vessel in British
waters, or to use it on such vessel .for other purpose than the
manufacture of anything to be sold in or exported from the
United Kingdom or the Isle of Man, and provided the vessel
be owned and registered in a foreign country having a similar
law as regards British shipping.
Where a patent has been revoked on the ground of fraud,
the Comptroller may, on the application of the true inventor,
grant to him a patent in lieu of and bearing the same date as
the patent so revoked, the patent so granted ceasing on the
expiration of the term for which the revoked patent was granted.
INFRINGEMENTS OF PATENTS.
In case of infringement, before taking any action, the patentee
should inquire thoroughly into the validity of the patent, and
ascertain to the best of his ability whether the act complained
of be really an infringement of it. The advice of a good Patent
Agent on these points is of the highest importance.
Most large patent agent firms work in close collaboration with
solicitors and barristers specialising in patent litigation.
Should the patentee, after applying for an injunction, make
affidavit that he verily believes that his patent is valid, and is
being infringed in a certain factory, and can give reasonable
grounds for his belief, the court can grant an order for a single
inspection of the works, but not, as a rule, of the books of the
suspected infringer, to see whether the suspicion be correct.
It will also compel the suspected party to answer under oath
all reasonable interrogatories asked by the patentee as to the
supposed infringement.
In the case of infringement of a patent dating subsequent
to 1907, no damages can be recovered (but only an injunction
and costs obtained) if in the opinion of the court the infringer
had not reasonable means of becoming aware of the existence
of the patent, and the marking of an article with the word
" patent " is not deemed to constitute a notice of such existence
unless the year and number of the patent be added, or the number
30 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
only if granted subsequent to 1916. There has been very little
or no use made of this clause.
The infringement of a patent granted prior to 1908, even though
unintentional, being proved, the court can assess damages and
decree costs, and further, will grant a perpetual injunction
against the defendant continuing the infringement, on pain of
fine and imprisonment. The decision can also be cited in ap-
plying for an interim injunction against other parties.
The court may, prior to the action, grant an interim injunction
forbidding the infringer from continuing the use or manufacture
of the patented invention, under pain of fine and imprisonment,
until the trial be decided. This power, however, is at the dis-
cretion of the court, and is rarely made use of, except where
the infringement is recent, the patent of long standing, and the
application for the injunction has been made immediately after
the infringement has been discovered.
Should the alleged infringer dispute the validity of the patent,
or his infringement of it, the court, instead of granting the
interim injunction, may order the infringer to keep careful
accounts while the suit is pending of all articles manufactured,
so that damages may more easily be assessed in case of conviction.
The patentee can be obliged to produce his letters patent in
court, or lose his suit.
The court may order all matters of account to be decided by
arbitration.
LEGAL PROCEEDINGS.
All appeals to the court from the Comptroller are heard before
a special judge selected by the Lord Chancellor, and his decision
is final, except in certain revocation cases.
The defendant can, if entitled to present a petition to the court
for the revocation of the patent, apply for the revocation by way
of counterclaim. By the Act of 1919, if the court finds any one
or more claims of the patent valid and infringed, it can grant relief
in respect to any such claims which are infringed without regard
to the invalidity of any other claim in the specification. But
the court makes such terms as it thinks proper, and can take into
consideration the conduct of the parties in inserting such claims
or allowing them to remain.
This clause became law in 1920, and takes away a very great
hardship from the British patent law. It is, however, very
desirable that a patentee should promptly disclaim any invalid
claim or claims as soon as he finds it or them to be unsound.
In an action or proceeding for infringement or revocation of
a patent, the court may, if it thinks fit, and must, on the request
of either of the parties to the proceeding, call in the aid of an
assessor specially qualified, and try and hear the case wholly
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 31
or partially with his assistance ; the action is tried without a jury
unless the court otherwise direct.
The Court of Appeal may, if it sees fit, and must on the request
of all the parties to the action, call in the aid of a specially qualified
assessor.
The remuneration, if any, paid to the assessor is determined
by the court, and is paid by Government, and forms no part
of the costs of the action.
In an action for infringement of a patent the owner of the
patent must deliver with his statement of claim, or, by order
of the court or the judge, at any subsequent time, particulars
of the infringements complained of.
The person accused of infringing must deliver, with his state-
ment of defence, particulars of any objection on which he relies
in support of his case.
If the defendant disputes the validity of the patent, the par-
ticulars delivered by him must state on what grounds he disputes
it, and if one of the grounds be want of novelty, must state the
time and place of the previous publication or " user " alleged
by him. He can also bring as a defence that the patent if more
than four years old is worked mainly or wholly abroad.
At the hearing no evidence can, except by leave of the court
or a judge, be admitted in proof of any alleged infringement
or objection of which particulars were not so delivered.
Particulars delivered may from time to time be amended,
by leave of the court or a judge, but in such case the payment
of costs of the opposite party up to that date is frequently a
condition of leave to amend.
In an action for infringement of a patent, the court or a judge
may certify that the validity of any claim in the patent came in
question ; and if the court or a judge so certifies, then, in any
subsequent action for infringement of that claim, the plaintiff
in that action, on obtaining a final order or judgment in his
favour, receives his full costs, charges, and expenses " as
between solicitor and client," and so far as such claim is con-
cerned, unless the court or judge trying the action certifies that
he ought not to have the same.
On taxation of costs, regard will be had to the particulars
delivered by the plaintiff and by the defendant ; and they
respectively cannot be allowed any costs in respect of any par-
ticular delivered by them unless the same be certified by the court
or a judge to have been proven, or to have been reasonable and
proper, without regard to the general costs of the case.
A patentee cannot get damages, but only an injunction and
costs, where the defendant proves that his infringement was
unwittingly made, not knowing of the patent, otherwise he can
get an injunction and such damages as he can prove, but not an
account of profits.
32 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
LICENSES AND ASSIGNMENTS.
A patentee can assign his patent in whole or in part, not only
as regards its duration, but also its subject-matter and its terri-
torial limits. But a patentee assigning any (say one-hundredth)
part of a patent, unless there be a special agreement in writing,
is giving the assignees in every respect an equal right with himself
to work the invention and patent, but not to grant licenses,
as they become simply co-owners of the patent. The owner or
owners of a patent can grant licenses to use the patent on royalty,
either exclusive or concurrent, and over the whole or only some
part of the United Kingdom ; and if the owners have unequal
shares, the royalties must be divided in the ratio of such shares,
unless there be a special arrangement to the contrary.
All licenses and assignments must be stamped, and must be
registered in the Register of Patents in London ; and copies
of entries in this register, duly certified by the officials, are
primd facie evidence in court of the facts therein set forth, only
controvertible by direct proof of their incorrectness.
Copies of this register are open to the public in London, Edin-
burgh, and Dublin, on payment of a small fee, but the want of
an index to the Dublin copy renders it of little use. Copies of
any particular entry can also always be obtained from the
department at the cost of making them.
In licensing an invention to a manufacturer, the patentee
should take care to guard himself on the following points : —
(ist) He should have quarterly statements of the number or
quantity of the patented articles manufactured, and of their
destinations, and should have the right of requiring the licensee
to certify to the correctness of his returns under oath or by
statutory declaration, or produce a certificate of a chartered
accountant. (2nd) A right of inspection of the books and
works of the licensee. (3rd) All articles manufactured und6r
the patent should be stamped with consecutive numbers,
inventor's name and patent number and date, thus: " Jones,
patent 247 of 1908." To unlawfully affix these, subjects the
offender to a fine of £5 for each offence. ( 4th) The patentee
should either have a part of the royalties in advance, or a guar-
antee of a certain minimum royalty each quarter, so as to make
it to the interest of the licensee not to let the patent lie idle.
On the other hand, the licensee .should have the following
protective covenants in his license : — (ist) That all further im-
provements in the said invention made by the patentee, or his
other licensees, shall be considered as included in his license
(he also should agree to reciprocate in this matter). (2nd) That
all disputes hereafter on the meaning or intention of the license
shall be put to arbitration in a given way, and the award of
the arbitrator be made a rule of court by either party. (3rd)
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 33
That the licensee shall be allowed to sue in the name of the
patentee in cases of infringement duly indemnifying him against
costs. (4th) That the patentee shall maintain the patent by
paying the stamp duties as they become due.
No contract in a deed of assignment or license made after 1907
shall be valid which contains a clause requiring the licensee to
continue to pay royalties after the patent has expired, or pro-
hibiting the purchaser or licensee from purchasing goods whether
patented or not from other than the seller, licensor or his nomi-
nees ; unless it be proved that at the date of the deed the purchaser
or licensee had the option of obtaining an assignment or license
on reasonable terms without such restriction, or the contract
contains a provision allowing the purchaser or licensee at three
months' notice to commute such clause on terms fixed by an
arbitrator appointed by the Board of Trade.
Such clauses in deeds or licenses made before 1908 can be
compulsorily cancelled by the purchaser or licensee at three
months' notice on such terms as an arbitrator appointed by the
Board of Trade may decide.
The insertion of such an illegal clause in a contract made
after August 28, 1907, is available as a defence to an action for
infringement of the patent to which the contract relates brought
while the contract is in force. In any action, application, or
proceeding under the Act no person can be stopped from ap-
plying for or obtaining relief by reason of any admission or
illegal contract as above. It is not an illegal contract for this
purpose to bind the purchaser or licensee not to sell other goods
than those of the patentee.
A person while a licensee of a patent cannot successfully plead
the invalidity of that patent as a ground for refusing to pay
royalty, except where there is an action for revocation pending.
If in a license it be stated that, unless a certain minimum
royalty be paid yearly, the license can be cancelled by the paten-
tee, and if for one or more years the patentee accepts a less
royalty, he cannot afterwards cancel the license on the ground
that the minimum royalty stipulated has not been paid, his having
accepted the smaller royalty being held to be equivalent to
cancelling this particular clause in the license, unless he made a
special stipulation to the contrary before accepting the less
royalty.
HOW TO SELL A PATENT.
Brokers of stocks and shares, houses and land, cotton, sugar,
etc., abound, yet there is hardly a single firm in the world who
are really brokers of patents. The inventor who has not suffi-
cient leisure or capital to work his own invention has therefore
usually to do his patent licensing or brokering himself. How
3
34 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
should he go about it ? In nine cases out of ten when asked
this question, we reply : " Don't attempt to sell a patent, but try
to license it to a good firm." We find this latter vastly easier
than the effecting of a sale, and, as a rule, the royalties' from a
licensed patent, in one or at most two years, are more than the
inventor would have got for the entire patent, if sold outright.
(i) Go to the greatest centre of the particular industry where
that business is carried on with which the invention is most
nearly connected. (2) If the invention be for a small object,
get some specimens made and finished in the most pleasing
style. (3) Issue a neatly printed, prospectus. Many inventors
start on their travels with a coarse, broken-down model, showing
defects rather than virtues, or a dirty, ill-got-up drawing,
whose very appearance is enough to set the capitalist at first
sight against it ; whereas a pretty working model, showing the
actual performance, and a nicely printed explanation, are pre-
possessing, and tend to carry conviction with them. It is often
very desirable to have the invention well illustrated in the tech-
nical journals before offering it, but great care should be taken
to secure its appearance in journals of high standing and large
circulation, as these will not usually insert it after it has appeared
in the smaller fry. (4) If the inventor wishes to still retain an
interest in and assist in introducing his invention, a limited
company, with the patentee as a director, is frequently his best
resource. It is easier to sell a thousand shares in a patent at
£10 each than the whole for £10,000. The main business is to
get a few good names as directors, and the rest is comparatively
easy, if the invention be offered at a reasonable price, and has
already come into successful use. Until this latter be made
evident, it is useless to attempt to honestly float a company
to purchase a patent. A small syndicate can frequently be
formed to prove an invention first.
CAUTION TO INVESTORS IN PATENTS.
The ease, however, with which limited companies can be
raised to purchase and work patents has given a handle to sundry
unscrupulous adventurers to palm off on the public numerous
patents, good, bad, and indifferent, at prices enormously ex-
ceeding their real value.
Nothing is easier than to get glowing testimonials for the
most worthless invention, and capitalists, before investing in
any patent, would do well to refer to a responsible and indepen-
dent Patent Agent, to discover by an examination and search
whether it be really valid. A minority only of the patents
taken out under any circumstances are sound at law ; and many
even of these have nothing like their apparent value, from being
hedged round by others with conflicting claims.
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 35
Yet, almost smothered under this enormous load of worthless
patents, there are numbers continually brought out by poor
and obscure men, any of which, taken by a capitalist on the very
liberal terms usually offered, would, properly worked, form a
very handsome income. It is well worth the consideration of
those who are continually investing in foreign loans, mines,
railways, etc., whether it would not pay them better to take some
poor but clever inventor by the hand, and, while thus encourag-
ing trades and manufactures at home, employ their capital
where it is constantly under their immediate inspection and
control. Whether for safe and good paying investments, or
for really brilliant speculations, there is probably no field left
the capitalist, to be at all compared in richness with that of
exploiting patented inventions. The capitalist should, however,
take care to keep the control.
HOW TO SAFELY INVEST IN PATENTS.
Probably far more money is made by non-inventors investing
in patents than by patentees. We have known many instances
of men without any inventive faculty making fortunes in a very
few years by investing in patents. This is not so often done
by paying largely for a single promising patent and then working
it, as by spreading their investments over several ventures —
finding capital and business talent for clever but needy, or un-
business-like, inventors, demonstrating the success of the in-
ventions, and then negotiating their sale, receiving as a recom-
pense a share of the net returns, varying from 25 to 75 per cent.
One very successful plan is to find a patentee with a very valu-
able invention, whose entire resources are utilised in working
the patent in the country of its birth. The capitalist offers to
patent it abroad, before it has been " published," and negotiate
the sale or license, giving the inventor from 25 to 50 per cent,
of the net returns. As a rule he jumps at the offer.
We have very frequently known the foreign patents of in-
ventions worth many thousands of pounds per annum in the
country of their birth almost given away. It is this inter-
national-patent dealing that is, as a rule, the most profitable ;
yet it is a field almost untilled.
Again, for every invention really valuable in the country of
its birth that is patented abroad, twenty are taken out in one
country only, and for this reason : the inventors know the
difficulty of their selling their foreign patents and attending to
their home ones at the same time. But if they could hear through
their Patent Agents of individuals or syndicates willing and able
to take up or work patents in other countries, they would either
patent abroad or sell their foreign rights at very reasonable
rates, to the advantageous development of trade all over the
world.
36 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
Syndicates are mentioned above. For small capitalists, or
men not having the leisure to work or negotiate the sale of patents,
but with money to invest in them, the joining of a syndicate to
engage in this traffic is frequently a very good thing. These
syndicates, if properly managed, are very lucrative affairs. We
do not mean to say they are usually successful in all their ventures
— the cleverest of them fail in doing any good with some of their
ventures — but if the risks are small, taken with due professional
advice, and spread over a considerable number of patents (not
all their eggs put in one basket), they are almost certain of a
most lucrative business. Another way in which patent specu-
lators have succeeded, especially in America, is to buy up or
obtain a large interest in one or more patents, and, instead of
selling them " out and out " in lump sums, they go round the
country or engage smaller men to travel on commission, selling
" shop-rights " and territorial rights — that is, the right of
working the invention in a given manufactory only, or the
exclusive rights to work the invention in a given town, city,
county, state, or other district.
Illustrated abridgements made by the Government abstrac-
tors, of all British patents, are issued in any given class of in-
vention, from in some instances the earliest times to present
date.
Many of the most thriving and progressive manufacturing
firms in this country and in the United States get these abridge-
ments sent them regularly, with very great advantage to their
business, and we have rarely known a client who has once adopted
this ever give it up again — they find it too valuable.
It is a remarkable fact, too, that nearly all the great industrial
houses in this country, on the Continent, and even in America,
attribute their success to the taking up of some one or more
patents ; and probably not in one instance in three were any of
the partners in the firm the original patentees, but were only
the purchasers of the patents thus worked. They purchased
or licensed them, often at a very small cost, from the original
patentees.
REGISTRATION OF DESIGNS.
Any person a proprietor of an ornamental design unpublished
in the United Kingdom can protect the same by registration
for five years (renewable before the expiration of the term for
a further period of five years, and renewable again if the Comp-
troller considers it worthy of such extension near the end of
that period for a further term of five years). The definition of a
design in law is " only the features of shape, configuration, pattern,
or ornament applied to any article by any industrial process
or means, whether manual, mechanical or chemical, separate
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 37
or combined, which in the finished article appeal to and are
judged solely by the eye, but does not include any mode or
principle of construction, or anything which is in substance a
mere mechanical device." Any design applicable to any article
of manufacture or to any substance natural or artificial, or partly
natural and partly artificial, whether it be formed by printing,
painting, embroidery, weaving, sewing, modelling, casting, en-
graving or otherwise can be thus protected.
Artistic and architectural works of art, casts, models, and
sculpture are still protected without registration under the Copy-
right Acts unless intended to be reproduced in more than fifty'
specimens, but a set of articles such as chessmen ordinarily on
sale together are reckoned in this case as one article, and are
registrable in one registration. The Comptroller is the sole judge
as to whether any given articles constitute a set.
Printed paper hangings, carpets, floor cloths, oil cloths, unless
manufactured or sold in lengths or pieces,, textile piece goods
and lace not made by hand, can now no longer be registered
under the Copyright Act, but must be registered at the Patent
Office. The Comptroller has the power of refusing to register
a design on the ground that it is not new, or not a registrable
design, subject to appeal to the courts, and where a principle
of mechanics is sought to be protected under the design regis-
tration, he is very apt to refuse registration or require that
such principle shall be disclaimed. With every registration a
special number is given to the proprietor and he is bound to
mark all articles made in accordance with the registered design
with the word " Registered," " Regd." or " Rd.," as he prefers,
and (except in goods in classes 9, 13, 14 and 15), with the said
number, or if the article forbids such marking, then the package
in which it is must be marked, but marking can be dispensed
with in the case of printed cotton piece goods except handker-
chiefs. If the owner of the design does not take all proper steps
to insure such marking or prove that the infringer knew of the
registration, when he pirated the design, he cannot obtain
damages in case of infringement. The Board of Trade can in
certain trades where such markings are undesirable modify or
dispense with these marking requirements. Any person marking
an article as registered after the registration has expired is
liable to a fine not exceeding £5.
All trade marks allowed by the Comptroller are pictorially
advertised in the Trade Marks Journal, a weekly paper. This
forms practically a copy of the register, except that the cotton
marks registered in Manchester are omitted.
During the first two years of copyright, or such further time
as may be prescribed, the registered design is not open to in-
spection of the public — except by special order in each specific
case from the proprietors of the design, or from the Comptroller,
38 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
or from a Court of Law ; but after the expiration of said period
it can be inspected at the Patent Office, and copies made for a
prescribed fee. If, however, any one wishes to know whether a
particular design has been registered under a given number for
a given class of goods, or by a given person on a given date,
he can obtain this information for a prescribed fee. If a regis-
tered design be applied to manufacture of any article in any
foreign country, and is not so applied by a manufacturer in the
United Kingdom to such an extent as is reasonable in the cir-
cumstances of the case, any person interested may apply to the
Comptroller for the cancelling of the registration of the design,
but the Comptroller may adjourn the application, if he thinks
fit, to such time as he may deem sufficient for the owner of the
design to start the manufacture in the United Kingdom, or
in lieu of cancelling the design he may order the grant of a com-
pulsory license on such terms as he considers just. If the design
had been already published in the United Kingdom prior to
the date of registration, the Comptroller has also the power of
cancelling the registration.
A Register of Proprietors of Designs is kept at the Patent
Office, and all assignments, licenses or changes of address can be
recorded therein for a prescribed fee. Such registration is primd
facie evidence of ownership, and an unregistered proprietor cannot
bring an action for infringement until he is registered as the
owner. The rule applicable to patents in the case of international
exhibitions, set forth on page 25, is applicable to designs.
A design already published cannot be validly registered,
with these exceptions : — if the publication be surreptitious by
a third party without the knowledge or consent of the author
and owner of the design, or it be merely the acceptance of the
first and confidential order in the case of textile designs, or the
design has been registered in another class by the author and only
applied to goods in that class ; but in this latter case the regis-
tration is liable to be granted for only so long as the original
registration can be maintained.
Any person who during the continuance of copyright in a
design — without the consent of the proprietor — applies the design,
or any fraudulent or obvious imitation thereof, to any article
or substance in the class in which the design is registered, or
publishes or exposes for sale, or sells such article or substance,
with such design, knowing that the same has been applied with-
out the consent of the registered proprietor, is liable to forfeit
a sum not exceeding £50 for one offence, or £100, but not more,
for two or more offences, to the registered proprietor of the design,
who may recover such sum, as a simple contract debt, by action
in any court of competent jurisdiction. Or in lieu of this, the
proprietor of the design can enter an action for damages, and
obtain an injunction as in the case of patent infringement.
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 36
Goods are divided into fifteen classes, and a separate registra-
tion is required for each class in which it is desired to secure
the design. In case of doubt as to which class a design ought
to be registered in, the Comptroller may decide the question.
Any person making groundless threats of legal proceedings
for infringement of copyright of design, and not promptly bringing
an action if defied, can be prosecuted for damages, as in the
case of patents.
The classes are as follows : —
Class i. — Articles composed wholly of metal or in which metal
predominates, and jewellery.
Class 2. — Books and bookbinding of all materials.
Class 3. — Articles composed wholly of wood, bone, ivory,
papier-mache", or other solid substances not included in other
classes, or of materials in which such substances predominate.
Class 4. — Articles composed wholly of glass, earthenware
or porcelain, clay (burnt or baked), or cement, or in which such
materials predominate.
Class 5. — Articles composed wholly of paper, cardboard, "mill-
board or strawboard (except articles included in class 2, and
paper-hangings), or in which such materials predominate.
Class 6. — Articles composed wholly of leather or in which
leather predominates, not included in other classes.
Class 7. — Paper-hangings.
Class 8. — Carpets, rugs and floor coverings in all materials.
Class 9. — Lace.
Class 10. — Boots and shoes.
Class ii. — Millinery and wearing apparel (except boots and
shoes).
Class 12. — Goods not included in other classes.
Class 13. — Printed or woven designs on textile piece goods
(other than checks or stripes).
Class 14. — Printed or woven designs on handkerchiefs and
shawls (other than checks or stripes.)
Class 15. — Printed or woven designs on textile piece goods
or on handkerchiefs or shawls being checks or stripes.
Application may be made to register a design applied to a
number or " set " of articles of the same general character.
The Comptroller decides as to what usually constitutes a
" set."
A design registration can be revoked by the Comptroller on
the suit of any interested party, on the grounds that the design
was published before the date of registration, or that it is applied
by manufacture in any foreign country and is not so applied in
the United Kingdom to a reasonable extent ; and such ground of
defence is available in all actions for infringement. If applied
to on this latter ground, in case of hardship, the Comptroller
can give the owner of the design longer time to get well to work
40 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
grant a compulsory license on such terms as he may
consider just.
The law as regards Government being allowed to use the design
is similar to that in the case of patents.
In a number of countries, adherents to the International Union
or Convention for Industrial Property (see page 22), registration
of design application gives a period of four months' priority pro-
tection in the other countries.
PATENT MEDICINES.
It is customary to style all proprietary medicines " patent
medicines," though they are rarely the subject of a patent. It
is indeed hardly ever desirable to patent a medicine, as a mere
prescription cannot validly be patented, but patenting it simply
explains its manufacture for the benefit of imitators. The best
mode of protecting a medicine is to get a distinctive name, and
register that name as a trade mark.
From 1920 it is illegal to include claims in any patent for a
substance intended as a medicine, except when prepared or pro-
duced by special methods or processes claimed. Further, in the
case of any patent on an invention capable of being used for the
purpose of medicine, the Comptroller may grant .licenses to any
person restricted to the use of the process for the manufacture
of medicine only, and at royalties within his discretion.
Proprietary medicines must bear a Government medicine
stamp on every package or bottle, the price of which stamp
is $d. for the selling value of is., 6d. for 2s. 6d., is. for 45., and more
for higher prices, while the seller must be the holder of a license.
This license costs 55. a year. The Government stamp does not
convey a right in the nature of a patent, but is a duty imposed
by law on these proprietary medicines or specifics.
The stamps for denoting these duties can be obtained on
application, but when the proprietor of the medicine desires
to vend it under Stamp Duty Labels specially appropriated to
himself and having his name 01 other particulars thereupon,
it is necessary to have a plate specially engraved for printing
such stamps. The cost of engraving an appropriated medicine
stamp plate is about £8. Such appropriated labels are only
supplied to the person for whose use and at whose cost the plate
from which they are printed was prepared, or to his authorised
agent. The penalty for infringement is £10 for every case.
TRADE MARKS.
There are few things of more value to the merchant or manu-
facturer than the exclusive right to the use of a trade mark or
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 41
trade name, by means of which his goods are at once recognised,
and which can be secured against all comers. The name of a
firm can be imitated so nearly as to be calculated to deceive —
or even adopted altogether by others of the same surname, and
the firm has usually no redress — but the fraudulent imitating
of a validly registered trade mark is a criminal as well as a civil
offence. The necessity for valid registration, however, is not suffi-
ciently realised by many until they discover their marks pirated
by unscrupulous rivals. Then when they come to register them,
they too often find that their marks are not registrable, or per-
haps have been already registered by their rivals.
Registration at Stationer's Hall, now abolished, is of no value
as a protection for a trade mark, except perhaps as evidence of
its having been in use at the date of such registration.
All traders who use trade marks or names to distinguish their
goods should be careful only to adopt such as are registrable
under the latest Acts of Parliament, as construed by the courts,
and should have such marks registered both at home and, if
they have, or expect to have foreign trade, abroad, as soon as
adopted, and before any great amount of expense has been in-
curred in advertising them or bringing them before the public.
By taking this course a large amount of annoyance and expense
will often be saved, and the proprietor will have the satisfaction
of knowing that he has an indefeasible right to his distinguishing
mark.
No person has any exclusive right to the use of a trade mark
(nor can he take any steps under the Trade Marks Act to prevent
infringement or piracy) until the trade mark is registered, or
unless, the mark being unregistrable, he succeeds in establish-
ing a proprietorship by long and large usage.
WHAT CAN BE REGISTERED.
The Trade Marks Act 1919, which came into operation on
April i, 1920, makes changes in the law which are of great im-
portance to traders. This new law divides the register of trade
marks into two parts — Part A and Part B.
Under Part A, a registrable trade mark must contain or consist
of at least one of the following essential particulars : —
1. The name of the applicant represented in a special or
particular manner or the signature of the applicant or some
predecessor in his business.
2. An invented word or words, or a word or words having
no direct reference to the character or quality of the goods,
and not being, according to its ordinary signification, a geographi-
cal name or a surname.
3. Any other distinctive mark, that is, a mark to distinguish
the goods of the proprietor of the trade mark from those of other
42 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
persons and not objectionable otherwise. Word marks other
than those of clauses i and 2 cannot be deemed distinctive except
by order of the registrar or a court, who can, if the mark be
in actual use, take into consideration the extent to which such
use has made it distinctive, that is, as distinguishing the proprie-
tor's goods from those of other persons.
4. Any special or distinctive word or words, letter or letters,
numeral or numerals, used as a trade mark by the applicant or
his predecessors with but slight alteration continuously since
before August 13, 1875.
Part B of the register is to comprise all trade marks which,
though not registrable in Part A, are capable of distinguishing
a trader's goods, and have been in bond fide use for not less than
two years.
In selecting a trade mark, care should be taken to avoid any-
thing that would be indicative of the quality or the character
of the goods, and yet, if possible, to get one that would give a
good impression every way. Thus, " Sunlight " was a remark-
ably good trade mark for soap, as it indicated light, sweetness
and purity. Similarly, " Bovril " was a very good word; as
although Bov meant an ox, " ril " meant nothing, but " vril "
was well known through one of Bulwer Lytton's novels which
indicated tremendous strength, and, therefore, Bovril indicated
great strength obtained from an Ox, while at the same time it was
a purely invented word, and therefore registrable.
Another point in selecting a trade mark is to make it as short
as possible. Thus Oxo, Kodak, etc. , are words which are shown
to have no other meaning, and consequently they are very
difficult to pirate.
PART "A" MARKS.
The words " invented word " are now understood to mean
any word which is not actually used in any well-known language,
unless it be merely bad spelling ; or an unregistrable word
with a simple suffix or affix. Thus neither sope or soape could
be registered for soap.
The clause against the use of a geographical name is also much
more liberally interpreted than formerly. Thus " Magnolia "
was allowed to be registered as part of a trade mark, although
a dozen towns or villages are found in the United States named
Magnolia, as the word Magnolia to the public at large is indicative
of a tree, and not of those towns. Similarly with regard to
surnames ; at one time a single entry in the London Directory
of a surname, such, for instance, as Crocodile, would entirely
preclude the registration of said name as a trade mark. Now,
however, a name like Crocodile or Monkey could be registered
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 43
as a trade mark, even if there be a Mr. Monkey or a Mr. Crocodile
in the London Directory or otherwise, provided there be a clause
stating that this registration shall not prevent any person of the
name of Crocodile or Monkey, as the case may be, from using
his own name or any foreign translation of such name.
Latitude, too, is given in bond fide cases to permit identical
trade marks to be registered to more than one applicant where
the areas of trade do not clash, and are not likely to clash, in
this case restrictions being placed on the register as regards
geographical area, mode of using, or otherwise, so as to prevent
confusion and deception of the public.
The colour of a trade mark can be claimed as a distinctive
element ; if no colour be claimed, the mark is held to be registered
for all colours.
The following are not registerable even as parts of trade
marks : —
Representations of His Majesty the King, or of any member
of the Royal Family.
The Royal Arms, or arms so nearly resembling them as to be
calculated to deceive.
Representations of the Royal Crown, or use of words " Royal,"
" King's," " Queen's," " Imperial," " Crown," the Ad-
miralty seal, flag, or anchor.
The device of a cross in red, the badge of the Royal Air Force,
the broad arrow.
The National Arms or Flags of Great Britain.
The words " Registered," " Registered Design," " Copyright,"
" Entered at Stationers' Hall," " To Counterfeit this is
Forgery."
If, moreover, a trade mark nearly resemble another already
registered, registration may be refused ; nor can anything
" calculated to deceive," or any " scandalous design," be regis-
tered.
PART "B" MARKS.
Registrations in Part B are intended to afford the status of
registration to marks which have been in use for two years,
and so remove the long-felt grievance of marks which, because
hitherto unregistrable in Great Britain, were also deprived of
registration in many foreign countries, where proof of the home
registration is required of every British applicant. Every ap-
plication in Part B must be accompanied by a statutory declara-
tion verifying the two years' usage, and giving full details.
APPLICATION FOR REGISTRATION.
Any person, firm, company, corporation, or association, British
44 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
and alien, can apply for and obtain registration of his or their
trade marks.
All applications in Part A are first formally examined, and if
they are found to come within the definition of a trade mark,
and do not conflict with others already on the register, they are
passed by the Trade Marks Office, usually within four to eight
weeks after application. If the Registrar refuses, an appeal
can be had to the Board of Trade. They are then advertised,
and within one month of the appearance of such advertisement
any interested or aggrieved person who may consider himself to
have a prior claim to the mark may enter opposition to the
registration. Should no opposition be entered during the afore-
said period, or such further time as may be allowed in certain
cases, and should no exception be taken by Government officials,
the mark is formally registered.
If an application be opposed, or two or more persons apply
for registration of the same trade mark contemporaneously,
the case will be heard by the Registrar of Trade Marks, who will
decide as to their respective rights to the said trade mark.
The Registrar of Trade Marks can decree costs to the winning
party, to be paid by the loser.
The decision of the Registrar is subject to appeal to the court.
As regards applications in Part B, the authorities are given
the option of bringing them into comparison with previous
registrations, or to refrain from doing so, but in any case they
are required to apply the test of two years' user. If the authori-
ties decide not to search, marks registered under Part B will
probably be reduced to the status of a mere record of claim, such
as used to be effected by entry at Stationer's Hall.
If applications in Parts A or B be refused, an appeal can be
had to the Registrar or to the Board of Trade, who can at any time
allow the applicant whose application is being adjudicated on
to amend such application on terms, and may require the appli-
cant to disclaim parts of his mark common to the trade.
Opponents outside the United Kingdom may be required to
give security for costs.
Where any association undertakes the examination of any
goods in respect of origin, material, mode of manufacture,
quality, accuracy, or other characteristic, and certifies the result
of such examination by mark used upon or in connection with
such goods, the Board of Trade may permit such association
to register such mark as a trade mark in respect of such goods.
This enables such marks as the Hall marks on silver, or the Kew
standardisation marks on watches, the certifying marks of the
Testing House, and other like marks to be registered. This
created a class of trade marks, which, prior to 1905, could not have
been protected by registration.
Where two or more parties claim to be the proprietors of the
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 45
same mark, and are not in partnership, the Registrar may refuse
to register it till their rights have been determined by a court ;
but the court can grant it to both parties.
If the registration be not completed within twelve months
from the date of application (through the fault of the applicant)
it is held to be abandoned. When registered it is dated as of the
day of application.
EFFECT OF REGISTRATION.
The registration of a trade mark is primd facie evidence of
the legal right to such trade mark being vested in the person
so first registering.
The registration of a trade mark in Part A is, after seven
years, conclusive evidence of the right to the exclusive use of
the same ; that is to say, the validity of the original registration
cannot be challenged after seven years on the ground of prior
right by third parties, or except for non-user or fraud in using it,
or that the mark has ceased to be a distinguishing mark, i
Registration in Part B is not so conclusive. In any action for
infringement no relief will be granted to the owner of a mark in
Part B, if the defendant establishes to the satisfaction of the
court that the user of which the plaintiff complains is not cal-
culated to deceive.
Abandoning the use of a trade mark for a term of years vitiates
the rights obtained by registration. If, however, its use be
recommenced, the old registration is sufficient against all persons,
except those claiming to have used the mark before the recom-
mencement of using.
Registration lasts for fourteen years, and can be renewed
again and again for further periods of fourteen years. If the
renewal fee be not paid before the expiration of the fourteen
years, the owner has the option of paying it, together with a
prolongation fee, any time during the ensuing one month or with
an additional fee within the next three months ; in default
of which the trade mark is removed from the register, but can
be applied for afresh as if never before registered.
A trade mark having been removed from the register in this
way cannot be registered for another proprietor until after one
year has elapsed, unless it be shown that the non-payment of
the fee arose from the death or bankruptcy of the proprietor,
or from his having ceased to carry on business for more than two
years, and that no person claiming under that proprietor is
using the trade mark.
No proceedings relating to infringement, or to recover damages
in respect of an unregistered mark, can be instituted unless the
mark was in use before August 13, 1875, and has been refused
registration under the new Act.
46 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
A trade mark can only be assigned with the goodwill of the
business in the goods to which it relates, and in cases where a
trade mark owner ceases to carry on business and the goodwill
is divided, the Registrar may, subject to the provisions hereafter
mentioned in the case of associated marks, apportion the marks
to the claimants as he sees fit, subject to appeal to the Board
of Trade.
It is obligatory for a subsequent proprietor of a trade mark
to enter his title on the register. If he fails to do so within six
months of the date of acquisition of the proprietorship, he is fined
ten pounds for the first mark, and half a crown for each subse-
quent mark.
An assignment, unless there be a special clause to the con-
trary, conveys no right to the mark in the Colonies or foreign
countries.
When an applicant registers several marks closely resembling
each other they will only be registered as " associated " marks,
and cannot be assigned separately.
Abandoning the use of a trade mark for a term of years vitiates
the rights obtained by registration. If, however, its use be re-
commenced, the old registration is sufficient against all persons,
except those claiming to have used the mark before the recom-
mencement of using.
AMENDMENT OF REGISTER.
Any interested party can apply for any entry in the register
to be corrected or rectified, or for an address to be altered, for
his own registration of a trade mark to be cancelled in whole
or in part, such as eliminating therefrom a claim for the use of
the trade mark for certain goods, or for a slight alteration in
the trade mark as registered, not affecting its substantial identity,
and from the decision of the Registrar appeal can be had to the
Board of Trade. If the amendment be allowed it is ad-
vertised in the Trade Marks Journal, so that any interested
party can oppose it.
Any interested party can apply to the courts to have a mark
removed from the register in whole or for certain goods if the
mark be not in use at all or for such goods. In certain cases the
Registrar has power to expunge a mark from the register.
SEARCHES.
No trade mark in Part A having strong resemblance to one
already on the register in respect of similar goods is officially
accepted for registration.
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 47
CLASSES.
A trade mark must be registered for particular goods or classes
of goods. Registration in each class is treated as registration
of a separate mark. There are fifty classes of goods.
According to the classification of the Trade Marks Office, they
are as follows : —
1. Chemical substances used in manufactures, photography
or philosophical research and anti-corrosives, such as acids,
alkalies, paints, natural dyes, varnishes, photo films.
2. Chemical substances used for agricultural, horticultural,
veterinary and sanitary purposes, such as manures, sheep-
washes, deodorizers, chloride of lime for disinfecting.
3. Chemical substances used in medicine or pharmacy, such
as tinctures, patent medicines, cod-liver oil, plasters.
4. Raw and partly prepared vegetable, animal, and mineral
substances used in manufactures not included in other classes,
such as resins ; oil for chemical purposes, such as creosote oil ;
dyes other than mineral, tanning materials, wool, silk, bristles,
hair, feathers, cork, linseed, coal, coke, bone, sponge, electric
carbons.
5. Unwrought and partly wrought metals used in manufacture,
rough pig or ingot, hoops, wire, bars, rails, bolts, sheets or plates
of iron, steel, lead, copper, zinc, tin, bismuth, antimony ; also
precious metals in ingots.
6. Machinery (except agricultural machinery), such as steam-
engines, boilers, machine tools, sewing machines, dynamos and
motors.
7. Agricultural machinery, such as ploughs, threshing machines,
churns, cider presses, chaff-cutters.
8. Philosophical instruments and apparatus for useful pur-
poses, such as gauges, school desks, ships' logs, cameras, tele-
graph cables, gramophones, moving-picture apparatus, commu-
tators, volt meters.
9. Musical instruments.
10. Clocks, watches, and horological instruments generally.
11. Surgical apparatus, instruments, and contrivances not
medicated, such as bandages, friction gloves, lancets.
12. Cutlery, and edged tools, such as knives, shears, files, saws.
13. Metal goods not included in other classes, such as anvils,
keys, needles, shovels, corkscrews, electric-light lamps, wire
ropes.
14. Precious and rare metals and jewellery, including alu-
minium, nickel, Britannia metal, plated goods, pencil cases,
and clock cases of such metals.
15. Glass of all kinds.
16. Porcelain, earthenware, bricks, tiles, insulators.
17. Manufactures from mineral and other substances used for
48 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
building, such as cement, plaster, imitation marble, and
asphalt.
18. Engineering, architectural and building contrivances and
apparatus, such as diving, warming, filtering, lighting, or
draining contrivances, electric and pneumatic bells, electric
lighting and heating apparatus.
19. Arms and military stores not explosives, such as guns,
swords, shot and other projectiles, camp equipage and equip-
ments.
20. Explosive substances, such as powder, dynamite, fog
signals, caps, fireworks, cartridges.
21. Naval architectural contrivances and appliances, such as
boats, anchors, chain cables, rigging.
22. Carriages, such as railway waggons, carts, coaches, veloci-
pedes, bicycles, bath chairs, per ambulators, aeroplanes, motorcars.
23. Cotton yarn, thread, and sewing cotton.
24. Cotton piece goods of all kinds, such as cotton shirtings
and longcloths.
25. Cotton goods not included in Classes 23, 24, or 38, such as
handkerchiefs, cotton smallwares, coverlets, d'oyleys, napkins,
shawls, sheets, tablecloths, towels, and dusters.
26. Linen and hemp yarn and thread.
27. Linen and hemp piece goods,
28. Linen and hemp goods not included in Classes 26, 27,
and 50, such as linen cords, braids, trimmings, lace, and other
linen or hemp smallwares.
29. Jute yarns and tissues and other articles made of jute
not included in Class 50.
30. Silk, spun, thrown, or sewing.
31. Silk piece goods.
32. Other silk goods not included in Classes 30 and 31.
33. Yarns of wool, worsted, or hair.
34. Cloths and stuffs of wool, worsted, or hair.
35. Woollen and worsted hair stuffs, not included in Classes 33
and 34.
36. Carpets, floor-cloths, and oilcloth, matting, rugs, drug-
gets, etc.
37. Leather skins (un wrought and wrought), and articles
made of leather not included in other classes, such as harness,
whips, portmanteaus, furs.
• 38. Articles of clothing of all kinds.
39. Paper (except paper-hangings), stationery, printing, book-
binding, ink, playing cards, books, copying presses, blotting
cases, sealing wax, envelopes.
40. Indiarubber and gutta-percha goods not included in other
classes.
41. Furniture and upholstery, paper-hangings, japanned goods,
mirrors, mattresses, papier-mache.
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 49
42. All substances used as food, or ingredients in food, such
as provisions, farm produce, tinned meats, fish, fruit, etc. ;
cereals, pulses, salt, olive oil, tea, coffee, cocoa, confectionery,
hops, malt, oil-cakes, pickles, vinegar, beer clarifiers, etc.
43. Fermented and spirituous liquors, such as beer, cider,
wine, whisky, liqueurs.
44. Mineral and aerated waters, natural or artificial, including
ginger beer.
45. Tobacco of all kinds, manufactured or otherwise.
46. Seeds for agriculture or horticulture.
47. Candles, illuminating, heating, or lubricating oils, matches,
washing blue, common soap, detergents, starch, benzine, washing
powders, chloride of lime, and other chemicals for bleaching.
48. Perfumery, including scented soap, dental powders or
preparations, hair washes, or pomatums.
49. Toys, games, archery, fishing tackle, billiard tables, skates.
50. Miscellaneous, including bags, sacks, tents, tarpaulins,
bone, ivory, and wood manufactures not otherwise classified,
brushes and combs (except artists' brushes), straw and glass
goods not otherwise classified, also cordage, rope, and twine,
animal and vegetable manufactured goods not otherwise classified,
coopers' goods, artificial fuel, drinking flasks (not precious
metal), tobacco pipes, furniture cream, plate powder, diamond
cement, polishing paste, umbrellas, grindstones, oil-stones, hones,
emery, and in general, miscellaneous goods not otherwise classified
in the previous classification.
The owner of a trade mark licensing, or even tacitly per-
mitting, another or rival firm or individual to use his trade mark
forfeits his exclusive right to such trade mark. This does not
apply, however, if the goods marked are the trade mark owner's
own goods put up or bottled by the other.
No word which is the only practicable name or description
of any single chemical element or single chemical compound
as distinguished from a mixture, can be registered as a trade mark.
Where a new article, the subject of a patent, has become
known by a distinctive name, any person is entitled, after the
expiration of the patent, to make or sell it under such name,
and the patentee cannot prolong his monopoly by registering
the same name as a trade mark.
In any legal proceeding referring to the validity of a registered
trade mark, which is decided in favour of the proprietor of such
trade mark, the court may certify the same, and if it so certifies,
then in any subsequent legal proceeding, the proprietor of such
trade mark, on obtaining an order or judgment for infringement,
shall have full costs, charges, and expenses, as between solicitor
and client, unless the court certifies that he ought not to have
the same.
50 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
PROCEDURE IN REGISTERING A TRADE MARK.
The patent and trade mark agent requires seven copies on
paper of each trade mark for each class of goods required, and,
if you have it, a stereo, block for each class, with the following
particulars : —
1st — At what date the trade mark was first used.
2nd — State clearly all the kinds of goods in connection with
which the trade mark is used or intended to be used, refer-
ence being made to the classes. (See pages 47, etc.)
3rd — If you have more than one trade mark, send particulars
of all the trade marks at the same time, as several can be
registered together more cheaply than separately.
4th — A signed letter of authorisation on foolscap paper in the
following words : — " Messrs. of
, are hereby appointed agents
of the undersigned in all matters relating to the application
for the registration of trade marks. Communications to
be sent to their office." Name in full, address
in full, and business. If the applicant be a limited com-
pany it must be signed (Name of Company), per — — ,
Secretary.
PENALTIES.
Any person representing that a mark is registered when it is
not, is liable on summary conviction to a fine of £5 for each offence.
Any person who forges or counterfeits any registered trade
mark is guilty of an offence against the Merchandise Marks Act.
Any person who sells, exposes for sale, or has in his possession
for sale, any article with a forged or counterfeit registered trade
mark, which he knows to be wrongly or fraudulently applied,
is guilty of an offence against said Act.
Any person selling, or exposing for sale, or having in his pos-
session for sale, any article with a forged or counterfeit registered
trade mark, even when not knowing it to be counterfeit, is guilty
of an offence under this Act, unless he can prove to the satis-
faction of the court that hears the case that he had taken all
reasonable precautions against committing an offence ; or that
he had no reason to suspect the genuineness of the trade mark ;
or that on demand he gave all the information in his power
with respect to the persons from whom he obtained such goods ;
or otherwise that he had acted innocently.
Any person who applies to any goods a false trade description
as to the number, quantity, measure, gauge, or weight, the place
or country of origin, the mode of manufacturing, the material
of which they are composed, or falsely denominates them the
subject of an existing patent, privilege, or copyright, is guilty of
an offence against this Act.
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 51
Any person who falsely represents that any goods are made
by a person holding a Royal Warrant, or for the service of His
Majesty or any of the Royal Family, or a Government Depart-
ment, shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty not
exceeding £20.
Any goods of foreign manufacture or origin purporting to be
of English make, or so marked or described that the possession
of them would render the holder liable under this Act, are pro-
hibited importation into the United Kingdom, and may be seized
and retained under the regulations for the Commissioners of
Customs.
In cases where the trade description implies that the goods
are the produce of a given place or country and the goods are
not actually made or produced in that place or country, there
must be added to the trade description immediately before or
after the name of that place or country if given, or after such
implication in an equally conspicuous manner with that name
or implication, the name of the place or country in which the
goods were actually made or produced, with a statement that
they were made or produced there.
Any person within the United Kingdom aiding or abetting
in the commission, without the kingdom, of an act which, if
committed within the kingdom, would be an offence, is guilty
of an offence against the Act as a principle, and may be prose-
cuted at the place at which he resides.
Every person guilty of an offence against the Act is liable —
1. On conviction on indictment to imprisonment, with
or without hard labour, for a term not exceeding two years,
or to a fine, or to both imprisonment and fine.
2. On summary conviction to imprisonment, with or
without hard labour, for a term not exceeding four months,
or to a fine not exceeding £20 ; and in the case of a second
or subsequent conviction, with or without hard labour, for
a term not exceeding six months, and to a fine not exceeding
£50.
3. In any case he forfeits to His Majesty every chattel,
article, instrument, or thing falsely marked, or by means of,
or in relation to which the offence has been committed.
FOREIGN REGISTRATION.
It is also of the utmost importance to those merchants and
manufacturers whose goods are exported to have their trade
marks registered in every country or colony in the markets of
which the goods are sold. Registration at home gives no pro-
tection whatever outside the United Kingdom, and it is well
known that native manufacturers, and those competing from
other foreign countries, pirate and counterfeit British traders'
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
marks when such are not registered in the country to which
the goods are going. Instances, too, frequently occur of the con-
signee of a British trader registering the mark as his own, for
the purpose of securing a monopoly to himself of all goods so
marked.
We therefore strongly advise all owners of trade marks to have
them registered in any and every country in which their goods
find a market.
The following is a list of the foreign countries and British
Colonies in which the rights to trade marks can be secured by
registration : —
* Antigua.
Argentine Confed.
Australia.
Austria.
Bahamas.
Barbadoes.
Basutoland.
Bechuanaland.
Belgium.
Bermuda.
Bolivia.
Brazil.
British Central Africa.
British Guiana.
British Honduras.
British North Borneo.
Bulgaria.
Canada.
Ceylon.
Channel Islands.
Chili.
*China.
Colombia (U.S. of).
Congo Free State.
Costa Rica.
Cuba.
Cyprus.
Czecho-Slovakia.
Deccan.
Denmark.
* Dominican Republic.
Dutch East Indies.
Dutch West Indies.
East Africa.
Ecuador.
Egypt.
Falkland Islands.
Fiji.
Finland.
France and Colonies.
Gambia.
Germany.
Gold Coast.
Greece.
"Grenada.
Guatemala.
"Hayti.
Holland.
Honduras (Republic).
Hong Kong.
Hungary.
Iceland.
India.
Italy.
Jamaica.
Japan.
Jodhpur.
Jugo-Slavia.
Kedar.
Kelatan.
Leeward I si.
Liberia.
Luxembourg.
Malay States.
Malta and Gozo.
Mauritius.
Mexico.
Morocco (French).
Mysore.
Newfoundland.
New Zealand.
Nicaragua.
Nigeria.
Norway.
Nyassaland.
Oman.
Palestine.
Panama.
Paraguay.
Peru.
Philippine Islands.
Poland.
Porto Rico.
Portugal.
* No Trade Mark Registration I<aw exists in this country, but we advise the advertisement
of the trade mark as a warning to the public and as a means of proving ownership in the person
who advertises in case of suit.
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 53
Portuguese Colonies. St. Lucia.
Rhodesia. 'Straits Settlements and Labuan.
Roumama. Surinam.
Russia. Sweden.
San Domingo. Switzerland.
San Salvador. Trinidad.
Siam. Tunis.
Sierra Leone. Turkey.
* Soudan. United States.
South Africa. Uruguay.
Spain. Venezuela.
St. Helena. Zanzibar.
The first application for a trade mark in one of the countries
of the International Convention or Union for Industrial Property
gives a priority period of four months in the other countries (see
page 22).
COPYRIGHT.
By the Act of 1911, which came into force July I, 1912,
there is no registration of copyright, but the author of any literary,
musical, or artistic matter is entitled, without registration, to
the copyright of his work for his lifetime, and fifty years after,
provided the author be a British subject, resident in the realm
at the time of first publication, or in the case of unpublished
matter, if he be a British subject. The Government has a right
to extend the whole or part of this privilege to the citizens or
subjects of all countries having international agreements for
the purpose with Great Britain, and also to the self-governing
colonies of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, and
South Africa. All other British Colonies are for the purposes of
this Act considered a part of Great Britain. To secure the copy-
right five special public libraries have to be supplied with a copy
each, and certain other libraries have the right to a gratis copy
from the author, if they write for it.
Sculptures are protected for fourteen years, with a further
term of fourteen years if the original sculptor be then living, by
the simple act of placing them in a public position, and marking
them with the name of the sculptor in each case before being
exhibited or sold.
COLONIAL COPYRIGHT.
A British copyright extends to the colonies, except Canada,
and vice versa ; but the colonies can allow the importation of
foreign reprints into their territories on paying a small fee for
each reprint to the British author. The Dominion of Canada
* No Trade Mark Registration Law exists in this country, but we advise the advertisement
of the trade mark as a warning to the public and as a means of proving ownership in the person
who advertises in case of suit.
54 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
did this till December 1894, but then passed an Act stopping
the collection of said fees, and has since passed a copyright law
of its own.
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT.
Belgium, the British Empire (except Canada), France, Ger-
many, Hayti, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, Norway, Spain,
Switzerland, Tunis, and Japan, form the Copyright Union, and
copyright in any one country of the union gives copyright in
the others. The United States and England have a copyright
treaty, and simultaneous publication in the two countries (the
printing being done in each case from type set in that country)
and registering in accordance with the law protects the copyright
in both countries. France, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland,
Italy, and Germany also have a similar understanding with the
United States.
FOREIGN PATENTS.
As inventions, designs and trade marks, valuable in this country
are usually equally so in foreign states and colonies, we append,
as a second part of this work, a brief epitome of the law of
each country — longer for the more important ones than for
those of less importance. In this we have endeavoured to give,
in a concise form, those parts of the respective laws most
valuable to a patentee.
FOREIGN PATENT LAWS
AFRICA.
NEARLY all the British colonies, no matter how small, have a
separate patent law which may be looked for under the name of
the respective colonies. Some of the French, Italian, Spanish,
and Portuguese colonies are covered by patents of their
mother-countries. Tripoli is covered by the Italian patent,
Madagascar and Algeria by the French, while Congo Free State,
Egypt, but not Soudan (British and Egyptian), South Africa,
Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Rhodesia, Zanzibar, East African Protec-
torate, Gambia, Gold Coast, Liberia, Morocco (French zone),
Tunis, Uganda, and Basutoland have independent patent laws
and grant patents. These will be found under the headings of
the respective states.
ALGERIA.
This country is covered by the French patent.
AMERICA (NORTH).
See Canada, Mexico, Newfoundland, and United States.
AMERICA (CENTRAL).
See British Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua,
Salvador, Panama, and the various West Indian Islands.
AMERICA (SOUTH).
See Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chili, Colombia, Ecuador,
Guiana, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela.
ARGENTINA.
(Law of ii October, 1864.)
Population, 8,300,000.
Anything that would be patentable in Great Britain, except;
medicines, can be protected by the inventor or his legitimate
representative in Argentina.
55
56 ARGENTINA.
Kinds of Patents :
(1) Patents of Invention. For new inventions not patented
in any country previously are granted for five, ten, or
fifteen years, according to wish of applicant and merit
of invention. If a short term be applied for, it cannot
be extended after action has been taken on the applica-
tion by the patent authorities.
(2) Patents of addition to expire with the original patent.
(3) Certificates of Revalidation. Granted for inventions al-
ready patented abroad and expiring with the original
foreign patent. These are not granted in any case for
more than ten years. Inventions already at work in
the realm cannot be validly protected in this way.
(4) Improvements. Granted for improvements on an existing
patent, and usually expiring with it.
(5) Provisional. These are of little value, except to residents.
They are kept secret, and can be renewed from year to
year.
A patent granted in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, or
Uruguay carries with it provisional protection for one year in
all the other of the above states. The Pan-American Congress,
1910, unanimously passed a resolution to arrange a single Patent
Office for the whole of Ameriea, except Canada and other Euro-
pean colonies. This has not yet been carried out.
A printed publication in any country before the application
in the Argentine is fatal to the patent afterwards applied for,
except the official publication of a corresponding foreign patent
of the applicant.
There is an examination system, chiefly by independent experts,
and a system of appeals is allowed in case of rejection.
In the case of patents of addition granted to other than the
patentee of the original patent, the government assess the
royalty he has to pay to the original inventor, and the latter can
choose whether to accept such royalty or the two inventors can
work the improvement freely in competition.
Patents can be opposed by interested parties on the ground
that they have previously applied for the same invention, or
that it is provisionally protected by them. In such case, if
the two applications be found to be identical, both are refused
till the parties can come to an agreement.
The invention must be worked in the Republic within two
years from the grant of the Letters Patent, and working in the
realm must not be entirely interrupted for two entire consecutive
years except by circumstances beyond the control of the patentee
or accident duly certified by the office, otherwise the patent
becomes void.
In the case of machinery, working can be effected by working
a machine imported from abroad.
ARGENTINA— ASHANTI— AUSTRALIA. 57
Infringement is a criminal offence, punishable with fine of
from 50 to 500 piastres (about £7 to £70), or imprisonment of
from one to six months. (Second offence within five years,
penalty doubled.)
The counterfeit articles are also confiscated to the patentee,
and the latter can obtain costs and damages from the infringer.
The sole defences allowed are invalidity of patent or right of
ownership in patent.
It is considered an aggravation of the offence if the infringer
has been in the service or confidence of the patentee, or has
obtained the information surreptitiously. Besides damages for
infringement and the confiscation to him of the counterfeited
articles, the patentee or informer obtains half of the fine.
Assignments can be registered, but all the annual taxes must
be first paid.
Illegal use of the word " Patent," or exhibiting for sale (or
even giving away) infringements on a patent, subjects the offender
to the above-mentioned fines or imprisonment. These laws are
easily put in force.
A bill for the protection of designs and models has been before
Congress since 1907, but has, we believe, not iyet come into
operation.
Argentina is a very wealthy and pushing, and of late settled,
state, with a magnificent railway system. Agricultural, well-
boring, railway, milling, and household inventions are in demand.
There are annual taxes, payable always in January.
Trade marks can be registered.
ASHANTI.
Gold Coast patents cover this dependency.
COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, INCLUDING TASMANIA
AND PAPUA (BRITISH NEW GUINEA).
(Law of 22 October, 1903, amended 1906 and 1909.)
Population, 5,500,000.
Who can Pateni — Any inventor, whether subject or alien, or
his assignee, attorney, agent, nominee, or legal representative,
or a person to whom any such individual being abroad at the
time communicates the invention, or any two or more of these,
may apply for a patent.
Kind and Duration of Patents. — (i) Provisional protection
for nine months ; (2) complete patent for fourteen years ; (3)
patent for improvement to expire with the original patent ; and
(4) cognate applications, that is, additions to provisional cases,
are all granted as in Great Britain.
58 AUSTRALIA— AUSTRIA.
The Examination System. — The examination system is prac-
tically the same as in Great Britain, but the Appeal from the
Comptroller is to the High or Supreme Court, in the case of
novelty being called in question, and to the Law Officer in other
cases. Accepted applications are open to public inspection
for three months for opposition by interested parties, and besides
the English grounds of opposition (except insufficiency), the follow-
ing can be brought against the patent, namely, that it is not
new, that it has been abandoned to the public, or that the status
of the applicant as regards his own title to the invention is not
as stated. The invalidity of one or more claims of a patent has
no effect on the validity of other claims. This is a very valuable
improvement which under the law of 1919 has substantially
been engrafted on to English practice.
The law as relates to novelty disclaimers, infringements,
amendments, revocations of patents, compulsory licenses,
remedy in case of groundless threats of legal proceedings, and
practising patent agency without a license is practically identical
with the British, but the Court has more discretion in favour of
the patentee in case of proceedings for nullification of the patent
on the ground that after four years' duration it is mainly or
entirely worked outside the realm. All patented articles must
be marked " Patent," with the number and year of grant.
About 4,000 applications for patents are made yearly.
Australia has joined the Union for the Protection of Industrial
Property.
There are no annual taxes, but a single small tax payable
near the end of the seventh year.
Designs can be registered for five years, renewable to ten and
possibly fifteen years.
Trade marks can be registered. About 2,500 were placed on
the register in 1919.
AUSTRIA.
(Law of ii Jan., 1897, and 29 Dec., 1908.)
Population, 9,500,000.
War. — See note under head " Germany."
Kind and Duration o£ Patents. — Patents of invention are
granted for fifteen years, subject to an annual tax. Patents
of addition are granted for improvements on existing patents,
to expire with the original patent, and subject only to applica-
tion fees and a tax of 25 florins to be paid within three months
of the grant ; but in case the original patent be revoked, annul-
led, or renounced, the patent of addition can be continued, as
an original patent, to fifteen years from the date of the original
patent, by payment of the taxes that would have been due on
the original patent.
AUSTRIA. 59
Who can Patent. — The true and first inventor or his assignee
or representative has alone the right of patenting an invention,
but the first applicant will be considered the inventor till proved
not to be so by the real inventor or his representative or assignee.
All contracts between employers and employees that the future
inventions of the latter shall be the property of the former are
of themselves null and void, but an employee can sell to his
employer any given invention he may be possessed of.
What can be Patented. — Any new manufacture or process of
manufacture can be patented unless it be (i) immoral or contrary
to public health, (2) a medicine, (3) a disinfectant, (4) a chemi-
cal substance, (5) a food for human beings, or (6) appertaining
to an article which is a monopoly of State. A process for manu-
facture of any article under the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th heads is
patentable.
Novelty. — The invention to be patentable must not have
been fully described in print in any country, publicly worked,
exhibited, or previously patented in the realm. The Govern-
ment can, however, by notice in the Patent Journal, exempt
the official Patent Office publications of any given country
from being considered publications under this head. Any one,
however, who has privately used the invention before the date
of the patent in his own works or elsewhere in the realm, or has
made proper arrangements for using the same, can continue in
such works to exploit the invention (for his own use or business
only) without let or hindrance from the patentee.
Austria has joined the Union for the Protection of Industrial
Property (see page 22).
Rights Conferred by Patent. — A patent confers on its owner
the exclusive right to make, use, exercise, or sell the invention
in the realm, and if it be for a process, this right extends to all
products made by such process, even though themselves un-
patentable. The Government has the right of using or appro-
priating in whole or in part, or of annulling, a patent relating to
munitions of war or other patent likely to be useful to the state,
and giving such recompense as with the assistance of experts it
thinks fair to the patentee.
A person, however, proving that he himself had the invention
at work in the realm before the application for the patent, even
if the user be after the date claimed under the Convention, can
continue to use it to the end of the term without paying any
royalty, but such prior using does not make the patent invalid
against other parties.
An application under the Convention in Austria must be made
within twelve months from the date of the first application for
a patent for said invention abroad, or if applied for within six
months of the signing of the Treaty of Peace of the Great War —
if patented in another country of the union since August I, 1913,
69 AUSTRIA.
but without prejudice to rights of those parties who have got to
work on the invention.
All applications for patents are examined by the official
examiner (and by experts called in for the purpose, should the
office require their services), and the applicant may be called
upon to amend or subdivide his application. Against all de-
cisions of the officials appeal can be had to the Patent Court.
Assignments and Licenses. — These can be made as in England,
and registered, but till registered they are not binding on third
parties, and they take effect in their order of registration, the
first registered taking priority over a later registration, even
though the last registered document was the first executed.
Compulsory Licenses. — If after the first three years of its
duration a patent is not publicly worked by the inventor to
sufficently supply the reasonable demands of the public, or
another patentee has a patent which requires for its economical
working the use of such prior patent, the patentee can be com-
pelled by the Patent Office to grant licenses at reasonable
rates.
Renunciations and Revocations. — A patent can be renounced
by a patentee or whole or part owner, and thus the latter can
escape all costs in subsequent actions for annulment, but such
renunciation only affects the person making it, the rights of
other owners of the patent being unaffected by it.
Working. — A patent can be revoked if the patentee do not
work the same or make arrangements for others to work it to
a convenient extent, and this even during the first three years
of duration if the invention be worked abroad and the public
interest demands such revocation. In practice the courts
admit as proof of working at the termination of the first three
years the mere commencement of working, such as making a
distinctive part of the machine, but if this be not gone on with
vigorously and the entire invention set to work, or if the inventor
supplies the demand mainly from abroad, the patent will be
declared void.
This revocation will not, however, be decreed until after the
patentee has had due warning and has continued to leave the
patent unworked, and can only be revoked at the suit of an
interested party. If the patent be at work at the time the
suit is brought it matters not that it was not worked during the
first three years.
A patent can be annulled if it be found to have been illegally
granted or the invention be not new or patentable at the date of
the patent.
A patent can be transferred by a court to the rightful owner
if it be proved that the invention was made by, and fraudulently
taken from, another party claiming it.
Infringements are punishable by fine, by confiscation to the
AUSTRIA— BAHAMA ISLANDS— BARBADOES. 61
State of the infringing articles, and the payment of cost and
damages to the patentee, and the publication of the sentence
at the expense of the infringer. Where a patented process for
a new article is infringed all articles of the same nature will be
considered to have been made by the patented process, and be
infringements until proved not to be such.
Any person can demand of the courts an authoritative de-
cision whether any given manufacture he is engaged in, or intends
to engage in, is an infringement of any given patent. This
decision obtained is conclusive against the patentee.
Taxes. — There are annual and progressively increasing taxes
to be paid on each patent of invention, otherwise it becomes
void. These taxes must be paid on or before the anniversary of
publication of the application for the patent in the Patent Journal,
or within three months after.
Before the war about 12,000 patents were applied for annually,
and about 5,500 granted. Household, electrical, milling, and,
to a certain extent, chemical inventions are those most favoured.
Designs can be registered for three years, and designs which
went void during the war are resuscitated. War time being
a " dies non " as regards designs.
Trade marks can be registered.
BAHAMA ISLANDS.
(Law of 23 May, 1889, and 3 March, 1890.)
Population, 60,000.
The true and first inventor can obtain a patent for seven
years, renewable for another seven years, and then again for a
third term of seven years, provided it was not known to any
person in the colony at the time of application, except, of
course, the applicant's own agent. It may have been well known
elsewhere.
The patent is published before grant, and can be opposed.
Licenses have to be recorded to be valid.
The English Compulsory License Clause is re-enacted in the
colony.
BARBADOES.
(Law of 19 March, 1903.)
Population, 200,000.
Patents for new inventions are granted for fourteen years.
The annual taxes amount to £150 during the fourteen years.
62 BASUTOLAND— BELGIUM.
BASUTOLAND.
Population, 400,000.
A South African patent can be extended to Basutoland ; the
South African patent must be produced. Very few have been
secured so far. There are small taxes payable in Basutoland at
the ends of the third, seventh, and tenth years.
BELGIUM.
(Law of 24 May, 1854.)
Population, 7,500,000.
Varieties and Duration of Patents.— Patents are of three
kinds : (i) Patents of Invention, (2) Patents of Addition, and
(3) Patents of Importation. Convention Patents, see page 22.
Except in the case of Patents of Importation, a patent is null
and void (ist) if the invention has been accurately described
in any printed book, circular, printed picture, or photograph, in
any country, before the date of the patent or priority secured
under the convention ; (2nd) if it has been worked commercially
in the kingdom by other than the inventor or those holding
rights under him before the date of the patent ; (3rd) if there
be at the time in existence, in Belgium or abroad, a patent for
the same invention of date prior to that claimed for the Belgian
patent.
A valid patent of importation, granted only for the nominal
duration of an existing foreign patent for the same invention,
can, however, be obtained by the patentee of the said foreign
patent, or his assigns, so long as it has not been worked com-
mercially in Belgium previous to date of application for the
Belgian patent by parties not holding rights under the said
patentee, or his agents or assigns. It may have been described
in books printed by Government authority, but if fully described
in print, in works other than official, before the date of applica-
tion, the patent can be declared void.
Patents of invention are granted for twenty years, subject,
however, to the payment of an annual progressive tax. Payment
of these taxes must be made the day during which they become
due, but can, in default, be made good by paying the tax and
an additional fine any time within six months of the date they
become due.
Patents of importation last only for the term of the foreign
patent of longest duration, and are subject to the above annual
tax, and limited by the term of twenty years from the date of
application.
Patents of Addition are for improvements on existing patents,
and can be taken out by the inventor of the original patent of
BELGIUM. 63
invention or importation. They are granted free of annual
tax for the remainder of the term of the original patent ; but
the annulment of the latter (except for non-payment of tax)
does not entail the loss of the patent of addition, provided the
taxes on the original patent continue to be paid. The owner of
a patent of addition on a patent owned by another cannot work
the original patent without a license, and vice versa. If, however,
the original patentee declines to keep up the patent, the patentee
of the addition can pay the annuities for him, so as to keep his
own patent up, but even then cannot use the original patent
without a license. There are hardly any cases of patents of addi-
tion being taken out except by the owner of the original patent,
as in such cases the administration requires taxes to be paid by
the owner of the patent of addition, and it is, therefore, better to
apply for an original patent.
Novelty. — An invention must be new in the realm at the time
of application of the patent in Belgium or (if an importation or
" Convention " patent, see page 22) at the date of the original
application abroad on which it is based.
If a part be proved old, and another part of the invention be
new, and the combination new, even if all three be claimed
separately, the entire patent is not nullified, but only that portion
claiming the old part taken separately, the new part and the
combination being still validly patented.
As in England but contrary to French law, the sale of pro-
ducts of the patented machine, or process, in the realm by the
inventor, previous to the application for the patent, destroys
the validity of a patent of invention for the said machine. Pub-
licly exhibiting the invention does not destroy the validity of a
patent afterwards obtained, nor the sale of articles made by the
patented process or machine by third parties without the cog-
nisance of the inventor.
Proof of private possession of the invention by a third party
in the realm, and without the concurrency of the inventor,
prior to the actual date of the patent, does not invalidate the
patent, but gives the possessor a legal right to infringe the patent
during its continuance.
Who can Patent. — All inventors, Belgian or alien, the assignees
of said inventors, and practically others besides the true and first
inventor, can obtain valid patents for inventions, provided they
be new. Heirs or executors of a dead inventor can patent the
invention imparted to them by the deceased.
If a patentee be proved to have obtained the knowledge of
his invention from the true and first inventor by fraud, the real
inventor can by law obtain the transfer of the patent rights to
himself, or their nullification.
Procedure.— All patents applied for, if the documents be in
proper form, and the fees paid, are granted without examina-
64 BELGIUM.
tion as to novelty, and without guarantee of the Government
as to sufficiency, validity, or merit.
The specifications and drawings must describe the invention
so accurately that any ordinary workman in the trade to which it
relates can work it without making fresh experiments ; the
drawings must be to metrical scale, and the specification must
end with distinct claims. In this latter respect the Belgian law
is almost exactly the same as the English and American.
The specification must also set forth exactly what parts are
new and what old.
The patent dates from the hour of application in Belgium.
What can be Patented. — Any invention, discovery, or improve-
ment, susceptible of being worked as an object of industry or
commerce, can be patented, with the following exceptions.
Medical appliances, medicines and inventions for a curative
or health-preserving object, cannot be patented in Belgium, but
bottles, capsules, and surgical instruments, processes for making
medicines and the like, also antiseptics and disinfectants can
be validly protected.
So can veterinary medicines as such, but the patented article
can be made and used for human beings without infringing on
the patent.
Artistic and literary productions cannot be patented, but are
perfectly protected under the decree 19 to 24, July 1793.
Mere changes in form, quantity, material, or colour, cannot be
patented unless productive of new results.
In a combination producing a new result the combination
can be patented, but not the new result, and any one finding a
new way of effecting that new result can obtain a valid indepen-
dent patent for the new combination.
A discovery to be validly patentable must exist through
human intervention — thus the discovery of a new mineral could
not be patented ; the discovery that gas can be purified by pass-
ing it over a certain chemical could be validly protected.
One patent cannot be granted for two inventions entirely
disconnected with each other. This proviso is construed more
liberally in Belgium than in England and America.
Rights conferred by Patent — Belgian patents give substan-
tially the same rights to their possessors that English and American
ones do in their respective countries. A patent is in all respects
personal property. If several persons hold a patent in common,
each has the right of working it independently of the others,
unless otherwise arranged by special agreement ; but should any
proprietor prove that another is getting heavy profits that ought
equitably to be divided between the co-proprietors — such as
royalty for a license — a court of equity will rectify the grievance.
A license, however, granted by a partial proprietor is valid.
The patent gives the right to prosecute before the tribunals
BELGIUM. 65
all those who make, import, or employ commercially, sell, or ex-
pose for sale, the invention patented. Personal use of the in-
vention, when not commercial, is no infringement. The actual
manufacturer — not the man who ordered the infringement — is
the person to proceed against. The author, however, of plans
and specifications from which the article is made, is held to be
an infringer as well as the actual manufacturer.
If a machine be patented, but not its application, the maker
or importer only can be proceeded against, not the user, even
if he uses it for a commercial purpose. The possessor of a counter-
feit article, or of apparatus specially designed for working a
patented process, is legally an infringer, if it can be shown that the
intention of the possessor of said article or apparatus was to
commercially use the invention, even if no such use be proved.
If, however, he possess these articles as security for debt only,
or to use them only for his personal wants, and not to make a trade
of them, he is clear of infringement.
Articles passing through the realm, in transit from one foreign
country to another, are not liable to seizure ; this holds good
for nearly all European countries.
Working. — A patent can be declared null and void if it be
proved that the patent is yet unworked by the inventor, his
licensees and agents, or assigns, in Belgium, at any time after
one year from the date of the patent, and if it has been worked
abroad with the knowledge of the inventor more than one year
previously ; also, if said working be suspended continuously
in Belgium for one whole year after it has been first worked
abroad. This provision of the law is very liberally interpreted
in favour of the inventor, it having been decided that the working
of any part of the invention or of a patent of addition, and public
exhibition of the invention in the country, or the importation of
a part and granting of a license to manufacture, is a sufficient
working. Practically the first working abroad must be effected
within one year of the date when proof of working was made
in any other country — for instance, in France, Germany, or
Austria. The delay of one year can, prior to its expiration,
frequently be prolonged another year by petition to Govern-
ment.
Even if the invention be worked in a small way in the realm,
if it be imported to a very much larger extent from abroad,
the courts consider it has not been properly worked. To upset
a patent under the working clause, a suit must be entered by
an interested party.
Discontinuing working for a complete year also constitutes
a ground for annulment.
In the case of patents applied for under the Convention, three
years from the date of application is allowed in which to effect
the working.
5
66 BELGIUM.
Licenses and Assignments.— An exclusive license must be
signed by the entire proprietary, and entails on the owners of
the patent the obligation to prosecute infringers if required by
the licensee.
Assignments and licenses of patent should, to be valid against
third parties, be registered at the Department of the Interior ;
or should obtain a " certain date " some other way (that is a
legal proof of date). This can be done by obtaining the seal of
a court, the attestation of a notary, the certificate of date of
death of one of the signatories, or any other official document
by which the deed can be proved to have been in existence
at a specified date. Registration is not necessary in this case,
but is useful, as the registration is officially published, this mode
of obtaining a " certain date " is that usually adopted.
Licenses can also be registered. The registration fee in these
cases is variable.
The vendor of a patent, in selling it, practically guarantees
to the purchaser that his title to the invention is perfect, also
that the patent is valid, and that everything mentioned in the
specification is true ; he does not guarantee in other respects
the utility or success of the invention. Should any of these
practical guarantees be vitiated, the purchaser can oblige the
vendor to receive back the patent, and return the money. Unless
a clear case of fraud be proved, these rights cannot be enforced
anywhere but on French or Belgian soil.
Infringement Suits. — The penalties for knowingly infringing
are : — The confiscation to the patentee of the counterfeit articles
and all apparatus specially destined for making them, the value
in money of all counterfeit articles already sold, and damages
for infringement. The penalties for infringing through ignorance
are an injunction from continuing the infringement and assessed
damages.
The articles aforesaid can be seized, even when pledged to
another.
The court can in all cases, if it see fit, and generally does,
give the aggrieved party the right of publishing, by public
advertisement, at the cost of the inf ringer, the full or abridged
account of the trial and sentence.
Any one or more of the joint owners or licensees of a patent
can become a party to an action for infringement before a civil
tribunal. (
Patent actions in Belgium are much cheaper and more quickly
decided than in England.
If the plaintiff be resident abroad he must deposit with the
court security for costs in money.
Annulling a Patent — Patents can be annulled by the tribunals
partially or entirely — if the description be intentionally obscure,
or to incomplete or not sufficiently explicit for an ordinary person
BELGIUM— BERMUDA. 67
in the trade to which it relates to be able to work it without
experiment or invention ; if an important part have been with-
held ; if it be not an invention of man ; if it be not commercial
or industrial ; if it be contrary to public law or morals ; if it
be not new ; if it have been commercially worked in the kingdom
prior to the date of the patent by parties unconnected with the
inventor ; or if the annual tax be not paid. The annulment of
the foreign patent on which it was based before the end of the
term for which it was originally granted does not nullify the Bel-
gian patent of importation.
A patent is good until pronounced by the administration to
be cancelled ; such pronunciation is final, and cannot be ap-
pealed against.
Official Publication. — A description, embracing the essential
points of every patented invention, is published by the autho-
rities in the official Recueil special des Inventions — nominally
three months after the grant of the patent. This publication
is, however, usually a year or more in arrear. Until these three
months have expired, the invention is kept secret by Govern-
ment, after which any one can, on paying the cost of copying,
obtain from the authorities a description embracing the entire
substance of the invention.
About 10,500 patents of all kinds were secured yearly before
the war.
Belgium for its size was probably the greatest manufacturing
country in the world till the war, and is rapidly recovering from
the affects of the " occupation."
Absolutely new models or designs can be registered for any
number of years or in perpetuity.
Belgium, in a very full manner, extended the duration of all
patents held during the war time, even those that went void
during the war.
All patents, except those of addition, are subject to an annual
tax on pain of forfeiture.
Designs and trade marks can be registered.
BERMUDA.
(Law of 18 November, 1902.)
Population, 18,000.
The law is almost identical with the present English law,
except that there is no provisional protection, or annual taxes.
Designs are registrable for five years. Trade marks can also be
registered.
68 BOLIVIA.
BOLIVIA.
(Law of 16 November, 1916.)
Population, 2,800,000.
Any invention patentable in Great Britain, except medicines,
can be patented in Bolivia for fifteen years, provided it is not
known or published in any country. It is granted to the
inventor, or his legal representative or assign.
Inventions already patented in other countries can be
secured by the inventor or his assign as patents of importation,
provided they be applied for within one year of the earliest
application abroad, but the legal date in such case shall be
that which corresponds to the foreign patent, and the patent
shall expire with the foreign patent.
Patents of Addition can be obtained by the owner of the original
patent for improvement thereon.
There are annual progressive taxes for patents of invention,
and taxes, half the amount on each patent of addition.
Working in the realm must be proved before a District Judge
and Prefect within two years of the date of the grant, but this
period can be" extended on showing sufficient cause for two
years longer.
The ministry has power to expropriate a patent and indemnify
the patentee.
The granting of a patent in the Argentine, Bolivia, Peru,
Paraguay or Uruguay, gives provisional protection in the others
of these countries for one year from the grant of such first patent.
Also the publication of the invention in an official or officially
certified exhibition is equivalent to provisional protection for
one year. An inventor also can apply for a provisional patent
for a term of one year which may be prolonged to two years.
Any person can apply for a compulsory license to work an
invention if he can show that the invention has not been worked
in the realm for two years, or has been abandoned for a time,
and if his petition be allowed by the courts he pays a royalty
of half his profits to the inventor, and any failure to do this
is not merely a civil but a criminal offence. It is also a criminal
offence to infringe a patent, the penalty being a fine of from
100 to 2,000 Bolivians, or six months' to two years' imprison-
ment or both, at the discretion of the judge.
The patentee can also obtain damages and the sequestration
of instruments, of machines and products made or employed
in forming his rights.
Compulsory registration has been decreed for all trade marks
used in[Bolivia to mark foreign goods, under penalty of a fine.
Term of registration — ten years, renewable.
BORNEO, BRITISH AND SARAWAK— BRAZIL. 69
BORNEO, BRITISH AND SARAWAK.
Population, 600,000.
The Straits Settlements patent law has been adopted for this
Colony.
BRAZIL.
(Law of 14 October, 1882.)
Population, 24,300,000.
Kinds and Duration of Patents. — Patents of invention are
granted for fifteen years from date of grant.
Patents for improvements on existing patents, free of annual
taxes, are granted to expire with existing patent.
An invention patented abroad can be protected in Brazil by
the inventor within seven or under the convention twelve months
of the date of application for the original foreign patent, not-
withstanding any publication during the interim ; and such
patent takes priority over an application by another inventor
for the same invention during said interim, but expires with the
original foreign patent.
Provisional protection for a definite period, six months to
three years, is granted, if desired, before patenting, to an in-
ventor desirous of experimenting in public or exhibiting his
invention.
What can be Patented. — Any new industrial product, or new
process, or new application of old process for obtaining an in-
dustrial product or result, or improvement on an existing patented
invention, can be patented.
By new is meant not in commercial use and unpublished in
any country before application for a patent.
Procedure. — There is an examination before grant of the
patent, stricter in the case of chemical, alimentary, or phar-
maceutical inventions than with others, but only with a view
of ascertaining if the documents be in order, whether the in-
vention be dangerous to public health, security, law, or morality,
and whether it be patentable. The question of novelty is
little gone into. About 400 are granted each year.
In applying for a patent of addition the original patent on
which it is based must be forwarded to Brazil.
Two or more inventions cannot be protected under one patent.
Rights conferred. — It is an infringement of the patent to
make, sell, conceal, receive for the purposes of sale or import,
the patented article, or use the patented process, and the penalty
of such infringement is a fine of from £100 to £1,000, and 10 to
50 per cent, of the real and constructive damages (and the for-
feiture to the patentee, in aggravated cases, of the counterfeit
70 BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICAN PROTECTORATE.
articles and plant for their manufacture). When the inf ringer
has been associated as an agent or employee with the patentee,
it is considered an aggravation of the offence.
Co-patentees have equal and independent rights to use the
invention.
The Government can at any time purchase the patent at a
valuation.
Working. — The invention must be worked in a bond fide
manner in the realm within three years of the date of the patent,
and to such an extent as to supply the wants of the country and
each part of it, at reasonable rates, and such working must not
be suspended except in case of force majeure (a state of siege,
for instance, preventing the working), on pain of forfeiture of
the patent rights over that portion of the territory that, in the
opinion of the authorities, was not properly supplied. Merely
supplying the patented article made abroad and keeping a stock
of same on sale is held to be working in most cases.
Improper use o! word "Patent." — There is a fine of from
£20 to £100 for the use of the word " Patent," or its equivalent,
for any unpatented article, or article for which the patent has
expired.
Taxes. — All Patents of Invention are subject to an annual
tax at the end of the first year, and increasing a little each year.
Trade marks are registrable.
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICAN PROTECTORATE.
(Ordinance No. 9, 1903.)
Population, whites, 700.
„ coloured, 750,000.
The law, taxes, practice, and costs are the same as the British
in every important respect.
This Colony has joined the Union for the Protection of In-
dustrial Property.
Taxes as in Great Britain.
BRITISH GUIANA.
(Ordinance of 6 December, 1902.)
Population, 310,000.
The British law with slight modifications has been re-enacted
for British Guiana, the differences being that the assigns of
inventors can apply for patents, that the fees are much heavier,
and the annual taxes are changed to a single tax at the end of
the seventh year. Duration of patent : fourteen years.
BRITISH HONDURAS— DOMINION OF CANADA. 71
BRITISH HONDURAS.
(See Honduras [British].)
BULGARIA.
Population, 5,000,000.
No patents are granted, but a law for the purpose is being
considered.
Trade marks can be registered.
DOMINION OF CANADA.
(Revised statute, 1906, and Ordinance of 16 May, 1913.)
Population, 8,000,000.
Kinds of Protection and Duration.— There are two kinds of
protection, patents and caveats (or provisional protections).
Patents are granted for eighteen years.
In cases where an inventor, wishing to perfect his invention
by experiment before applying for a patent, fears that others
may forestall him, he may file a caveat, that is, a description
of his invention, to be kept secret in the Patent Offices at Ottawa
until such time as he patents the invention.
This caveat remains in force one year, and can be renewed
as often as desired.
During the existence of the caveat, should another party
apply for a patent for an invention infringing on that forming
the subject of the caveat, the Government is bound to give the
caveator three months during which to file his application for
a patent, when, if the claims to the two specifications be found to
interfere with each other, a court, consisting of three sworn
arbitrators, is appointed to decide who is best entitled to the
invention. The arbitrators, skilled persons, one chosen by each
party and the third by the Commissioner of Patents, have power
to compel the attendance of witnesses, to take sworn evidence,
oral or written, and from their decision there is no appeal. A
similar court decides all cases of interfering applications for
patents ; that is, cases where two independent applicants
lay claim to the same invention. As an alternative the inventor
may ask the Exchequer court to decide the question.
There is another form of caveat (provisional protection) which
can be used when a patent has been applied for abroad. If
this caveat be applied for within three months of the grant of
the first foreign (or British) patent for the same invention and
a patent be applied for in Canada within a year of the grant of
the said first patent abroad, the Canadian patent holds good
against infringers who began infringing during the period be-
tween the dates of the respective applications for the foreign
and home patent,
72 DOMINION OF CANADA.
What can be Patented. — Any invention capable of being
patented in Great Britain is also patentable in Canada. There
is a search for novelty and an appeal from the examiners to the
Commissioner of Patents and from him to the Exchequer court.
Patents for inventions previously protected abroad must be
applied for in Canada within one year of the date of issue of the
earliest British or foreign patent for the same invention, and
within one year, also, of their first publication in any country.
The Canadian officials have sometimes been very liberal on this
point, and have, in urgent cases, accepted a telegraphed guar-
anteed application, by a responsible party, so that it might be
officially entered within the required period. But it is not safe
to rely on this. Any one commencing to work the invention
in the Dominion prior to the date of the patent, or of provisional
protection when that is applied for, can continue to use or sell
the specific article so worked, in defiance of the inventor. But
provided that working, etc., took place only within one year
prior to the application, it will not invalidate the patent.
Who can Patent — Any person being the true and first in-
ventor, his executor, or administrator, can become a patentee,
and can assign to others before issue.
The applicant for a patent is sometimes required, before the
patent issues to him, to supply, if the case admits of it, a neat
working model, on a convenient scale, but no more than twelve
inches in any dimension ; or, if the patent be for a composition
of matter, a set of samples may be required, including a specimen
of the composition, and of each of the ingredients used, except
such as are disagreeable or dangerous to keep. These speci-
mens must be neatly and separately packed in bottles and
labelled. These are, however, seldom now required.
Working. — The invention must be " worked " in Canada
within two years of the date of the grant, or such extension
as may be officially authorised, and must be continued in " opera-
tion " to such an extent that any one can purchase the products
thereof at a reasonable price, and at reasonable notice made in
Canada, or the patent can be annulled at the suit of any party.
But if before six months after the grant the patentee applies to
have his patent placed under the compulsory license clause,
no official " working " is required if his petition be granted,
which is not always the case. In his petition he must show to
the satisfaction of the Commissioner that it would be a hardship
to make him " work " the invention in the time allowed.
The Commissioner has power to extend the time for working
to four years, and the time for allowing importation to two years,
on good reason being shown.
Compulsory License Clause. — If a patent placed under this
clause be not worked sufficiently for the reasonable requirements
of the public to be fulfilled, the Commissioner shall have power.
DOMINION OF CANADA. 73
on the application of a third party and after hearing the patentee,
to grant a license to such a party to work the invention on such
royalties and terms and with such restrictions as the Commissioner
of Patents shall deem just. The patent will also be forfeited
if it be proved that goods made on the principle of the in-
vention were imported into Canada with the knowledge or con-
nivance of the owner of the patent, or any of his assigns, licensees,
or agents, after the expiration of twelve months from the date
of the patent, or such extension of the period, not exceeding
one year at most, as may have been officially granted, on special
application. In November, 1919, an Act was passed giving the
minister in charge of the Patent Office very full powers to extend
time for working, paying taxes, importation, or giving other
relief in cases where the applicant or patentee or opposer has
been prevented from doing any act by reason of a state of war.
Importing the parts of a machine and putting them together
in Canada is held to be importing the invention from abroad.
Amendments. — If from any cause an inventor find that his
patent is invalid by reason of its claiming parts that were old
at the date of the patent, or that were the invention of others,
or that he has inadvertently not claimed a part of the subject-
matter of his specification that he might have done, and would
like to do, he can either file a disclaimer of the old portion or
surrender his patent, and obtain a new one for the unexpired
term of the eighteen years, or any part thereof, with fresh claims.
The new or re-issued patent must, however, not contain any
subject-matter other than set forth in either the drawings or
the body of the original specification, or clearly shown by the
model supplied with the application.
Government Use. — The Government of Canada may always
use any patented invention, paying such royalty as the Commis-
sioner of Patents may decide to be proper.
Assignments to be valid against third parties must be regis-
tered at Ottawa ; and if an inventor fraudulently, or by error,
assign his patent to two different parties, the assignment that
is registered first is the only valid one.
Infringers may be prosecuted for damages in the Court of
Record of the district in which the infringement occurred. Such
court can grant injunctions, damages and costs.
Deceit — If anything be added to, or omitted from, a speci-
fication, with evident intent to deceive or mislead, the patent
is void.
Marking Patented Articles. — All patented articles must be
stamped " Patented," with the year of grant of patent, thus
" Patented 1914." Any patentee offering for sale any patented
article not so marked is liable to a fine not exceeding £20, or im-
prisonment not exceeding two months.
Any one fraudulently marking any article with the word
74 DOMINION OF CANADA— CEYLON.
" Patented," or any word or words of similar meaning, is liable
to a fine not exceeding £40, or imprisonment not exceeding
three months, or both, at the discretion of the court.
About 5,000 Canadian patents are issued per annum. Canada
is rapidly becoming a first-class manufacturing country.
Taxes. — Patents are subject to taxes and other formalities,
before the end of the sixth and twelfth years respectively, in
default of which they become void. These payments can, how-
ever, be paid at the commencement, in which case no formalities
are required.
Designs can be registered by residents only, for five years,
renewable to ten. Trade marks are registrable.
Since this part of the book has been put up in type we have
received a letter from our Canadian correspondent as follows : —
A Government Bill has been introduced in the Canadian
Parliament which will no doubt become law in due course,
and which will make the following radical changes in the law.
1. Canadian applications must be filed within one year of
the date of filing of any foreign application, or within one year
from coming into force of Act.
2. The restrictions against importation after one year will
be removed. Importation after such period will no longer, in
itself, render a patent void.
3. Working provisions similar to the new British Act are to
be introduced.
4. All patents will be subject to Compulsory License.
5. Renewal fees will be abolished. The system of a final fee,
as in the United States, will be adopted.
6. Patents on foods and medicines will be restricted to the
special processes by which they are produced.
7. Public use before application, to defeat a patent, must be
use in Canada.
8. Publication for two years prior to application will defeat a
patent.
CEYLON.
(Ordinance No. 15, 1906.)
Population, 4,100,000.
The English law of 1883, altered in administrative details to
suit the Colony, was adopted by the latter in March, 1906, all
previous patent laws being superseded. The holder of an English
patent may at any time during its existence apply for Letters
of Registration in Ceylon to expire with prior English patent,
but these are often refused.
Ceylon has joined the International Union.
There are no patents of addition. Annual taxes have to be
paid on pain of forfeiture, but six months' delay is granted on
payment of a small fine.
CHANNEL ISLANDS— CHILE. 75
Designs are registrable for five years, not renewable. Trade
marks are also registrable.
CHANNEL ISLANDS.
Population, 100,000.
In Jersey and Guernsey an English patent can be re-registered
in the Royal Court of the respective islands. Trade marks can
also be registered.
CHILE.
(Law of 7 August, 1911.)
Population, 4,000,000.
Patents are granted to inventors or their assignees or official
representatives for not exceeding ten years from grant for ab-
solutely unpublished inventions. The term near its expiration
is frequently extended on petition in the case of really meritorious
inventions to not exceeding twenty years in all. Patents are
granted for all new inventions patentable in Great Britain except
foods, beverages, medicines, and pharmaceutical preparations.
A patent for a process for manufacturing any of these is, how-
ever, patentable. Patents of Importation are granted for good
inventions patented and in force abroad and not yet at work in
the country. Each application, before being granted, is sub-
mitted to a scientific Commission or expert to decide whether
it be novel and useful, and worth a patent. The deliberations
are kept secret, and according to the decision the patent is
allowed or refused by the General Director of Public Works ;
from his decision there is no appeal, but in cases where the
scientific expert is clearly in error the General Director can
revise his decision and we have had several cases where he has
done so. If a patent be allowed, it is published, is open to
opposition for one month, after which no opposition can be
commenced against it unless it is applied for as a new inven-
tion and it really has been obtained from abroad and already
published. A definite time is given to the patentee in which to
start the manufacture, usually two years ; this period, on good
reason shown, can be prolonged once only by the Patent Office.
In the case of an invention difficult to work in Chile, working
can be performed by appointing an agent and advertising the fact.
The ten years granted for the patent begin from the termination
of the said term allowed for starting, and if, at such termination
of term for starting, the manufacture be not in practical opera-
tion in the country, or if working be interrupted for one calendar
year, the patent is annulled. A yearly certificate of working
should be procured. Importing the patented article is usually
held as satisfactory working if the patentee have an agent in
76 CHILE— CHINA— COLOMBIA.
Santiago for selling the patented article, but he must apply
yearly for a certificate that he has proved the working. A
model specimen or photograph (of a machine) is usually required.
Infringing a patent knowingly is a criminal offence, as is also
the fraudulent application for a patent. The law is very favour-
able to the patentee against infringers. Trade marks are regis-
trable. No annual taxes.
CHINA, INCLUDING MANCHURIA.
Population, 400,000,000.
The Chinese Government have decided to establish a Patent
and Trade Mark Registration System, and a scheme has been
laid before the Governments of Great Britain, the United States,
and Japan, but nothing is really fixed as regards patents at
date of going to press, and at present the condition of the country
is too unsettled to think of it.
Trade marks can be filed and will take precedence in date
when the law is passed. Patent applications can be registered
at Shanghai, and will probably be taken in order of date when the
Patent Office is established.
COLOMBIA.
(Act of 13 May, 1869, and Decree of 18 November, 1911.)
Population, 5,500,000.
Patents are granted to the true and first inventor for ten to
fifty years at the option of the Government ; but to expire with
any prior foreign patent for the same invention. There is no
examination as to novelty or utility.
A patent for an entirely new industry must be worked within
a year of grant, and working not suspended for a period of one
year. It can be declared void if found to be an infringement
of a prior-existing patent, or if not worked as above, or if it violates
vested rights in existence at the date of application.
Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela have a
treaty whereby a patent granted for the first time in any of them
gives provisional protection in all the others for two years.
A very little constitutes working and a certificate is easily
obtained.
Taxes variable in amount are sometimes levied on pain of
forfeiture. Trade marks can be registered.
CONGO FREE STATE— COSTA RICA— CUBA— CYPRUS. 77
CONGO FREE STATE.
(Law of 29 October, 1886.)
Population, probably about 15,000,000.
The Belgian law, altered in a few minor details of procedure
in taking out patents, etc., has been enacted for this State.
Assignments and licenses to be valid should be notified to the
Department of Foreign Affairs in Brussels. There are no annual
taxes. Trade marks can be registered.
COSTA RICA (REPUBLIC OF).
(Law of 26 June, 1896.)
Population, 460,000.
The inventor of an unpublished invention can obtain a patent
for the term of twenty years, or if it be already patented abroad
for the period (not exceeding twenty years) for which it has been
so patented.
Infringers can be proceeded with both civilly and criminally.
The invention must be worked within two years of the grant
of the patent and the working never discontinued for three
consecutive years on pain of forfeiture. Trade marks are
registrable.
CUBA.
(Spanish Royal Ordinances of 30 June, 1833, and 27 January,
1873, and Decree of 31 April, 1903.)
Population, 2,100,000.
Patents granted to inventor or assignee for seventeen years.
To importers five years only are allowed and no extensions.
Imported inventions can only be patented before being known in
Cuba.
Separate patents are required for process and apparatus ;
working must be effected within five years from date of grant.
No annual taxes.
Designs, models, and trade marks can be registered.
CYPRUS.
Population, 306,000.
Patents can be obtained up to fifteen years for new inventions
in the island. Trade marks are registrable.
78 CZECHO -SLOVAK! A— DENMARK.
CZECHO- SLOVAKIA.
(Act of 27 May, 1919.)
Population about 20,000,000.
Kind and Duration of Patents. — Patents of invention are
granted for improvements on existing patents to expire with the
original patent, and subject only to application fees, and a
tax of 25 Frs. to be paid within three months of the grant. In
case the original patent be revoked, annulled, or renounced, the
patent of addition can be continued as an original patent paying
the taxes on an original patent until fifteen years from the date
of the original patent.
Pending applications made in Austria and Hungary before
the publication of the Czecho-Slovakian patent law can be
extended to Czecho-Slovakia on payment of the required fees
and production of a certified copy of the original Austrian and
Hungarian applications, subject, however, to the search by the
Patent Office at Prague. In this case the Czecho-Slovakian
patent has priority from the date of such original applications
in those parts of Czecho-Slovakia originally Austrian and Hun-
garian respectively.
Czecho-Slovakia has not yet joined the Convention for the
protection of Industrial Property.
There are annual progressively increasing taxes on each
patent, except patents of addition.
In all other respects the law is exactly the same as the
Austrian of 1897 and 1908, except that Czecho-Slovakian
courts and officers are substituted for similar Austrian ones.
Trade marks are registrable.
DENMARK.
(Law of 13 April, 1894, amended to 1919.)
Population, 3,000,000.
There are four kinds of protection — Patents of Invention,
Dependence, and Addition, and Registration of patterns or
designs.
Patents of invention are granted for fifteen years for any new
invention which can be utilised in industry, or become an object
of manufacture, except medicines, foods, and methods of making
food. By " new " is meant not yet openly applied in Denmark,
or published in print anywhere to such an extent as to enable
an expert in the trade to which it relates to work it.
Patents are granted to the inventor, or his representatives.
or assigns (assignment legalised by a Danish Consul).
Patents of dependence for important alterations or variations
on existing patented inventions are granted to the inventors
of such alterations, but without right to use the original invention..
DENMARK. 79
Patents of addition are granted for additions to patented
inventions, to the patentees of the original invention, to expire
with the original patent.
A patent prevents others from importing, selling, or manu-
facturing the invention, or using the patented product without
the consent of the patentee, except use on ships or vehicles
temporarily in the country and fitted with the invention abroad.
All patents except those of addition are subject to an annual
tax, on pain of forfeiture of the patent. If this be omitted to
be paid when due, it can be paid within three months with an
additional fine.
A patent can be purchased by the State, the amount being
settled by arbitrators.
A Commission of ten members (with power to call in experts)
examines all patent applications as regards novelty, utility,
completeness, and clearness of description, and whether the case
embraces more than one invention. The applicant has the right
— —
ERRATUM
Page 78, line 21: strike out "not yet:
iiic oasc uu buccessiuuy passing trie examiners is advertised
and laid open to public inspection for eight weeks, during which
it can be opposed, and in such an eventuality the Commission
hears both parties.
A non-resident inventor must have a resident agent in the
kingdom, and if that agent die or cease to represent the patentee,
the latter must within a reasonable time appoint another re-
presentative willing to act, or the patent will be declared void.
The representative of his local patent agent usually acts as
resident agent until the inventor chooses to appoint another.
Licenses and Mortgages of patents are registrable.
Working. — A patent must be worked within three years of
the issue thereof, and the working must not afterwards be dis-
continued in the realm for one whole year at a time, or the patent
will be declared void. The Commission can however grant an
extension of this time, or even relieve the patentee of the obli-
gation to manufacture, especially where it is shown that the ex-
penses of so doing are out of reasonable proportion to the demand
in the realm, and that the patentee has arranged that the patented
article can always be purchased at some place in the realm.
78 CZECHO -SLOVAKIA— DENMARK.
CZECHOSLOVAKIA.
(Act of 27 May, 1919.)
Population about 20,000,000.
Kind and Duration of Patents. — Patents of invention are
granted for improvements on existing patents to expire with the
original patent, and subject only to application fees, and a
tax of 25 Frs. to be paid within three months of the grant. In
case the original patent be revoked, annulled, or renounced, the
patent of addition can be continued as an original patent paying
the taxes on an original patent until fifteen years from the date
of the original patent.
Pending applications made in Austria and Hungary before
the publication of the Czecho-Slovakian patent law can be
extended to Czecho-Slovakia on payment of the required fees
and production of a certified copy of the original Austrian and
COtrrts arm umvxtu i**^ ^~~
Trade marks are registrable.
DENMARK.
(Law of 13 April, 1894, amended to 1919.)
Population, 3,000,000.
There are four kinds of protection — Patents of Invention,
Dependence,, and Addition, and Registration of patterns or
designs.
Patents of invention are granted for fifteen years for any new
invention which can be utilised in industry, or become an object
of manufacture, except medicines, foods, and methods of making
food. By " new " is meant not yet openly applied in Denmark,
or published in print anywhere to such an extent as to enable
an expert in the trade to which it relates to work it.
Patents are granted to the inventor, or his representatives.
or assigns (assignment legalised by a Danish Consul).
Patents of dependence for important alterations or variations
on existing patented inventions are granted to the inventors
of such alterations, but without right to use the original invention..
DENMARK. 79
Patents of addition are granted for additions to patented
inventions, to the patentees of the original invention, to expire
with the original patent.
A patent prevents others from importing, selling, or manu-
facturing the invention, or using the patented product without
the consent of the patentee, except use on ships or vehicles
temporarily in the country and fitted with the invention abroad.
All patents except those of addition are subject to an annual
tax, on pain of forfeiture of the patent. If this be omitted to
be paid when due, it can be paid within three months with an
additional fine.
A patent can be purchased by the State, the amount being
settled by arbitrators.
A Commission of ten members (with power to call in experts)
examines all patent applications as regards novelty, utility,
completeness, and clearness of description, and whether the case
embraces more than one invention. The applicant has the right
of being heard by the Commissioners and of correcting his case
to suit their views, but the Commissioners, if the corrections be
serious, can require the patent to be dated as of the date of
filing the correction instead of that of the original application,
and then can declare the patent void on the ground that the
invention has been published in the interim. The Commission
can also decide that the specification embraces two or more
inventions, and can allow a part under the original application
and allow the inventor to file another case (or more) for the
remainder of the invention, to take the same date but with the
fees paid again, always provided it be filed in the time specified.
The case on successfully passing the examiners is advertised
and laid open to public inspection for eight weeks, during which
it can be opposed, and in such an eventuality the Commission
hears both parties.
A non-resident inventor must have a resident agent in the
kingdom, and if that agent die or cease to represent the patentee,
the latter must within a reasonable time appoint another re-
presentative willing to act, or the patent will be declared void.
The representative of his local patent agent usually acts as
resident agent until the inventor chooses to appoint another.
Licenses and Mortgages of patents are registrable.
Working. — A patent must be worked within three years of
the issue thereof, and the working must not afterwards be dis-
continued in the realm for one whole year at a time, or the patent
will be declared void. The Commission can however grant an
extension of this time, or even relieve the patentee of the obli-
gation to manufacture, especially where it is shown that the ex-
penses of so doing are out of reasonable proportion to the demand
in the realm, and that the patentee has arranged that the patented
article can always be purchased at some place in the realm.
8o DENMARK— DOMINICAN REPUBLIC.
Any interested person can bring an action to annul a patent
on the ground of its interference with his legal rights ; and if
two persons apply for patents for the same invention, the first
applicant is considered the rightful owner without very strong
proof to the contrary.
Denmark has joined the Union for the Protection of Industrial
Property, and the special papers requisite to obtain a patent
under the convention can be supplied any time before the ap-
plication is published. About 3,500 patents are applied for
annually, about 2,000 issued. Agricultural patents are eagerly
taken up in Denmark.
A registration of a pattern or series of patterns or designs in
one' packet is effected for three years or a multiple of three years
up to fifteen years from first application, and if made for a shorter
time can be renewed to fifteen years in all. For the first three
years it can be kept secret if desired. Registration and renewals
thereof can be effected by the owner or his assign. Registration
becomes void if with the connivance of the proprietor of the
designs or those having rights under him a copy of the design
is imported from any country not " certified " by the King.
The King can " certify " any country which grants protection
for designs and allows of the owner of the design importing speci-
mens from Denmark.
Penalty for infringing a patent or a registered design : two
thousand crowns, first offence ; four thousand crowns, with or
without imprisonment, for subsequent infringements.
Agricultural inventions and industrial processes not involving
large capital are in demand.
Annual taxes can be paid with a grace of three months on
payment of a fine of a fifth of the amount of the tax.
Trade marks can be registered.
Designs can be registered for three years, renewable to fifteen
years or any lesser term.
Renewal can be effected within three months after expiry on
payment of a fine.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC.
(Spanish Portion of St. Domingo Island.)
(Law of 26 April, 1911.)
Population, 700,000.
Dominica has joined the Union for the Protection of Industrial
Property and proposes to grant Patents. But the government
is very unsettled, and very few patents are taken out. Trade
marks can be registered.
DUTCH EAST AND WEST INDIES— EAST AFRICA, ETC. 81
DUTCH EAST AND WEST INDIES.
Population, 35,000,000.
Inventions in the Dutch Dependencies are protected under the
Law of Holland. Curacao and Surinam register trade marks.
The remaining colonies, Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, Java, and
Madura come under one trade mark registration.
Patents for sugar manufacture and tropical agriculture are
in most demand.
EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE.
(Order No. I. of 7 January, 1914.)
Population, white, 5,000.
„ coloured, 11,000,000.
A British patent can be extended to East Africa by the actual
owner at any time during the life of such patent, the rights
ceasing with the British rights.
Designs already registered in England can be protected to
expire with the English protection.
ECUADOR.
(Law of 18 October, 1880.)
Population, 200,000.
The law, etc., of this country is similar to that of Bolivia.
EGYPT.
Population, 12,800,000.
British and other patents can now be extended to Egypt,
to continue as long as the home patent lasts.
Designs and trade marks of British origin can be registered
at Cairo by English firms for all Egypt and its dependencies,
and are a good protection. No renewals necessary.
FALKLAND ISLANDS.
(Ordinance No. 2 of 25 February, 1903.)
Population, 2,000.
Any person having or owning a patent, registered trade mark,
or design for Great Britain can have the same extended to the
Falkland Islands.
FEDERATED MALAY STATES.
(See Malay States.)
82 FIJI ISLANDS— FINLAND— FRANCE.
FIJI ISLANDS.
(Ordinance No. 3 of 1879.)
Population, 166,000.
The law is very similar to the British as it existed in 1907,
but the initial costs are much greater. There are no taxes after
grant, no compulsory licensing, and a patent falls with the earliest
expiring British or foreign patent for the same invention. Dura-
tion otherwise fourteen years.
FINLAND.
(Ordinance of 21 January, 1898.)
Population, 3,000,000.
Patents of invention are granted for fifteen years (and patents
of addition to expire with original patent) for new inventions
other than foods, drinks, medicines, clothes, or chemical sub-
stances— but a new mode of manufacture of any of these latter
is patentable. By " new " is meant not published in the realm
prior to application for patent, but if already patented abroad
an invention is held as new in the realm if not published more
than six months. There is an examination and publication,
and oppositions can be filed.
Only one invention is allowed under one patent, and the Danish
rule, which see, is followed if the case be divided.
There is an appeal to the Senate against any decision of the
Patent Office.
If an invention requires the use of a previously patented
invention for its successful working, it is still granted, but the
fact and the number of the prior patent are set forth in the patent.
Appeals are allowed from the decision of the examiner. There is
a compulsory working or license clause very like the German,
with, like the latter, a three years' limit.
But importing the invention from abroad is sometimes held
an extenuation of the " offence " of not working, and the courts
are very liberal to the patentee.
Finland is a great manufacturing country for cotton, wood,
and iron goods.
There is a small annual tax, and three months' grace is allowed
for payment of taxes with fine. Trade marks can be registered.
FRANCE AND COLONIES.
(Law of 5 July, 1844, and i July, 1906, and others.)
Population [France], 41,500,000.
„ [Dependencies], 55,000,000.
Kind and Duration of Patents.— Patents of invention are
granted for fifteen years, but fall void with any prior foreign
FRANCE AND COLONIES. 83
patent for the same invention, except when obtained in coun-
tries which have adhered to the International Union, see page 22.
Certificates of addition are granted for additions to, or im-
provements on, any existing patent, and to expire with the same.
The duration of patents can only be extended by special Act
of Legislature, very rarely obtained.
Who can Patent — Any one, citizen or alien, being the true and
first inventor, his executor, administrator — or in practice any
legitimate possessor of the invention — can obtain a patent.
If two join in the invention, it must be taken out in their joint
names, and each has the right to use the invention indepen-
dently of the other. In applying for the patent, no oath or
declaration is required, as in England and the United States,
but the applicant is considered the true and first inventor till
proved the contrary by the rightful owner of the invention.
An inventor who has assigned his invention to the party who
patents it, is debarred, by that assignment, from contesting the
validity of the patent, but such assignment, if made out of the
Republic, must be legalised by a notary and French Consul to
be accepted in French courts without other evidence.
A public functionary cannot legally patent an invention
relating to the branch of service in which he is directly employed,
but he can patent an invention in another line.
For the first year of the existence of a patent no one but
the 'patentee, or others holding rights under him, can obtain a
certificate of addition based on the said patent, but any one dur-
ing that period can cover an improvement on the said invention
by an independent patent, but he must file a secret patent
application for such an improvement. In the latter case, if
the improvements be not claimed by the original patentee
before the expiration of the said year, such patent or patents
are granted to their respective applicants in order of priority
of application. In such cases, neither the owner of the original
patent nor that of the certificate of addition, can use the other's
invention without license.
After the first year of the life of a patent any one can obtain
an independent patent for an improvement on the invention.
If specially asked for, a delay of one year from the date of
application is allowed before the patent specification is made
public, but no action for infringement can be commenced before
the publication of the patent.
Subject to the above, the specifications with their drawings
are now printed and published immediately after grant, and
can be purchased at the Patent Office. One copy is, however,
sent free to the patentee, who has three months to point out
any errors that there may be in it, when they will be corrected.
After this period the document will be considered as an authentic
copy of his specification.
84 FRANCE AND COLONIES.
Patent specifications and drawings are now published (unless
a delay as aforesaid has been specially petitioned for) in separate
form immediately after grant.
See also " Union for Protection of Industrial Property,"
page 22.
If one man employs another to invent, the employer is legally
the true inventor of any resulting invention.
Also the inventions of engineering, technical, and other em-
ployees, relating to the trade in which they are employed, belong
to their employers, but a mere workman making an invention
can patent it and it remains his property.
Bights conferred by Patent. — A patent gives the sole right
of making, selling, or using for commercial purposes the patented
article or process on French territory, and of preventing the
importation of the articles patented, or made by patented pro-
cess.
A patent cannot extinguish rights already existing at the date
of the patent ; consequently, if any person be secretly in pos-
session of the patented invention and using it at the date of
the patent — though such use will not invalidate the patent —
he can continue to use it during the entire period of the patent
in defiance of the patentee.
During the continuance of the patent the inventor can make
additions to his specifications at any time, obtaining a certificate
of addition therefor, to expire with the original patent, and not
subject to any other tax than that paid on applying for the
certificate.
Certificates of addition secured by a person having an interest
in the original patent form parts of the principal patent in the
eye of the law, and the registered purchaser of a principal patent
can enter an action for infringement of a certificate of addition,
granted to the original patentee of the principal patent, though
the certificate be not mentioned in his deeds of transfer.
If the owner of a patent, after being shown or convinced in
any way that his patent is invalid, use it as a means of menacing
his rivals in trade or their customers, he is liable to fine or im-
prisonment under the criminal code.
What can be Patented. — As a rule, any new industrial pro-
duct or new means or new application of old means for obtaining
an industrial product can be patented.
The following are not patentable, however :
1. Pharmaceutical compositions or remedies of any kind,
the said objects remaining subject to the special laws and regu-
lations for these matters, and especially to the decree of
August 18, 1810, relating to secret remedies.
2. Schemes and combinations referring to credit and finances.
New designs (not involving any inventive talent or any new
principle or new result) cannot be validly patented, but can be
FRANCE AND COLONIES. 85
protected by filing them at the Secretariat du Conseil des Prud-
hommes (see " Designs," page 92).
Ornamental and other designs in sculpture are fully protected
without such filing under the law of July 19, 1793.
The following have all been decided to be patentable inven-
tions, provided they produce a new industrial result :
(a) A new process for producing an old article.
(6) A new application of a known means or process, or the
application of a known means or process in a known way
to an entirely different industry.
(c) The new practical application of a known chemical fact
or theory.
(d) The new combination of two or more old parts or old
processes.
(e) The mere alteration of the order in which certain steps in
a known process are taken.
(/) The mere alteration of relative proportions or quantities,
or even degree of temperature at which an old com-
bination, compound, or process is worked.
(g) The mere omission of one part of a known process, or of
one ingredient in a known compound hitherto supposed
to be necessary to that process, or to the purposes for
which the compound is applied, is patentable, if it
produce the same result as the complete combination
did, while saving the expense of the discarded part.
The mere use or employment of an old article in a new way,
or the use of a machine or process hitherto used for manufacturing
one substance — say, linen — for manufacturing another material
— say, cotton or silk — is not patentable, unless a new industrial
effect is produced thereby not analogous to that produced
heretofore.
Similarly, mere changes of form, dimensions, or materials
are not patentable, unless they produce a new industrial result,
or a novelty in the process.
A greatly superior yield, if directly resulting from the altera-
tion or change, is a new industrial result ; but the mere cheapen-
ing or improving of a known product, by greater skill in manu-
facture, is not a " new industrial result."
A new industrial result is not patentable in itself, but only the
means or process by which it is obtained, or the new product
resulting therefrom.
A new industrial result need not be useful in order to be patent-
able ; it is sufficient that it be novel ; and in an action for in-
fringement it is no defence that the patent infringed is useless; but
this point can be considered by the judge in estimating damages.
The juges du fait have, in the first instance, the decision as to
whether an invention be validly patentable, and from them
appeal can be made to a superior court.
86 FRANCE AND COLONIES.
The patent must be limited to a single principal object, with
the details that constitute it, and its applications, which should
all be carefully enumerated and described.
In practice, the officials are generally liberal on the point as
to what can be patented in one application, but some persons
who have been in charge of the Patent Office have been much
stricter than others. As a very exceptional case, we once ob-
tained a patent for a Liverpool inventor, having more than three
hundred drawings, and corresponding letter-press, the principal
object being the manufacture of salt, and the objects of detail
being the arrangements of plant and details of about forty
different varieties of machines for treating salt. It was, how-
ever, by far the most voluminous specification for which a
patent has ever been granted by the French Government, and
is even now exhibited at the Ministry as a curiosity.
Such a case could not occur now, as the French authorities
now confine the drawings to eleven figures and a short speci-
fication.
Should the Minister reject the demand, there is an appeal
to the Council of State or a fresh application or applications
can be made within three months of the rejection, and will be
valid even if published in the meantime.
If, however, this delay of three months be exceeded and the
invention has meanwhile been published, the patent is invalid
for want of novelty.
If a patent be once granted, it cannot be annulled afterwards
on the ground that it contains more than one principal object.
In patenting a process as the principal object, the obtaining
and purifying of various by-products can be claimed.
Novelty. — For the patent to be valid, the invention must be
" new," that is, must not have been publicly used or described
in any printed book in any country, or in any manuscript open
to public inspection in any public library or patent office, in
any country, before the date of the application or of priority
obtained under the Union for the Protection of Industrial Pro-
perty, of which France is a member (see page 22), in such manner
that from the description a man skilled in the trade could under-
stand and work the invention. A French patent must therefore
always be applied for on or before the date on which the English
final or complete specification is accepted, the German patent is
allowed, or American patent issued, except in cases where the
protection of the Union for the Protection of Industrial Pro-
perty for the time being protects the inventor. The fact of
an invention proving extremely valuable on being introduced
to the trade is, as in England, -primd facie evidence of novelty.
Mere experiments, or secret use prior to the application for
the patent, do not nullify it, unless proved to have resulted in
commercial success. Thus a patent for the manufacture of a
FRANCE AND COLONIES. 87
pigment was held valid after it had been proved that the whole
process had been published prior to the date of the patent as a
laboratory experiment.
So long as any part of a patented invention be not proved to
be old, or otherwise invalidated, the patent for that part of the
invention is valid, even though all the rest have been declared
null and void by a court of cassation.
Licenses and Assignments. — A patentee may transfer the
whole or part of the proprietorship of his patent.
The transfer of the whole or part of the patent, either gratui-
tously or for a consideration, can only be effected by a notarial
deed and after the payment of the whole of the prescribed taxes
otherwise payable annually.
It is the general rule, but not an absolute one, that no transfer
is valid as regards a third party before it has been registered
at the Secretary's office of the Prefecture of the Department in
which the deed has been executed.
The registration of transfers and all other acts concerning
mutation are made on the production and deposit of an authen-
ticated extract from the deed of transfer or mutation.
A copy of each declaration of registration, together with the
extract from the deed above mentioned, must be forwarded by
the Prefects to the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce within
five days of the date of the declaration. These can be inspected
and copies obtained at the Ministry.
There is no penalty for non-registration.
If a patent be sold many times over, and the final owner register
the successive transfers (having previously paid up the taxes
to the end of the fifteen years' duration of the patent), such
registration is sufficient, though all the previous transfers es-
caped registration up to that date.
If two parties innocently purchase the same invention from
the registered owner, and the second purchaser in point of time
registers his transfer first, fulfilling all the formalities required,
he becomes the actual owner, and his purchase, except in special
circumstances, is usually held good, even against an unregistered
earlier purchaser of the same invention from the same former
owner.
The purchaser of a patent leaving his title unregistered for
a long period, and then registering it, becomes at once the lawful
owner of the patent, if there be no prior registration against him.
A transfer is valid as regards the actual parties to that transfer,
without registration.
The unregistered owner of a patent cannot bring an action for
the infringement of that patent.
If, however, in the case of an unregistered transfer, the regis-
tered owner join the actual owner in an action against any in-
fringer, they can obtain damages.
88 FRANCE AND COLONIES.
If a transfer of the rights in an invention takes place before
application for a patent, and the purchaser takes out the patent
in his own name, the transfer cannot be registered, but must be
made before a notary, and (if outside the realm) the notary's
signature legalised by the French consul, and should be preserved
ready for production in case of any one bringing an action to
upset the patent on the ground of the patentee not being the
inventor.
A patentee selling a patent guarantees, by such sale to the per-
son buying it from him (but not to subsequent owners), that it is,
as far as he is able to ascertain, valid ; that the statements
contained in the specifications are true ; and if it be afterwards
proved that any part or the whole of the specification be untrue,
or that the product cannot be obtained by following the descrip-
tion of the process described, a judge can decree the annulment
of the assignment and the restitution of an aliquot part or the
whole of the purchase money.
If, however, a patent be sold for a given annuity during the
continuance of the patent, or for a given royalty on the product,
and it be afterwards declared void, the vendor cannot be made
to refund past payments, but, with the nullification of the patent,
the contract ends.
Until, however, the nullification be pronounced, the contract
is good, and royalty due up to the date of nullification must be
paid by the licensee.
It is customary, nevertheless, in cases of assignment or license,
for a special clause to be inserted binding the patentee to return
the purchase money in case the patent be declared null from
other cause than non-payment of taxes, subsequent non-working,
or expiration of term granted.
Should a part of the patent be nullified, a proportionate part of
the purchase money can be similarly exacted by order of a court.
A licensee is, in like manner, protected to the extent of the con-
sideration paid for his license, but not for royalties already paid.
On the annulling of a patent, all licenses become void.
A patent can be seized for debt.
A patentee selling a territorial right (his rights for Normandy,
for instance), or a part or the whole of his patent, can recover
damages if the assignee of that part exceeds his rights or sells
beyond his territory ; but he cannot, except in special cases,
seize the goods so sold, or prosecute other parties using them,
as the latter purchased them from a licensee, and were not sup-
posed to know the extent of the license.
The license of a patent, even for a share of the profits, does not
constitute a partnership between the parties, unless there be
a special clause to that effect ; and if the licensee do not fulfil
the terms*of his license, the Tribunal of Commerce can annul
the^license'and decree damages.
FRANCE AND COLONIES. 89
If a partnership in a patent be dissolved, any one of the part-
ners can appeal to the Tribunal of Commerce to have the patent
sold and the price obtained divided ; but if the partners agree
that each shall work the patent independently of the others,
then neither of the co-owners can from thenceforth claim the
protection of the tribunal in this way.
Should a patentee, a member of a firm or company, sell his
patent to that firm or company, he is still the owner of the patent
as far as third parties are concerned, until the transfer is regis-
tered.
Certificates of Addition are refused for objects different from
that of the principal patent. Thus, if the latter be for a product,
and the certificate for a process of making that product, or
vice versa, the certificate is invalid ; but an addition to the
process, or an alternative sub-process to form a part of that
originally patented, provided it be operative to the same end,
or an improvement on the product claimed in the first instance,
can validly form the subject of a certificate of addition.
A certificate of addition granted to any shareholder or licensee
of the original patent becomes the joint property of all the pro-
prietors in the same proportion as the original patent.
Amendment. — A patent invalid by reason of insufficiency
or other defect in the description cannot be made valid even by
a certificate of addition, though the added specification supplies
the deficiencies of the original one, and makes it clear. In-
exactitude is as bad as insufficiency of description, and equally
nullifies a patent, even when unintentional.
Working. — The patentee whose invention is not worked
and who does not make bond fide efforts to work it within the
realm within two years from date of grant (three years from
date of application, if taken out under the Convention of the
Union for the Protection of Industrial Property), or who abandons
the working of it for two consecutive years, and is unable to
justify his inaction before a court, loses all right to his patent.
. If any one " work " the invention during the two years it
suffices, it being immaterial to the question whether the in-
ventor licensed him to do it or not.
Working of an invention in part has been held sufficient ;
working a machine having a slight difference in design, but the
same in principle to that patented, will be sufficient working.
Substantial efforts to get the trade to take it up, advertising
the invention for sale, and exhibiting it on a public exhibition,
all severally constitute sufficient working to satisfy the law.
It is desirable to have proof of working registered within the
two years following the grant of patent, or if obtained under the
Convention three years from application, and if the inventor
cannot arrange it in time the Patent Agent usually attends to
it at a reasonable charge. Poverty, the fact of the patent
90 FRANCE AND COLONIES.
being held an infringement of an existing patent, and that there
was no demand for the invention at the time, have each been
held sufficient excuse for not working a patent during the term
allowed, but it is not safe to rely on these grounds.
Exhibiting the invention publicly and advertising it with a
view to get a license is of far more value than making a single
part of the invention and getting a notary to declare to it — at
one time the commoner way of making an official " working."
Infringements. — Every interference with the rights of a paten-
tee— either by manufacturing products or by using means form-
ing the subject of his patent — constitutes the offence of an in-
fringement.
That offence is punishable by a fine of from one hundred to
two thousand francs (£4 to £80). The patentee can also bring
an action for and obtain damages from the infringer.
An imprisonment of from one to six months may also be in-
flicted whenever the infringer is a workman or person employed
at the workshops or in the establishment of the patentee, or
whenever the infringer, after having gone into partnership with
a workman or a person employed by the patentee, has become
acquainted through the latter with the processes described in
the patent.
In the latter case the workman or person employed may be
prosecuted as an accomplice.
It is an infringement of a patent for a new product to make
that product by a different process from that set forth in the
patent specification, or of different ingredients or materials.
It is an infringement the making of a product or the working
of a process differing in unimportant details from that protected,
but involving the principles of the patent. If an invention be
for a combination of old parts, it is an infringement of the patent
to manufacture or import those parts separately with a view
to their being put together to form the invention.
It has been held an infringement of the patent to repair or
renew, without license, worn-out parts of a machine originally
purchased from the inventor.
Working the invention for one's own personal use is an in-
fringement.
If a man infringes a patent while in the employ and at the com-
mand of another, the latter alone is liable for infringement.
A licensee who goes beyond his license is liable for infringement.
Articles seized from the inventor for debt can be sold and
used without infringing.
If any one, prior to the date of the patent, possessed the
patented article in France, he has the right to continue to use it
throughout the duration of the patent without being accounted
an infringer.
Actions cannot be maintained for infringements made more
FRANCE AND COLONIES. 91
than three years prior to the commencement of lawsuit ; but if
the infringements have been continuous, or repeated over a
lengthened period, and a part of them have been committed
within the three years, an action can be brought for the entire
series. But an action must cover all the infringements up to
the date of action ; and after the suit at law no further action
can be brought against the defendant for infringements made
prior to said suit.
It is sufficient defence of an infringement that the part of the
patent which is alleged to be infringed was, prior to the date of
the patent, published in any country sufficiently to enable any one
to work it, or described in a prior patent which has fallen into
the public domain, or of which the plaintiff has not acquired
the rights, if still in force.
The patentee can obtain as damages in a civil action all profits
that could have been made on the articles counterfeited, and
satisfaction for injuries to his business that he can distinctly
prove to be caused by the infringement.
The carriage of a patented article made abroad, in transit
through France, is an infringement, even if destined for export
to another country — thus the patented articles made in a country
where there is no Patent in force, if sent through France to another
country, can be stopped and confiscated at the French Custom
House.
Importation of Patented Articles. — A patent can be annulled
if it be proved that the inventor, his agents, or any one with his
or their connivance, has imported into the realm a specimen
of the patented article manufactured abroad. France has,
however, joined the Union for the Protection of Industrial
Property, and by so doing has agreed that this clause shall be
inoperative against patentees of the other nationalities of the
Union (which includes Great Britain and the United States).
In a trial, where a man in Paris contracted with an American
inventor to manufacture the American's invention in France,
and supply it at a given price to the American's customers,
and the contractor, instead of so doing, employed an agent in
the United States, before that country joined the Union for the
Protection of Industrial Property, to buy from the inventor
and forward the machines to Paris, where they were regularly
supplied, at sale price, by the contractor, it was held that this
did not invalidate the patent, and that the patentee was not bound
to interfere in the matter, but could, and, in fact, did, allow this
singular trade to continue, to his own and the contractor's benefit.
The Minister of Commerce and Industry can authorise an
inventor, citizen of a state not in the Union, to introduce a
single specimen of his invention by official permit ; such permits
can generally be easily obtained. During the regimeoi one Minister
of Agriculture they were, however, almost uniformly refused.
92 FRANCE AND COLONIES.
Importing the material for manufacture does not affect the
patent. The article imported, to do any harm, must be in such
a state of completeness that, if made in the realm, it would be
held to be an infringement of the patent.
Nullification. — Any interested party can enter a suit to have
a patent declared null. Any inventor in the same branch of
industry is an interested party in the eye of the law.
A patentee 'can withdraw his application at any time within
two months of the date of filing, when a small part of the fee
will be returned.
Marking Articles. — Whoever in his advertisements, prospec-
tuses, labels, stamps, etc., uses the word " brevet^ " or " brevet "
(patented or patent) in connection with the patented article,
without adding the words " saws garantie du gouvernement "
(without guarantee of the government), is liable to a fine of not
less than £2 or more than £40. In the event of a repetition of
the offence the fine may be doubled. The initials " s. g. d. g.,"
though almost universally used, have been held on one occasion
not to be sufficient. Any one using the name, title, or trade
mark of an inventor without his sanction, or marking a thing
" patent " that is not patented, can be made to pay damages
to the owner of the patent nearest resembling it.
Specifications are now printed and published separately (and
without waiting for two years and then publishing them in the
volumes as was the case till 1901). The inventor can get a
number of copies of his own patent soon after publication at
a lower rate than the public at large.
Taxes. — A patent is subject to an annual tax, payable before
each anniversary of the application, on pain of forfeiture of
the patent.
This tax can be paid all at once, or by instalments, at any time.
If by any chance the annual tax be not paid when it becomes due,
it can be paid any time during the ensuing three months on
payment of an additional fine.
There are no annual taxes on certificates of addition, but
these become void with the principal patent on failure to pay
the tax on the latter.
If a principal patent and a certificate of addition thereon
be separately owned, either party can pay the taxes to prevent
the original patent (and consequently the certificate of ad-
dition) from falling void. Neither, however, can force the other
to pay his quota. If both parties pay independently of each
other, the Government will return the second payment on
production of the first receipt. There are no means of knowing
whether a tax has been paid or not during the current month,
but information of all payments up to within a month of date
can be obtained on application at the Ministry of Agriculture.
Designs or Models.— The inventor or author of any new
FRANCE AND COLONIES— GAMBIA. 93
design or model or set of designs or models packed in one box,
or his representatives or assigns have the sole right of making
and selling like models, etc., or box of them, provided such design
or model be registered and deposited at the Secretariat
of the Conseil des Prudhommes of the Department of Seine,
or of such Department as the inventor if in France may be resi-
dent in. The registration lasts for five years, and if at the end
of five years the owner asks for it to be re-registered, this can
be done for twenty years more, and at the end of that time for
a further period of twenty-five years.
These designs and models are kept secret for five years, and
at the request of the owner for any extended period or part of
an extended period, but the owner cannot sue for infringement
until the design or model be published. He can however request
at any time the Government to publish the invention. The
designs or models must be such that they could not be validly
patented, otherwise the registration is of no effect. Any number
of designs or models up to 100 can be placed in the same box,
and deposited at the Conseil des Prudhommes at the same time,
and a single charge is made for each box of models, the inventor
supplying the box and sealing the same with his own seal and
paying the cost of transit to Paris. He can, at small expense,
have the designs published, or keep them secret as he prefers.
The penalty of infringing a published design is from £i to £80,
and if the person has been already found guilty of a similar
infringement, or was in the service of the owner of the design
and knew about it, he is liable also to imprisonment of from
one to six months.
About 16,000 original patents are granted annually in France,
and the number so far issued is close on to half a million.
Like many other countries, France granted extensions on
patents expiring during war time through force tnajeure.
Trade marks can be registered.
GAMBIA AND PROTECTORATE.
(Enactment 5 of i May, 1900, and Ordinance No. 5 of
3 March, 1904.)
Population, 146,000.
The law is very similar to the British of 1883, with these
exceptions. An assignee can apply for a patent and the holder
of a patent in any other state or colony can get that patent
registered for Gambia for the remainder of the period for which
such foreign patent was granted. The fees are double the fees
exacted in Great Britain. Gambia has joined the Union for
the Protection of Industrial Property. From June to October
business is practically suspended, as it is the bad season.
Trade marks and designs can be registered.
94 GERMANY.
GERMANY.
(Law of 7 April, 1891, and 31 March, 1913.)
Population, 65,000,000.
During the war Germany, while allowing applications by
alien enemies, did not issue the patents. These have, since the
war, been issued, and by a Treaty, Britishers, French, Italians,
Belgians, and Americans are allowed, for six months from the
declaration of peace, to apply for patents and designs that could
have legally been applied for under the Convention at any time
since April I, 1914. Germans have made much more use of
the corresponding clause than the English-speaking countries.
Great Britain, indeed, has lately construed the clause not to apply
at all in those cases where the applicant was not almost forced
by the war to forego applying for the patent. No actions for
infringement can be brought by an alien enemy ; taxes of patents
which have gone void since July i, 1914, were payable in the
first half of 1920, thus revalidating the patent if its normal dura-
tion has not expired.
Kinds and Duration of Protection.— There are four kinds —
Patents of Invention, of Addition, Registrations of Designs and
Patterns. The first last for fifteen years subject to annual
taxes. The second (additions to or improvements on existing
patents) are granted to expire at the date when the original patent
would expire — the taxes of the original patent serving for both.
The third for three years renewable for a further term of three
years for novelties of useful design. The fourth for fifteen
years. These two latter will be treated in a paragraph to them-
selves, the following information applying only to the first and
second class of patents.
Who can Patent. — Any person the true and first inventor
or his assigns, and practically any applicant with the connivance
of the inventor, can obtain a patent.
A person outside the realm can only obtain a patent through
a representative in the country. , This person, usually the
correspondent of his local patent agent, represents the patentee
in all civil law suits, and can enter criminal suits for infringing
said patent.
What can be Patented. — Any invention permitting of an in-
dustrial exploitation, with these exceptions — foods, drinks,
medicines, chemical products, and finanical schemes. Where,
however, a new chemical process is patented, the patent is held
to cover such products as are directly manufactured under that
process. In the case of imported articles, where there is good
reason to suspect that they are made by a given patented
chemical process, the burden of proving that they are not so.
rests with the importer, and in default of such proof they are
GERMANY. 95
held to be infringements. Two separate inventions cannot be
granted under one patent. This rule is rigorously enforced.
Novelty. — For a patent to be valid J the invention must not
before the date of application for the patent have been publicly
used in Germany, or published in any book or public print, within
a hundred years prior to the date of the patent, to such an extent
as to enable a person versed in the trade to manufacture it.
After five years a patent cannot be upset for want of novelty.
Germany having joined the Union for the Protection of In-
dustrial Property, patents taken out under the Convention
and based on any foreign application applied for within the
previous twelve months are not invalidated by publication after
the application for such foreign application, but a patent is
without effect on any person who has worked or made the
necessary arrangements for working the invention in Germany
prior to the application for the patent. Such person can
continue using the invention in his own or other workshops
according to the requirements of his own business, and if he sells
his business this right to use the invention passes to his successor.
Official publications of certain countries which have granted
reciprocal privileges are not considered publications within the
meaning of the above clause till three months after their issue.
Neither Great Britain, her colonies, nor the United States are
in this category at present.
The first person who applies for the patent gets it, irrespective
of whether he be the inventor or not, with this reservation — if
the applicant be proved to have obtained the invention surrep-
titiously or without permission from the description, drawing,
models, or devices of another, that other can get the patent
annulled, and on application within a month after said annul-
ment can obtain a similar patent for himself, with a date prior
to the day of publication of the original patent.
Examination. — All inventions are rigidly examined in regard
to novelty by the Examination Department of the Patent Office,
and many inventions which would pass the United States ex-
aminers or a British court of law as novel are refused because the
principle of the invention is old, or the claims are mere combi-
nations showing no new principle. If an application be allowed,
it is published and is then open to opposition for two months
before being granted ; even those applications that are refused
on opposition are published, but in any case the applicant on
petition can get a delay of publication of three or even six months.
Oppositions and Petition for Annulment of patents are heard
by the Patent Office and not by courts of law. For this purpose
the Patent Office is provided with a large staff of judicial and
technical experts divided into the application, annulment, and
appeal departments. These three are entirely distinct, members
of the application department not being allowed to have anything
96 GERMANY.
to do with appeals or annulments, and those of the other de-
partments having no voice in granting applications (except, of
course, when these applications have been refused and the de-
cision is appealed against). Outside experts may be called in,
but are not allowed to vote. The examiners of the application
department are appointed for life. By this machinery there is
abundant provision made for appeals from the primary examiner
to the rest of the application department, and from them again
to the appeal department. In the case of actions for infringe-
ment and for nullification there is also an appeal from the appeal
department to the Imperial Supreme Court of Leipzic. These
actions are cheap and very fairly conducted and ably decided.
An application is refused if found to be (i) not new ; (2) not
a patentable invention ; (3) not drawn up in accordance with
the requirements of the law and the applicant declines to amend
it ; (4) contrary to law and order ; or (5) if it be proved that the
invention was abstracted from the specifications, drawings,
models, implements, devices, or manufacture of another.
Rights Secured by Patent — A patent gives the sole right to
make, use, and sell the invention. A patent once granted is
guaranteed by the Government until a successful suit be brought
against the Patent Office to annul the same, and it is no defence
in an action for infringement that the invention is not new, not
sufficiently described, or not patentable.
The penalty for knowingly infringing a patent is a fine up to
5,000 marks, or imprisonment not exceeding one year, and the
indemnification of the injured party. The patentee has also
the right of publishing the verdict of the court at the expense of
the infringer.
In a case of the infringement of a patented process for manu-
facture of a new material, all materials of a like nature are con-
sidered as made according to the patent until proof be produced
to the contrary. It is no defence in case of infringement that
the patent is bad ; but the infringer can usually get the case
delayed in order to petition the Patent Office for the revocation
of the patent if the latter be not more than five years old, and
the case will be heard by the annulment department of the
Patent Office, which has power, after hearing both sides, to annul
the whole or any part of the patent and decree costs to either
party. If the petitioner be abroad, he may be called on to de-
posit security for these costs before being heard. If a patent
under this law be on the rolls for five years it is no longer attack-
able.
Working. — If the patentee refuses to grant a license, pro-
vided the granting of such license is in the public interest, and the
would-be licensee is prepared to offer a fair price and security,
then a compulsory license can be obtained. If the invention
be only or chiefly worked abroad — that is, outside the German
GERMANY. 97
territory — the patent can be revoked at the discretion of the
court. Making efforts to introduce the invention and being
prepared to supply the demand may be deemed sufficient, and
if there be no demand, and the inventor tries to create that
demand and fails, the patent need not be worked till a demand
springs up.
The declaration of the court in Wyngaert v. Wegmann, 1884,
is instructive, where Wegmann manufactured the porcelain
rollers of his mill in Switzerland, supplying them for mills manu-
factured in Germany, and Wyngaert sought to have the claim
for the porcelain rollers made void. It is as follows : " As
the defendant has not manufactured the patented rollers within
three years in Germany, this court has the power to annul the
patent, but it does not find any occasion to make use of its power,
chiefly on account of the great advantages which have been
conferred upon the German milling trade through the intro-
duction of F. Wegmann's porcelain rollers. As a rule, a patent
should be declared null and void if not manufactured within the
legal term. In this case, the chief weight of the national economi-
cal importance of the machine is not attached to its manufacture,
but to its use, and, moreover, the legal requirements of the patent
have been satisfied in Claim I.," which was for the machinery or
mill in which the porcelain rollers were used.
In another case our representative interviewed one Dr. G ,
one of the largest manufacturers of the kind of goods to which the
patent related, with a view to get him to take up a patented
invention on royalty. He declined. No working was effected
for several years, when Dr. G brought an action for revoca-
tion on the ground of non-working. The court decided against
him with costs, and the patent was sustained.
On the other hand, in a case where 3,000 of the patented
articles had been made in the country and 300,000 imported
during the same period, and the 3,000 turned out to be the simpler
variety, while the more complicated variety made abroad was
forbidden to the German licensee, the patent was declared void
for want of sufficient working.
Where a part only of the invention has been duly worked,
the rights to the unworked part may be declared forfeited.
In other cases offers to grant licenses (the inventor not importing
articles in accordance with the invention) were held a sufficient
working, though no working really took place.
By recent treaties Italian, Swiss, and United States inventors
having business establishments in their own country and in
Germany are held to fulfil the law if they work their invention
in their own country only.
Protection of Useful Designs.— These are granted for new or
improved tools, or instruments and improvements in the form
of usual devices or of parts thereof, but cannot be made to cover
7
98 GERMANY.
processes, or abstract ideas, or principles. There is no ex-
amination as to novelty, and no oppositions to grant are allowed,
and where an application for a full German patent of invention
for an arrangement of machinery or involving form is likely to
be refused, it is a very common and useful resource to apply
for a design protection. This protection, however, if the inven-
tion be old, can be upset in a court of law. Duration, three
years, renewable for three years more.
These design patents are becoming very popular in Germany ;
about 750,000 have been already issued. Beside these " Ge-
brauchsmusters," ornamental designs, or " Musterschutz," can
be obtained for five years, renewable for ten more for new patterns
such as woven designs, panels, handles of umbrellas, forms of
chess-men, or the like. The cost of these is the same as for useful
designs.
Actions for infringements of these patents are cheap, and the
court can award either a punishment or a fine not exceeding
5,000 marks, or an imprisonment of not exceeding one year,
and the publication of the particulars of the action and the
sentence of the court at the expense of the infringer. Or, in
addition to the above penalty, on the application of the patentee,
it can decree damages not exceeding 10,000 marks, for which all
the infringers — if there be more than one — are jointly liable.
Illegal Marking. — Any one marking goods or providing objects
(or the packing of the same) with any marking indicating that
the objects are patented, or even in his advertisements, business
cards, or paper, using words or marks falsely indicating or likely
to induce the belief that a thing is patented when it is not, is
liable to a fine of 1,000 marks.
Publication.— German patents are granted irrespective of
the duration of foreign patents. Printed copies of his own
patent specifications and drawings can be obtained by a patentee
soon after grant at almost cost price.
In December, 1913, the number of patents of invention or
addition issued since the opening of the Patent Office of Berlin,
July, 1877, had reached 280,000, and nearly three times as many
more had been applied for and refused. The Author's firm has,
however, obtained' about 80 per cent, of all its applications, prob-
ably through carefully weeding out unlikely cases, and framing
the German applications specially for Germany, instead of
following the usual practice with too many patent agents of
using the same draft specification for every country.
About 45,000 applications for patents and 56,000 for useful
designs are made per annum.
Taxes. — Patents of invention are subject on pain of forfeiture
to an annual tax increasing each year.
Patents of addition are granted free of further taxes, terminating
with the term of the principal patent ; but if the principal
GERMANY— GIBRALTAR— GREECE. 99
patent be annulled by a court, the taxes are payable instead
on the patent of addition on the day on which they would have
to have been paid on the original patent. In this case the date
of the patent of addition determines the amount of tax, the period
between the date of the patent of addition and the next tax
day being considered the first patent year of the patent of ad-
dition. The patent terminates at the end of the fifteen years'
term of the original patent. The annual taxes can be paid
at any time in advance, and, if the patent be officially terminated
before they come due, the taxes already paid but still undue will
be returned. The taxes can be paid without fine up to six weeks
after falling due or within twelve weeks of the date of the taxes
becoming due — with an additional fine.
Useful designs can be registered for three years and renewed
for three more. Ornamental designs for five years, renewable
for five years, and again for another five. Trade marks are
also registrable.
GIBRALTAR.
Population of Town, 20,000.
Population of Garrison, 6,000.
The Governor can, by ordinance, on the fulfilment of the
requisite formalities, extend the scope of a British patent to
Gibraltar, subject to the Crown or its officers having use or
license of it on such terms as the Chief Justice sees fit.
GILBERT AND ELLICE ISLANDS.
(Ordinance No. 3, 1916.)
English patents can be registered in these Islands so as to be
operative therein as long as the British patent remains in force.
GOLD COAST AND ASHANTI.
(Ordinance No. 18, 31 August, 1916.)
Population, white, about 3,000.
,, coloured, about 1,500,000.
The law is the same as Nigeria (which see), except that there
are no taxes after grant except a small one on any extension
which may be granted. Trade marks are registrable.
GREECE.
Population, 6,000,000.
A special Act of Legislature is required to obtain a patent.
Very few are applied for. Greece has now joined the Union
for the Protection of Industrial Property. Trade marks are
registrable.
ioo GRENADA— GUATEMALA— GUIANA— HAWAII.
GRENADA AND THE GRENADINES.
(Ordinance No. 4 of 16 May, 1898.)
Population, 73,000.
The patent law is very similar to the British, but altered
so as to substitute colonial officials and institutions for British.
An assignee may apply for a patent.
Annual taxes begin at the end of the fourth year.
GUATEMALA.
(Constitution, Art. 20.)
Population, 2,400,000.
Patents of from five to fifteen years and patents of addition
to expire with the original patent are granted only to inventors
resident in the country. Subjects or citizens of countries with
which Guatemala has at the time a convention, and who have
obtained patents in their own country, can obtain a Guatemalan
patent of importation to expire with the original one, but in no
case to exceed fifteen years' duration.
" Special concessions " (monopolies for trades not at work
in the realm) can only be obtained by persons resident in the
country, and must be applied for personally.
Models or specimens are required where the case admits of it.
Working must be commenced in the realm within a year of
the grant of the patent, and must not be discontinued for a
complete period of twelve months on pain of forfeiture.
It is a criminal offence to knowingly infringe a patent.
Special concessions are also granted by the Executive with
the sanction of the Legislature, and, for a limited period, to any
one establishing a new industry, which, though not worked
previously in Guatemala, is well known abroad, or known only
by mere publications, or the sale of the produce thereof, in the
realm. These concessions may include exemption from taxation,
exemption of the concessionnaire and his employees from military
service, grant of public land for works purposes, and in some
cases money grants.
There are annual taxes. Trade marks are registrable.
GUIANA.
See " British Guiana." French Guiana is covered by a French
patent. Dutch Guiana is covered by the Dutch law. See
" Netherlands."
HAWAH.
This is now a part of the United States, and comes under
the United States law. The few patents granted by the late
Government are, however, unaffected by the change.
HAYTI— HOLLAND— HONDURAS— HUNGARY. 101
HAYTI.
Population, 2,000,000.
A patent can be obtained by a special Act of Legislature.
HOLLAND.
(See Netherlands, page 116.)
HONDURAS (BRITISH).
(Latest Patent Law — Consolidated laws, Chap. 74.)
Population, 40,000.
The law is very similar to the British, but there is no com-
pulsory licensing, and the costs and procedure are different.
The patent falls with the earliest prior foreign patent falling
void ; and the patent is subject to a tax at the end of the third
and seventh years.
HONDURAS REPUBLIC.
(Civil Code, 31 December, 1898.)
Population, 650,000.
A patent of any foreign country can be extended to Honduras
for the duration of such foreign patent, if the invention be not
in use there by independent parties. The cost is decided specially
in each case according to the presumed importance of the
patent. There is an annual tax of five to fifty pesos gold, de-
pending on the estimated value put upon the patent by the offi-
cials.
HONG KONG AND KOWLOON.
(Ordinances 2 of 1892, and 22 of 13 August, 1909.)
Population, 467,000.
Patents granted for duration of corresponding British patent
if the invention be not already in use in the colony. The law
is very similar to the British, but there are no revocation clauses
for not working the invention within a given period and no
annual taxes. Trade marks can be registered.
HUNGARY.
(Law of 7 July, 1895, to No. n, 1911.)
Population, 12,000,000.
NOTE. — For questions relating to the effect of the late war,
see note at head of article headed " Germany," which holds
good for Hungary.
Kind of Patents. — There are two kinds of patents : patents
of invention, for fifteen years, and patents of addition, to expire
with the original patent.
102 HUNGARY.
Who can Patent. — The inventor, his heirs and successors
(assigns) can validly obtain a patent, and no one else.
What can be Patented. — Any new invention capable of being
used industrially can be patented, except medicines, food for
men and animals, and chemical products, and, if the Government
opposes, warlike inventions. A process for making any of
these can, however, be patented, and the process covers the
article actually made by that process ; but others have a right
of making the same article by a different process.
Novelty. — An invention is new only so long as it has not
been published in print anywhere, or publicly worked or patented
by others in the realm. Official publications in a foreign state,
granting reciprocity on this point to Hungary, may (by treaty
with that state) not entail invalidity to a patent afterwards
applied for.
Hungary has joined the Union for the Protection of Industrial
Property, and the rules of the Union as regards protection by
prior application in the Union hold good (see page 22).
Government employees cannot obtain patents for invention
made through the knowledge obtained in their Government
employment, provided that the Government opposes the grant.
Patents obtained by fraud of the true and first inventor can
be opposed by the latter, and if he be successful he can obtain
a patent for himself for the invention.
Patents of Addition, for improvements on prior patents, can
be obtained within the first year of such prior patents by the
owners of such prior patents ; but if others apply to patent
said improvements as patents of addition on such patents during
the year, their applications are kept secret till the end of the year,
and then granted if the owners of the original patents have not,
during the year, made an application for the same. Patents
of addition are subject to no annual tax so long as the original
patent is kept up, but expire when the annual taxes on the orig-
inal patent cease to be duly paid, or, in any case, on the expiration
of the term of grant of the original patent.
Rights conferred by Patents are practically the same as those
in England or the United States ; but any person who has begun
to work the invention, or who has erected plant to work it in the
realm before the date of the patent, can continue to work it
in his own works, in defiance of the patentee.
Government Rights. — The Government can compulsorily take
possession of a part or the whole of a patent, and compensate
the owner.
Working. — If a patent be not worked in the realm within
three years from date of grant sufficiently to supply the
demand, and the inventor refuse licenses on just terms, especially
after three years from the grant, and after due admonition by
the Patent Office, the patent can be annulled.
HUNGA RY— HYDERABAD. 103
Annulling Patents.— Beside the clause set forth in the last
paragraph, patents can be annulled in whole or in part if it be
proved that they ought not to have been granted for any legal
reason, or if the specification be insufficient or ambiguous, or
the claims not novel or patentable.
Procedure. — Patent applications are examined as to whether
they are in order, or whether they are in conflict with others
applied for or granted within the preceding twelve months,
but not otherwise as to the novelty. There is an appeal for three
months from decision from the examiners to the Government,
and from it again to the courts.
If allowed, the application is published at once or after a
delay of not exceeding six months, at the option of the applicant.
Oppositions. — During the next ensuing two months after the
patent is allowed and published, any one is at liberty to oppose
the grant on the following grounds — either that the invention
was not patentable or novel, or that the specification is not
sufficiently exact or complete, or that the invention does not
lawfully belong to the applicant, but had been wrongfully ob-
tained, to the injury of the opponent's rights. Both parties
in such case are heard before the judicial section of the Patent
Office. No costs are allowed, but the court fees are apportioned
against the parties, at the discretion of the Patent Office.
Amendments can be made at small cost before grant, and
disclaimers of parts of an invention, or the entire renunciation
of a patent, can be made at any time.
Joint Inventors are tenants in common, and each can work
the invention or sell his share independently of the other — all
parties, however, have to join in a license to a third party for
such license to be valid.
Infringement. — The law is very severe against infringements,
and is easily and cheaply put in force. Persons apprehensive
of an action for infringement can get a prior judgment from the
Patent Office as to whether the article they are making be an in-
fringement of any given patent. About 5,500 patents were
applied for annually before the war ; and about 3,500 issued,
Annual Taxes, gradually increasing, have to be paid on pain
of forfeiture. Thirty days' grace, without fine, for paying
these, and thirty days additional on payment of a small fine.
Protection Is granted for a model or design for three years, pro-
vided it be unpublished at the date of registration and be worked
in the realm within one year. Trade marks can be registered.
HYDERABAD.
(Act No. 10 of 1309, Fasli (Mahomedan era).)
Population, 13,500,000.
This state grants patents to the inventor or assignee for four-
104 ICELAND— INDIA (BRITISH)— IRELAND.
teen years, which can sometimes be extended. These are in-
dependent of India. There are taxes at the end of the fourth
and subsequent years.
ICELAND.
Population, 76,000.
Patents are granted in Denmark which will cover Iceland
if special application be made to the Ministry of Iceland in
Denmark. There is a separate trade mark law for Iceland,
which gives the benefit of the Convention for the Protection
of Industrial Property.
INDIA (BRITISH).
(Acts 2 of 1911, 4 of 1915, and 5 September, 1919.)
Including Burmah and British Baluchistan and the Shan
States.
Population about 315,000,000 (not including the 70,000,000
in Native States.)
Mysore, Hyderabad, Travancore, and Jodhpur (Marwar)
have patent laws of their own (which see).
On January I, 1912, all patent applications came under
a law which in nearly all respects is the British law, Indian
officers and courts being substituted for English ones, except
the following : First, there is no provisional protection, but
the application is complete at start. Secondly, the hardships
of the English working clauses are alleviated in that they only
come into force if the applicant for revoking the patent is pre-
pared and is in a position to manufacture or carry on the patented
article or process in British India, and it is proved that the
patentee refuses to grant a license on reasonable terms to him.
With regard to novelty the invention must not have been
publicly used or known in any part of British India before the
date of application, and the inventor must not have by secret or
experimental use made direct or indirect profits from his invention
in excess of such an amount as the Court or the Governor-General
in Council, as the case may be, may, after hearing the matter
and taking into consideration all the circumstances of the case,
deem reasonable. Lastly, India is not under the Convention.
A patent can sometimes be extended, in which case annual
taxes (which commence at the end of the fourth year) must
also be paid during the extension.
Designs can be registered for five years, renewable.
IRELAND AND THE ISLE OF MAN.
These are covered by the British patent.
ITALY. 105
ITALY.
(Act of 31 Jan., 1864 (Sardinian law, 30 Oct., 1859).)
Population, 37,600,000.
Kinds and Duration o! Patents. — Patents of invention are
granted for any term up to fifteen years, and if for shorter term
can be extended on paying a somewhat heavy renewal fee and
proportional taxes. Patents of importation for an invention
patented and known abroad, but not yet at work in the realm,
are granted to expire with the prior foreign patent for the same
invention having the longest term, but their maximum duration
is fifteen years.
Patents for addition are granted as in France and Belgium,
free of annual tax, but expiring with the original patent. During
the first six months, none but the proprietor of the patent
can apply for certificates of improvements on his patent ; and
during this period he can also enter disclaimers, or, as is
technically described, " obtain certificates of reduction."
What can be Patented. — An invention patentable in Great
Britain or the United States is patentable in Italy, except that
medicines are unpatentable.
Only a single invention can be included in one patent.
Who can Patent. — The inventor or his assigns, and practically
any person, firm, or company, if the original inventor does not
object.
Novelty. — A patent is void if the invention have been fully
published or worked in the realm prior to protection by applica-
tion for the patent, or by rights under the Convention for the
Protection of Industrial Property (see page 22), with these
exceptions — ist, if the patent be applied for as a patent of
importation to expire with a given foreign patent for the same
invention, then the prior publication abroad in Government
publications will not invalidate the patent ; 2nd, the Government
have the right of allowing inventions to be publicly shown in
given international and other exhibitions certified by Government
and such exhibiting to be equivalent to provisional protection
for the invention for twelve months from the opening of the said
exhibition, except where the country in which the exhibition is
situate allows only a less period of protection, when that lesser
period will be the period allowed in Italy.
Procedure. — There is practically no examination, but all
patents are granted if in order. Appeals to a Commission can
be made where the patent is refused on the ground that more
than one invention is claimed — and in patents of addition where
they are refused on the ground that the subject-matter is not
sufficiently connected with the original invention.
Rights conferred by Patent are similar to those in Great
Britain, but there is no compulsory license clause.
106 ITALY.
Priority. — Protection dates from the application, the term of
the patent from the last day of March, June, September, or
December next following the date of application.
Renewals. — Applications can be made for a less number of
years than fifteen, and the patent thus obtained can, at any time
before the expiration of its term, be renewed for a further period
not exceeding fifteen years from the date of the original patent.
As there are special fees for prolongation, in addition to the
difference between the first cost of a patent for the original
and for the extended term, prolongation should be applied for
as seldom as possible. The usual plan is to secure a patent for
at least six years, and at the expiration of that period have it
prolonged for the full term of the fifteen years allowable. A
patent cannot be prolonged without the original document being
produced.
Working. — A certificate must be obtained that the patent has
been worked within the realm within one year of grant, in the
case of patents granted for less than six years, and within the
space of two years in the case of patents of longer duration,
or three years in the case of patents obtained under the rules
of the Union for the Protection of Industrial Property, and the
working must not be intermitted for two years continuously,
otherwise the patent may be declared void. Exhibiting in a
certified national or international exhibition is equivalent to
working, and importation of the patented machine in some
instances has been held sufficient, as the main benefit was derived
from the working, not the making, of it. On the other hand,
the courts, especially of southern Italy, are very rigorous in
requiring genuine working, especially where there is any " dog
in the manger practice," and it is always best to commence the
working six months before the last day, especially if working is
to be by advertisement.
Further, in the case of German subjects and United States
and Swiss citizens, it is sufficient for the inventor to prove the
working in their own country if they also have business establish-
ments in. Italy.
Taxes. — There are two kinds of taxes on patents — the " pro-
portional tax," varying with the duration required, paid on
applying for the patent or prolongation, and included in the cost
of same, and an " annual tax," payable on the last day of March,
June, September, or December next ensuing after the anniversary
of the date of application for the patent.
Payment of taxes and formalities omitted during the war can
be made good any time before December 31, 1920, but without
prejudice to rights of third parties.
About 8,000 patents are now granted yearly.
Design patents are granted for two years only.
Trade marks are registrable.
JAMAICA— JAPAN. 107
JAMAICA.
WITH TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS.
(Act 30 of 1857, Patents, Law 15 of 1891 and Amendment
of 1901.)
Population, 850,000.
Patents are granted for fourteen, and if considered expedient,
twenty-one years, but limited by the duration of any prior
foreign patent for the same invention, to the true and first
inventor, or his assigns, of an invention not hitherto known or
used in the islands. There is no rigid examination, but it is
handed to an expert, who can be interviewed by our agent and
can charge any fees up to five pounds. A patent obtained by
fraud, and the consequent publication of the invention, does
not invalidate a patent afterwards obtained by the true and first
inventor. Disclaimers can be made, and patents of addition,
to expire with the original patent, can be obtained by the original
patentee, to form a part of the original patent. The penalty
for infringing is three times the actual damage as estimated
by the jury of the court, and costs and injunction.
Trade marks can be registered.
JAPAN AND DEPENDENCIES (including KOREA).
(Law 23 of 2 April, 1909, and Ordinance, 1912.)
Population, 67,000,000.
Kind and Duration o! Patents. — Patents of invention are
granted for fifteen years from date of registration, for inventions
not known in the Empire or set forth in a printed book circulated
or distributed therein, except descriptions of experiments on
the invention made not more than two years previously. Patents
for improvements on a patented invention are granted to the
owner of the original patent, to expire with the latter ; but
this can be changed to an independent patent if the grant of
the original patent be refused or annulled.
Who can Patent — Only the true and first inventor or dis-
coverer, they being Japanese or citizens of countries having
commercial treaties with Japan (or their assigns), can obtain a
patent of invention, and only the owner of the original patent
can secure a patent of improvement, but where a man is directly
employed to perfect an invention the employer is held to be the
inventor of any invention he may make thereon. No official of
the Patent Office can own a patent unless he owned it before
entering the Government employ or received it by bequest.
An inventor outside the realm, if a citizen of a country having
treaty relations with Japan, can obtain a patent, but must appoint
io8 JAPAN.
an agent domiciled in the realm as his agent, and such agent
must be satisfactory to the Government and a registered patent
agent in the country. Our agent fulfils these conditions and
acts for our clients.
What can be Patented. — Almost any new thing that can be
patented in the United States or Great Britain can be patented
in Japan, except articles of food, drink, or luxury, medicines
and methods of compounding them, things regarded as contrary
to public order or morality, and things which have been known
to the public or have been in public use before the application
for the patent ; but this latter rule does not apply to things
which have been known to the public for the purpose of trial
for not more than two years, and this rule is also subject to the
regulations of the Union for the Protection of Industrial
Property. A process and application or apparatus cannot be
covered in one application.
At present the office are very apt to reject inventions which
they consider closely resemble in appearance others known, and
they frequently reject an invention as " publicly known " without
citing any specific proof.
Where a patent has been applied for or granted in fraud of
the real inventor the latter can bring a suit of nullification ;
when, if successful, a patent is granted him dating as of the date
of the nullified patent.
Mechanism similar to that patented, if actually in existence
in the Empire at the date of the patent, can continue to be used
by its owners in defiance of the patent. Mere experiment or
research and making infringing articles solely therefor, is not a
violation of the patentee's rights.
Exhibitions. — Exhibits in exhibitions organised by the central
Government, or by the authorities of a prefecture, are, by notifi-
cation to the Director of the Patent Bureau, duly given before
entering the exhibit, provisionally protected without further
charge for six months from the date of entry into the exhibition,
and exhibits in an international exhibition in any of the states of
the Union for the Protection of Industrial Property are provision-
ally protected for the same period in Japan and to the same extent
as they are protected (in consequence of exhibiting and notifi-
cation thereof) in the country in which the exhibition is
situated.
Military and Naval Patents and others required in the public
interest can be expropriated and compensation paid for same by
the Treasury, the patentee having an appeal to a court if not
satisfied with the compensation.
Examination. — Applications are examined to see if they be in
order or previously published by the inventor, and to a certain
extent by others, in any country prior to the application, or if
they interfere with any other pending application. If the
JAPAN. 109
examiner reports against the patent the report is submitted
to the parties interested and the patentee can demand a re-
examination, and if the decision of the first examination be up-
held appeal can be lodged within sixty days to the Patent Bureau,
and from the Bureau to the Supreme Court also within sixty
days. If an interference between two pending applications
be declared, or if applicant be opposed, both parties are
called upon to furnish full statement of their respective cases,
and if the decision finally come to be that the second applicant
is the first inventor, and the first patent or patent application
be cancelled, the second applicant can have his patent dated back
to the date of the cancelled patent. Appeals can be made from
decisions of the Patent Court to the Supreme Court.
An inventor making an invention or an improvement on a
patented invention which he cannot use without infringing a
prior patent can apply to the prior patentee for a license, and
if this be not granted on fair terms he can apply to the Minister
of State for Agriculture for a compulsory license. Both parties
are then heard, and the Minister has the right of granting such
license on such royalty and security to the prior patentee as he
may consider fair.
If an original patent be annulled the patents of addition,
if any, are not annulled with it unless specially mentioned in
the decision, but notice must be given within sixty days to the
Patent Bureau of desire to continue the patents of addition
by paying the taxes on the expired patent.
Amendments can be made, provided they do not extend the
invention. Actions for infringement or revocation of patents
are tried before three or five patent judges, who must give their
reasons with the decision.
Working. — A patent can be annulled if the owner allows
three years to elapse after grant without publicly working in
the Empire. Advertising well for a licensee is not sufficient
working, per se, but is considered as extenuating circumstances
by the courts, and we know of no case where it has been tried
and where the patent has been annulled without the patentee
having another chance given him.
Marking. — All patented articles must be marked " Patented
in Japan " (in English or Japanese). Penalties for wrongful
marking or importing, using, or selling the patented article in
contravention of the patentee's rights are major imprisonment
of from fifteen days to three years, or a fine of from ten to five
hundred yen and the confiscation of the infringing article, which
is given to the patentee. If the patentee sends out patented
articles not so marked he cannot get damages against an un-
witting infringer.
About 7,500 patents are applied for each year, and about
1,500 issued.
1 10 JAPAN— JODHPUR— JOHORE— JUGO-SLAVI A.
Taxes. — Annual taxes have to be paid, on pain of forfeiture
of the patent. In case of accidental failure to pay the taxes
before the actual cancellation takes place payment can be made
within one year on payment of a small fine and proving the
facts.
Annual taxes have to be paid on patents of invention on pain
of forfeiture of the patent.
Designs can be protected for three years renewable for seven
more. Trade marks can also be registered.
JODHPUR (MARWAR).
(Act of 7 August, 1906 and No. I, 1916.)
Patents are granted to the first inventor, or importer, his
executors or assigns of new inventions, at the discretion of the
Mahkma Khas, and when the period allowed will expire within
a period of from one year to six months they can be again
renewed at the discretion of the Mahkma Khas.
JOHORE.
(Enactment 3 of 3 May, 1911, and No. i, 1915.)
Population, 180,000.
Patents for fourteen years are granted to the inventor, first
importer, or his assigns for inventions not at work or published
in the British Empire or Johore more than six months prior
to the date of application for patent. British or British colonial
or Indian patents can be extended to Johore to expire with the
rights in the country of origin, but the Sultan for good cause
can refuse to grant such extension. Patents about to expire
can sometimes be extended when of sufficient merit for another
seven years.
Compulsory licenses can be obtained in the case of patents
not worked in the realm.
There is a tax at the end of the seventh year, and if a patent
be renewed on renewal.
JUGO-SLAVIA.
Population, 11,500,000.
This state does not at present grant patents, but has joined
the Union for the Protection of Industrial Property, and is
expected to shortly have a patent law in operation.
A packet of new designs can be registered together for any
number of years up to ten.
The protection falls void if not worked in the realm within
one year, or if the registered articles are imported from abroad
LEEWARD ISLANDS— LIBERIA— LUXEMBURG, in
with the knowledge of the owner of the protection or his repre-
sentatives.
Trade marks can be registered.
LEEWARD ISLANDS.
(Act No. 3 of 9 June, 1906.)
Population, 130,000.
The law is almost a replica of the English one of 1883.
Patents are granted for fourteen years (but limited by duration
of any prior foreign patent) to first inventor, for any manufacture
new as far as the colony is concerned, and not the subject of
an expired patent abroad. There is no examination as to
novelty. Trade marks are registrable.
LIBERIA.
(Act of 23 December, 1864.)
Population, 2,000,000.
Patents are granted for fifteen years to the true and first
inventor, or his assigns, for inventions not yet known or used
within the limits of the Republic. They must be worked within
the first three years of their duration in the Republic, on pain of
being considered abandoned.
LUXEMBURG.
(Law of 30 June, 1880.)
Population, 260,000.
The patent law is in most respects identical with the Belgian,
except that an invention must be new, not merely in Luxemburg,
but in the entire Customs Union of Germany, to be validly
patentable. By new is meant not described in public print or
publicly worked. So also a patent is invalid unless before, or
within three months after, its application a patent for the same
invention be applied for in Germany and (afterwards) granted.
A patent is granted for fifteen years, but only remains valid as
long as the German patent for the same invention is kept up.
If, however, the German patent be declared void for want of
working, the Luxemburg Government can continue the Grand
Ducal patent. Working in the Duchy must be proved within
three years of grant, but this clause is very liberally interpreted.
Compulsory licenses can be obtained at rates fixed by Government,
by parties wishing to use an invention patented more than three
years previously — if in the opinion of the Government such com-
pulsory licenses are desirable. It is generally useful to protect
an invention in Luxemburg when patents are obtained in the
surrounding states of Belgium, France, and Germany ; it being
very difficult to prevent importation into France and Belgium,
H2 MALAY STATES— MALTA.
an infringer in Luxemburg can be a veritable thorn in the side
to the owners of the German, French, and Belgian patents,
unless he can be brought to account in Luxemburg itself through
a Grand Ducal patent. The law is very severe against wilful
infringers, and is easily put into execution. About 250 patents
are granted yearly.
Annual taxes as in Belgium.
Trade marks can be registered.
MALAY STATES (FEDERATED).
(Law No. 19 of 10 December, 1914.)
Population about 1,000,000.
The Confederation consists of the four states of Perak, Selan-
gor, Negri-Sembilan, and Pahang, each of which had a separate
patent law, and granted provincial patents. By the law of
1914, these separate laws were repealed, without prejudice to
patents already granted. Patents for fourteen years are granted
to the first inventor or importer of an invention in the realm
provided the latter be not published or generally known or in
use in any part of the British Empire or its dependencies before
the application for a patent by the applicant or person through
whom he claims. Six months' provisional protection, followed
by complete, is granted almost exactly as in Great Britain
prior to 1920, and the law as regards applications is practically
a copy of the British. Patents granted in any other part of
the Empire can be extended to the Malay States, to fall with the
rights in the country for which the original patent was granted,
subject to examination and advertisement for opposition by
rival claimants.
The costs, and patent law generally, are copied from the British
law, except that the initial fees are rather more, and in place of
annual taxes there is a single tax at the end of seven years of
$50.
A Malay States' patent can, at any time, be registered in the
states of Kedah and Kelantan, and will then cover these states
also, but without prejudice to rights of third parties existing
at time of registration. Johore has an independent patent
law (which see).
MALTA.
(Ordinances No. n of 1899 and 7 °f I9°7-)'
Population, 224,000.
The patent law is substantially identical with the British,
but with a few slight improvements. Malta has joined the Union
for the Protection of Industrial Property.
Annual taxes the same as in Great Britain.
Designs and trade marks can be registered.
MAURITIUS— MEXICO. 113
MAURITIUS AND ITS DEPENDENCIES.
(Ordinance No. 16 of 1875.)
Population, 378,000.
Patents are granted to the original inventor or his assigns
for twenty years. This period can be prolonged by the Governor
on showing a good case nine months before its expiration.
There is no examination as to novelty, but publication is made
before grant, after which it is open to opposition for a limited
period ; but oppositions are very rare. The invention must
not have been published (except in Government publications),
or be in use in the colony or the United Kingdom, or be patented
more than a year in Great Britain, prior to an application for
a patent in the colony. The public use, however, for not ex-
ceeding one year by the patentee or his assigns, licensees, or
representatives, prior to patenting, is by a special clause in
the Act held not to invalidate the patent. There are no
annual taxes or compulsory working clauses.
MEXICO.
(Law of i October, 1903.)
Population, 15,000,000.
Who can Patent. — The actual inventor, his agent, or legal
representative can obtain a patent.
Duration, twenty years from day of issue ; but patents for
inventions first patented abroad expire with the first patent
issued to the applicant. Patents of extraordinary merit are
sometimes prolonged for a further five years beyond the twenty.
What can be Patented. — Almost any new invention that can
be validly patented in Great Britain or the United States can
be secured by patent in Mexico, with the exception of new
chemical products ; but new processes or plant for obtaining
such products and new industrial applications thereof can be
protected.
Novelty. — By " new " is understood not published in print
or worked industrially in any country before the date of the
application for the patent, or protection under the Convention
or special protection in an international exhibition as hereafter
mentioned.
The publication of a foreign patent less than three months
before the date of application in Mexico does not affect the
validity of the Mexican patent.
Mexico has joined the Union for the Protection of Industrial
Property.
Exhibition in an officially recognised exhibition is not fatal
n4 MEXICO.
to a subsequent application for a patent, if before exhibiting
the applicant files the necessary notice at the Patent Office of
his intending so to exhibit, and provided the patent be formally
applied for within three months of the final closure of such
exhibition.
Rights conferred by Patent are similar to those in Great Britain
and the United States, except that actual manufacture of infring-
ing products is a criminal offence, so is importing, dealing in,
using for commercial purpose, or being possessed of the patented
invention after due warning ; with these exceptions, a man may
import, make, or use any invention for experiment or research,
and if before the date of first protection an independent party
has worked or made the necessary arrangements for working
the invention, he can go on working in defiance of the patent.
Examination. — There is no examination as to novelty, but
all applications are granted, if in order and for a proper subject-
matter, without guarantee for novelty or validity.
Any decision of the examiners refusing an application as not
in order can be appealed against to the courts.
Extension. — A patent may be further extended at the option
of the Government on such terms as the latter may decide,
but proof must be produced that it has been for the last two
years immediately preceding in industrial use in the realm.
Working and Compulsory Licenses. — If after three years
from the date of first protection the invention be not industrially
at work in the country, or if, after that period, industrial working
be suspended for three months, the Patent Office can grant other
parties a license to work the invention, they paying half the
profits to the patentee. Incorrect returns to the patentee are
punishable by a heavy fine, imprisonment of from one to twelve
months, and the licensee is also liable to the patentee for damage
and loss.
The patentee has the right of getting a license granted by the
Patent Office annulled any time two years or more after the grant
on proving that he has himself established industrial working of
the invention, or any time on proving that for two consecutive
years, or three years in the case of Convention patents, the
licensee has not worked the invention. Both the owner of the
patent and one who has obtained a license through the Patent
Office must, within fifteen days of first starting industrial work-
ing, prove such working to the Patent Office.
The working clause is practically a dead letter.
Official Examination as to Novelty.— Any interested party
can at reasonable cost get the Government to officially examine
into and report on the novelty of a patent, but the Government
does not in any way guarantee this report.
Government Expropriation. — The Government can on pay-
ment of reasonable indemnity (ascertained, if an agreement
MEXICO— MOROCCO. 115
cannot be come to, in accordance with the rules in force for the
expropriation of real estate) take a patent or a patented invention
for Government or public use. This refers mainly to patents
for munitions of war.
Nullification. — A patent can be annulled by the courts if
it be proved that (i) it has been granted wrongly ; (2) that the
claim or the description of the drawing is not sufficiently clear
or precise or the whole insufficient to enable the invention to
be worked therefrom ; (3) that the object patented is not in
accordance with the title ; or (4) that the invention has previously
been patented at home or abroad (subject to Convention, see
page 22).
Infringements of Patents by actual manufacture are both
civil and criminal offences, punishable by a fine of from 500 to
2,000 pesos and imprisonment of from one to three years.
The mere unauthorised use, the sale or circulation or im-
portation of the patented article, or hindering the patentee in
the exercise of his rights, are also criminal offences and heavily
punished, while in case of a second or third offence, even with a
different patent, the punishment is increased. The inf ringer in
all cases is liable to pay costs and damages to the patentee,
and to the confiscation of the infringing articles. About 1,200
patents issued annually.
Mexico is a great mining and petroleum country.
Marking Goods "Patent." — Any one marking an article as
" patent " when it is not is liable to a fine of from 50 to 1,000
pesos or imprisonment of from one to eleven months, or both.
Industrial Designs can be registered for ten years. Trade
marks can also be registered.
A recent revolutionary government required patentees of
all existing patents to pay all the fees over again. A second
equally fugitive government cancelled this order, and a third
military government revived said edict on pain of forfeiture
of the patents.
MOROCCO.
(Decree of 23 June, 1916.)
Population, 5,000,000.
FRENCH ZONE.
The patent law is very similar to the French, enabling sub-
jects of all the states of the Union for the Protection of Industrial
Property (see page 22) to take out patents for inventions,
having all the advantages of the Union if applied for in
Morocco within one year of the original patent abroad. In-
fringement is both a civil and criminal offence, and suits for
infringement or other patent matters are tried before French
courts.
n6 MOROCCO— MYSORE— NATAL.
THE REST OF MOROCCO.
Infringement of an English patent or trade mark in Morocco
by a British subject can be proceeded against in the Consular
Court, and damages obtained.
Infringements of trade marks, other than by Moorish authori-
ties, can be proceeded against in the Moorish courts or the Con-
sular courts in Morocco, of Austria, the United States, Belgium,
England, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal,
and Spain, provided that the trade mark be registered in the
country of the respective foreign consular court.
MYSORE.
(Regulation No. XI of 26 November, 1894.)
Population about 5,800,000.
The actual inventor, his executor or assign can patent an
invention for fourteen years from date of application. The
invention must be new (unpublished) at the time in Mysore,
British India, and the United Kingdom. But use or publication
within one year prior to application and after application in
the United Kingdom by the inventor or his agents is not held
to invalidate a patent. But a Mysore patent falls with the
expiration of an Indian or British patent for the same invention.
A person can bring an action to show that a patent was wrong-
fully granted, but cannot defend an action for infringement
on any other ground than that he has not infringed, or that he
himself or some person through whom he claims is the true and
first inventor, or that the patent has expired. Applications
can be amended if incorrectly describing the invention. Com-
pulsory working or the granting of licenses can be ordered by
a court if the invention be not at work in Mysore. Under some
circumstances a patent can be extended at the end of fourteen
years.
Annual taxes have to be paid before the end of each year
from and including the fourth.
Designs can be registered for five years, and renewed for two
further periods of five years each (latter optional with Government).
NATAL.
(See South Africa.)
NETHERLANDS (HOLLAND) AND DUTCH COLONIES.
(Act of 7 November, 1910.)
Population — Home, 6,800,000 ; Colonies, 47,000,000.
Variety and Duration of Patents. — Holland being a member of
the Union for the Protection of Industrial Property (see page 22),
NETHERLANDS AND DUTCH COLONIES. 117
patents are granted under the Convention for one year from
the date of the first patenting in any other country of the Union,
to date from the date of application for the first patent applied
for under the Convention, otherwise they are only granted for
inventions new at the date of the patent. The duration of such
patents is fifteen years.
Patents cover not merely Holland, but its East and West
Indian colonies.
Patents of Addition are issued to the actual owner of any
patent (or application), for improvements on the invention set
forth in such patent or application. These patents of addition
expire with the original patent, but are not subject to annual
taxes.
If, however, the original patent be declared void during
the period for which it was granted, the patents of addition
are treated as original patents and can be kept in force by paying
taxes on them as if they were dated with the date of the original
patent.
Novelty. — The word " new " means not in use or published
in any country sufficient for an expert to be able to manufacture
therefrom. The showing of an invention, however, in an inter-
national exhibition is not considered a publication provided
the patent be applied for within six months of the opening of
such exhibition. Any person or set of persons, or a company,
one of them being the inventor, can obtain a patent, but the first
applicant, except in the case of Convention patents, is considered
to be the original inventor unless it is proved that he has taken
the invention illegally from another person. Where two or more
apply for a given invention independently on the same day no
patent will be granted until it be proved which one of them
is the real first inventor. Where a person is employed by another
specially to work out an invention, the employer is held to be
entitled to the patent. Even where an employee independently
invents an improvement on the process or apparatus on which
he is employed without being asked to make experiments the
employer is alone entitled to this patent, but he can be compelled
to compensate the inventor, and if the two cannot agree on the
compensation, the Patent Office or a regular judge decides the
question. If, however, the inventor makes no claim during
the first three years of the duration of the patent, his right
ceases.
If a patent be applied for under the Convention in Holland
or in a Dutch colony during the priority allowed and before the
actual application in Holland by the inventor, the right to use
the patent may be granted by a court to such person unless
he has taken it illegally from the inventor.
Procedure. — A patent being applied for, it is examined to see
if it be in order with regard to all questions touching the validity
n8 NETHERLANDS AND DUTCH COLONIES.
(a search as to novelty being included). From the decision
of the examiner refusing to lay the application out for public
inspection an appeal within one month can be made to the Patent
Office. If the patent be eventually laid out for public inspection,
opposition can be entered during the ensuing six months by any
interested party to the grant of such patent. The opposition
is heard by the Department of the Patent Office to which the
examination was entrusted. Said department will for itself,
during the said period of six months, examine the application
and may institute a further search in respect of novelty. The
department will decide after hearing all the parties concerned
as to the grant of the patent. From that decision there is an
appeal within three months to the Patent Office, which after
consideration and hearing all the parties concerned shall give
a decision, from which there is no appeal. From this it will be
seen that the Patent Office is " a law unto itself," and there
are complaints of high-handedness. If allowed, the patent is
dated the day after allowance or final decision.
All patented articles must be marked " Octrooi Nederlandsch
No. ," or if they cannot be marked owing to the nature
of the article, the package in which the article is sold must be so
marked. Omission to so mark is a criminal offence, as is also
inserting such mark without proper justification or falsely using
the word " patent," or any word implying that the invention
is protected, in connection with the article. The penalty in
each case is fine or imprisonment.
Any eligible applicant can, after three years from the date
of the grant of the patent, obtain a compulsory license from the
Patent Office at any time if the invention be not then at work
within the realm on a reasonable scale in the opinion of the
examining department of the Patent Office. An appeal from
the decision of the examining department can be lodged within
three months to the General Assembly of the Patent Office,
whose decision is final.
Contracts for licenses are only good against third parties
when they are registered at the Patent Office.
Patents must be worked in an industrial establishment in
the realm within five years of the date of grant, in an effective
or adequate manner, on pain of their being declared void by
the Patent Office on the petition of any person unless really good
grounds are shown for the omission to work them. The Govern-
ment has the right of appropriating the patent at any time,
paying a reasonable compensation therefor, and if in their opinion
it is to the advantage of the state to do so.
Prior Use. — A person using the patented article privately
in the realm or having made the necessary steps for that purpose
before the date of application for the Dutch patent (even under
the Convention) can continue to use it to the same extent as
NETHERLANDS— NEWFOUNDLAND. 119
the patentee if he establish his right before the Patent Commission
within six months after the laying open of the application to
public inspection, but he cannot license or assign his rights to
other parties except together with the commercial concern in
which he used the invention. In such case the Patent Office
will issue to him a certificate of prior use.
The Patent Office has branch subsidiary offices in all the
three important Dutch colonies.
Infringements after the date of the publication of the appli-
cation can be proceeded against after the patent has been allowed,
and a writ issued on the infringer immediately after publication
of the specification. Knowingly infringing a patent is a criminal
offence entailing fine or imprisonment. On the second occasion
the penalty is doubled. The judge can publish his decision,
and the infringing articles are handed over to the patentee.
The patentee can also obtain damages.
Mortgages, assignments and licenses must be registered before
they can be effective against other parties, and an innocent
third party registering an assignment, license or mortgage
first holds the right against a prior mortgagee, assignee or licensee
who is not on the register.
Annual Taxes. — Annual taxes have to be paid on the last
day of the month on which the patent was dated. They can,
however, be paid within one month or the subsequent two
months of that date with extra fines.
Trade marks are registrable in Holland and in each of the
three colonies (East Indies, Surinam, and Curagoa), separately.
NEWFOUNDLAND.
(Consolidated Statutes, Title 12, Chapter 109 " Patents.")
Population, 300,000.
Duration of patent, fourteen years, but it is lawful for the
Governor in Council to extend it for a further term of seven years.
Patents are only granted to the actual inventor, his assignees,
or legal representatives. A model must also be provided if
the case admits of one, and specimens and ingredients if the
invention be for a composition of matter ; but in some cases
these are dispensed with on the petition of the inventor.
The invention must not have been introduced into public
or common use in the colony prior to the application, and it
must be worked in Newfoundland within two years of the date
of the patent, or it will be deemed to be forfeited. In cases
where the invention has been previously patented in other coun-
tries, the duration is limited to that of the first foreign patent.
It cannot be validly patented in Newfoundland after the expira-
tion of a corresponding foreign patent.
120 NEWFOUNDLAND— NEW ZEALAND.
Notice of the intended application for a patent must be ad-
vertised in the Royal Gazette, and in another newspaper in the
colony for at least four weeks before the formal application,
and this notice must include a description in general terms of
the invention.
The application is referred to the Attorney-General, who
hears any opposition that may be entered, examines the case,
and if he judges it to be a good and proper subject for a patent,
and the application in order, he certifies the same, and the
patent is issued by the Governor in Council. Re-issues are
granted as in the United States, but at any date of the duration
of the patent, and patents of addition can be obtained.
Penalty for infringing a patent is three times the actual damage
sustained by the patentee, and is recoverable by action in any
superior court of the island.
The inventions most in demand in Newfoundland are those for
sea-fishing, fish-curing, and wood-pulp manufacture.
Trade marks are registrable.
NEW ZEALAND.
(Act 17 of 28 October, 1911.)
Population, 1,100,000.
Any one being the true and first inventor or his assignee,
nominee, or, in case of death his legal representative (within
six months of decease), can apply for and obtain a patent for
fourteen years, alone or conjointly with others.
The law as to what is patentable is the same as the British.
An invention can be provisionally protected for nine months,
or by a complete specification at start as in England. The
procedure is nearly identical, but, in addition to the usual
grounds for opposition, want of novelty, and that the communi-
cator is not the actual inventor or his legal representative or
assignee can also be urged against the patent. If by accident or
otherwise the inventor has omitted to apply for the sealing of
his patent in time, he can, on petition and stating the exact
circumstances under which application for sealing was neglected,
be heard by the Registrar who can, if he considers the case a
proper one, advertise it for opposition, hear any opposition, and
seal the patent or dismiss the case. There is an appeal from
the Registrar to the Supreme Court (Act 49 of 1913, n December).
The law as regards amendments, compulsory licenses, ex-
hibiting in authorised exhibitions, rights of the crown, actions
for infringements, or use of patent on foreign ships, rights under
the Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property,
extension of term of patent and using illegal threats, is almost
a copy of the British (colonial officials being substituted for
British ones). The law as regards penalties for non-working
NEW ZEALAND— NICARAGUA— NIGERIA. 121
or for working mainly abroad is not so severe as the British, as
the patent after four years can be declared inoperative if worked
mainly abroad, but the patentee has usually a time given to
prove working ; and even if declared inoperative it can be re-
instated on the patentee proving he has now got to work satis-
factorily in the colony — unless other independent parties in
the meantime have begun working it in the realm. The court
in place of declaring a patent inoperative can grant a compul-
sory license to the applicant on such terms as it sees fit. Any
one illegally using the words " patent," " patented," or " Patent
Office," etc., is liable to a fine not exceeding £20. The patent
is liable to a tax at the end of the third and of the sixth year
on pain of forfeiture, but a delay of three months is allowed,
in cases of accidental omission, on paying an additional tax.
No one can practise as a Patent Agent without being first regis-
tered as such.
About 2,000 patents are applied for yearly.
Patents for small articles in large demand and other inventions
not requiring a large capital are those most appreciated.
Taxes have to be paid before end of third and sixth year.
Three months' grace to pay tax with a fine in case of accident.
Designs and trade marks are registrable.
NICARAGUA.
(Law of n October, 1899.)
Population, 800,000.
Patents for inventions not known in the realm are granted
for five to ten years. There is an annual tax varying at the option
of the Patent Office, payable on the ist of January. Patents
must be worked within one year on pain of forfeiture.
Monopolies for manufacturing a product not yet manufactured
in the state are granted, the duration varying with the product.
The Government is, as a rule, rather uncertain, and the cost
of patents and especially of monopolies correspondingly so.
NIGERIA (including LAGOS).
(Ordinance 30 of 13 July, 1916.)
Population about 17,000,000.
The inventor or owner by assignment, transmission or other
operation of law of any invention or of the exclusive right thereto
within Nigeria, can file a patent stating that he has been granted
a patent in the United Kingdom for such invention and making
application for a patent in Nigeria. The Governor, if he thinks
it proper, can grant a patent for the same for Nigeria to expire
with the British patent. Any other inventor, not having a
122 NIGERIA— NORTH BORNEO— NORWAY.
British patent, can apply for provisional protection by a petition
in which he agrees to apply within three months from the date
of such petition for a grant of the patent in the United Kingdom,
and if he do apply for the same and it is granted, in due course
the Governor in Council may grant a patent for Nigeria to ex-
pire with the British patent.
There are taxes on Nigerian patents at the end of the fourth
and eighth year. At the expiration of the grant the patentee
can petition for an extension, which the Governor, if he sees
proper, can grant for five years, or for fourteen years further,
or such less time as he may think suitable.
Trade marks can be registered.
NORTH BORNEO.
(Proclamation n of I July, 1908.)
Population, 175,000.
The original inventor, his heirs or executors, administrators
or assigns or first importer can patent an invention. The in-
vention must not have been in public use in the empire by
parties unconnected with the inventor before the application
in Borneo.
Period of exclusive privilege fourteen years.
English Patents can at the Governor's discretion be extended
to cover North Borneo. There are no " working " or compulsory
license clauses or annual taxes.
Otherwise the law is substantially similar to the British.
NORWAY.
(Law of 2 July, 1910.)
Population, 2,600,000.
Kinds and Duration of Patents. — Patents of invention are
granted for fifteen years, subject to an annual tax. Patents
of improvement are granted for the term of the original patent,
expiring with it, and are not subject to annual taxes ; should,
however, the original patent go void before the end of the fifteen
years, the owner of the patent of addition can keep the latter
in force by paying the taxes as they would have become due
on the original patent.
Who can Patent. — The first inventor, or his duly authorised
assignee or legal representative, alone can by law obtain a patent
for invention. But any person, firm, or corporation may apply
for a patent (and if the first applicant, and not opposed by the
inventor or persons having rights under him), is held to be the
rightful patentee.
If any one can prove that he has worked the invention in the
NORWAY. 123
realm or made arrangements for working it before the date of
application for the patent, he can continue to use it in his own
business only, and assign the business as a whole, including
his right, to others.
This applies even to patents claiming priority under the Union
for the Protection of Industrial Property.
What is Patentable. — All new inventions, useful in industry,
and not contrary to law, morality, or public order, can be patented,
except articles of food, beverages, medicines, and chemical sub-
stances. Methods of manufacturing these, and apparatus therefor,
can, however, be secured.
Novelty. — By new is meant not known in the realm in such
manner that persons skilled in the trade to which the invention
relates could work it. The laying open of the patent speci-
fication by a patent Authority, and advertising it for opposition
purposes at home or abroad, or by showing in an international
exhibition, within six months prior to the application for the
patent, however, is not to be considered fatal to novelty.
Norway has joined the Union for the Protection of Industrial
Property, so inventions protected by citizens of any state of
the Union in their state are protected for twelve months in
Norway; the papers required to protect under the "Conven-
tion " can be supplied any time before publication of the in-
vention. See, however, article headed " Who can Patent."
Rights conferred by Patents. — Patents confer substantially
the same privileges in Norway that British and United States
patents do in their respective countries, but if the patent be
not at work at the end of three years from date, both public
authorities and private firms can obtain compulsory licenses
at fair rates, to be decided, if necessary, by arbitration. If,
however, the rate be a sum down, that sum must be paid before
the license is granted. If it be a royalty, the licensee is required
to give sufficient security that he will duly and faithfully pay the
instalments as they come due.
Procedure. — All applications for patents are decided upon
by the first department of the Patent Commission, and an appeal
from its decision can be had to the second department of the
Patent Commission, from whom there is now no appeal Until
an application is actually accepted for advertisement it can be
amended by applicant for a small charge. The applicant can
on application have publication delayed for six months after
it is so accepted. The rule as to only one invention being allowed
in one application is as in Denmark.
A patent application is now advertised as open to inspection,
and any one may, during the next following eight weeks, oppose
the grant on the ground that it was not new at the date of
application or that it had been taken from him or from a person
who had assigned his rights to him.
124 NORWAY.
If opposed successfully on the second ground, the opposer
can file an application himself for the patent within two months.
Against the decision there is an appeal. Patents are issued
about eight weeks after the opposition period has expired, and
about six months afterwards are published in the Norsk Patent-
Had.
A non-resident patentee must appoint an agent to represent
him, who shall be registered at the Patent Office. This agent
is usually the correspondent of the patent agent through whom
the application is made. If the agent dies or leaves the country,
another must be appointed, or the patent will after due notice
be declared void.
Rights of a Patentee. — A patentee has the sole right of making,
selling, letting, or using the invention for a business purpose,
or for profit, but there is nothing to prevent any one making or
using the invention for a thoroughly scientific purpose, or for
his own private domestic use, if not for pecuniary profit. In-
tentional infringement of a valid patent is a criminal offence,
punishable by fine or imprisonment. Unintentional infringers
are required to make good to the patentee all damages he may
have sustained by their infringement, and to pay him all profits
they have made by such infringement. The infringing articles
are confiscated or kept in custody by the Government at the
expense of the inf ringer until the termination of the patent,
or by agreement they can be handed over to the patentee. The
words " infringing articles " are held to cover any implements
exclusively used in the infringement. In the case of a process
of manufacturing a new species all similar substances are held
to be infringements and made by the patented process, unless
the contrary be proved.
If the defence be invalidity of the patent, the action for an
infringement can be stopped till the infringer can bring a suit
to have the patent declared void.
The patent specifications and drawings are printed as soon
as the case is allowed by the examiners and final fee paid, but
the patentee can obtain a postponement of publication for six
months, and if the patent be refused on opposition the final
fee is returned to the inventor.
Working and Compulsory Licensing. — Government or public
authorities can use a patent, but the patentee is entitled to com-
pensation therefor. If the patentee has not got his invention
to work in the realm within three years of the date of the patent
to such an adequate extent as to supply the demand of the public,
he can be compelled to grant licenses to trustworthy manufac-
turers at a reasonable compensation. Lastly, if another patentee
makes an industrial improvement on any patented invention
which cannot be worked without the use of the prior patent,
the owner of the first patent is compelled to grant a license on
NORWAY— OMAN— PALESTINE. 125
reasonable terms to the persons so improving on his invention,
but conditionally on the owners of the improvement granting
him in return a license on reasonable terms. If the terms cannot
be decided out of court, the Patent Office decides the point,
subject to an appeal to a higher court.
Assignments and licenses may be registered, and until regis-
tered are not binding upon third parties acting in good faith.
About 1,800 patents were applied for annually up to the
beginning of the war, and about 60 per cent, were granted.
Of the entire set of applications, nearly one-third came from
Germany, and one-third from Norway itself, while only about
one-twelfth came from Great Britain and Ireland, one-twelfth
from Sweden, and one-ninth from the United States.
Designs for special exterior shapes or decoration can be regis-
tered for fifteen years, subject to fees at the end of each triennial
period. The registered article must be manufactured in the
realm, and the design is forfeited if importation be allowed.
Taxes. — Patents, except patents of addition, are subject to
the payment of an annual fee.
Design registration lasts for fifteen years, subject to taxes at
the end of three, six, nine, and twelve years. Trade marks
are also registrable.
OMAN.
Population, 500,000.
The owner of an Indian patent can get his rights, to a large
extent, extended to Oman. Trade marks can be protected at
the Custom House.
PALESTINE.
(Patent Ordinance 1920.)
Population, 600,000.
A patent registered in any other country can be extended to
Palestine, without prejudice to the rights of persons already
working such in the province, on satisfactory evidence that it is
protected abroad and appears to be reasonably new in the
province.
In Mesopotamia a similar ordinance will be shortly enacted,
and inventions can be now to some extent protected by
depositing the papers with the Governor, when on the publica-
tion of the ordinance they will be taken in order of date.
The French and Italian mandate countries will probably be
protected under French and Italian law as colonies.
126 PANAMA— PARAGUAY— PERAK— PERSIA.
PANAMA.
(Laws 24 of 14 Nov., 1908, and No. 47 of 29 Jan., 1911.)
Exclusive of Canal Zone (see U.S.).
Population, 400,000.
Patents are granted for from five years to twenty at the option
of the applicant, but expire with prior foreign patent for the
same invention, but short term patents cannot be afterwards
extended. The Colombian law is re-enacted otherwise. Patents
may sometimes be extended beyond the twenty years if con-
sidered by authorities of sufficient importance. Trade marks
are registrable.
The Canal Zone is not under this patent law, but under that
of the United States.
PARAGUAY.
(Convention, 16 January, 1889.)
Population, 800,000.
By a convention with Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia and Peru,
a patent granted in any of these countries can be extended
to Paraguay within one year of its date. Paraguay has made
a similar arrangement with Great Britain. Medicines cannot be
patented.
Except this, there is no patent law in Paraguay. The Govern-
ment, sometimes independently, grant exclusive privileges for
useful inventions.
No annual taxes. Trade marks are registrable.
FERAE.
(Order in Council 267 — No. 2 of 1896.)
Population, 330,000.
Inventions patented in Great Britain or any British possession
can, during the lifetime of such patent, be patented in Perak
for the remainder of such lifetime.
Tax at end of seventh year is required to keep the patent in
force.
PERSIA.
Population, 8,000,000.
Has no patent law.
PERU— PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 127
. PERU.
(Constitution Act 27, Law of 28 Jan., 1869, 3 Jan., 1896, and
Decrees of 20 Sept., 1912, and 28 Nov., 1914.)
Population, 3,500,000.
Peruvian patents to inventor or introducer, granted for in-
ventions unpublished anywhere, last ten years, often renewable
for ten years more. If a patent has been previously granted
first in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, or Uruguay, and applica-
tion be made in Peru within a year of such grant, publication
since the aforesaid patent was applied for does not militate
against the patent rights. A similar treaty between Peru,
Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela gives similar protection,
but for two years in the others of them. Real industrial working
in the realm must be proved within two years, and importation
from abroad is not allowed even by the inventor, and the latter
must renounce all rights as a foreigner to diplomatic assistance
in the matter of his rights as a patentee. The right is indepen-
dent of foreign patents.
Patents of addition or modification are allowed if they do not
affect the principle on which the original invention is based.
Importation of the patented article without special permit
in each case nullifies the patent rights if such importation is
with the patentee's sanction or connivance.
There are no annual taxes.
Trade marks are registrable.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.
(Patent Law 2793 and 2860 of 1919.)
Population, 7,800,000.
An invention not yet published in any country can be patented
for seventeen years. Any person making an improvement on
any patented invention can have a compulsory license for the
original invention during the lifetime of the original patent, on
payment of half the Government fees on the aforesaid invention,
plus a premium to be assessed by the court if not agreed to
privately to be paid to the inventor, and a tax paid to Government,
but the original inventor has full and free use of the improve-
ment.
Infringement of a patent is both a civil and a criminal offence,
punishable by heavy fine or imprisonment not exceeding two
years, damages and destruction of the infringing articles. Per-
sons aiding and abetting the infringement are liable to the same
penalties. There are annual taxes of 20 pesos if the invention
is not worked in the realm.
128 POLAND.
POLAND.
(Decree of 4 February, 1919.)
Population, between 13,000,000 and 30,000,000.
Kind and Duration o! Patents. — Patents of invention granted
for fifteen years from the date of signature of the patent.
Patents of addition, free of annual taxes, granted to the owner
of the patent of invention to expire with a patent of invention.
These, however, can be converted into principal patents on or be-
fore the expiration of the principal patents on which they are based.
Secret Patents. — Inventions relating to national defence.
These are granted, but, immediately after the publication, are
submitted to the War Ministry, when if the latter does not within
the next three months require the invention to be kept secret
it shall become an ordinary case and go through the ordinary
curriculum. If, however, the Ministry decide that a patent
must be kept secret, they have one year in which to purchase
it at their own price or at a price to be fixed by the Supreme
Council of Ministers. It is then kept permanently secret, other-
wise it is published in due course.
Who can Patent. — The inventor or his legal representatives
or assigns.
What can be Patented, — Anything that could be patented in
Great Britain or the United States, except chemical products,
foods, or pharmaceutical objects, but processes for making these
can be patented and this protects products made by such pro-
cess. Mere trifling improvements or alterations of known
inventions may be refused. A single patent may comprise
several inventions if they be interconnected by one principal
novel idea. The inventions must be new, that is, not published
anywhere prior to the application for a patent. It is no bar
to the grant of a patent that the invention has been secretly
worked by the inventor or others prior to the date of application
for a patent.
If there be several applicants for a patent the first applicant
receives it unless another successfully opposes him, but anyone
who can prove that he worked the invention in the realm before
the date of application for the patent can continue to work
it in his own business and can sell the invention together with
his right to work the invention in that special business only.
Procedure. — The application must be in the Polish language,
and follows pretty much the same curriculum as in Great Britain.
There is an examination to see if the application be in order
but not as to whether it be new, and if the examiners are satisfied
the specification is published and is open for opposition — but
the applicant can by petition keep publication back for six
months. Only the injured party can oppose on the ground
that it has been " taken from him," but any interested party
POLAND. 129
can do so on the ground that it is not new or not subject matter
for a patent. If an applicant succeeds in stopping the invention
on the ground that it was taken from him, he (the opposer) can
obtain the grant of a patent for the same invention to date
from the day of application of the fraudulent application. The
first applicant is held to be the rightful owner of the invention
if new, unless it be proved that he took it wrongfully from the
opponent. From the decision of the opposition court there is
an appeal to a higher judicial authority. Until the patent
be allowed the applicant has the right of introducing amend-
ments on or additions to the description, provided they do not
alter the essential idea.
Taxes. — The patent being granted there is a small annual
progressive tax on it on pain of its being annulled. The first
three years' taxes and the opposition fee can be allowed by the
Ministry to needy applicants.
Working. — The invention must be worked in the realm within
three years of the date of grant in a manner satisfactory to the
Ministry of Industry and Commerce, but this latter can extend
the working time to six years.
Annulment. — Any time within five years of grant a petition
may be filed on any of the grounds allowed for opposition, after
which it can only be annulled on proof that the invention was
taken from the petitioner or that it had been previously patented
in Poland.
Military Use. — The military can demand the expropriation
of a patent or the granting of licenses for state reasons, but
in such case the amount of compensation is determined by the
Council of Ministers.
Supplementary patents are granted to expire with the original,
which, on the expiration of the original patent, can be converted
into an original patent.
Infringers can be prosecuted for infringements made after
the patent has been advertised as passed for publication, and in-
junction and damages obtained.
Assignments and Licenses must be registered.
Patents granted by Russia, Austria or Germany before this
law came in force, even though published, can be extended to
Poland without prejudice to the rights of third parties if applied
for before the 7th November, 1919, or before such further date,
as the Ministry of Industry and Commerce may extend the term
of six months to, but patents so extended must be applied for
in Poland with all the formalities, stamps, and costs as original
patents. " Rights of third parties " is practically the right to
use the patent in his own business in the case of persons already
using the invention before the date of the application for the
patent in Poland.
Registration of trade marks is allowed.
130 PORTO RICO— PORTUGAL, ETC.
PORTO RICO.
Population, 1,120,000.
The U.S. patent can be extended to Porto Rico any time during
the life of the patent, provided the invention be not already
worked there by third parties.
PORTUGAL, AZORES AND MADEIRA ISLANDS,
AND COLOND3S.
(Decrees 15 Dec., 1894, 17 Dec., 1903, and n Feb., 1911.)
Population : Portugal, Azores and Madeira, 6,000,000 .;
Colonies, about 10,000,000.
Only the true and first inventor, or inventors, or assignee
can now obtain a patent.
For a patent to be valid, the invention at the date of the patent
must not have been published in print anywhere or publicly
used in the realm before the date of the patent, or (if obtained
under the rules of the Union for the Protection of Industrial
Property — see page 22) before the date of the original patent
abroad.
Medicines and chemical products cannot be patented, but
processes for making the same can be.
There are four kinds of patents. Patents of invention granted
for fifteen years ; patents of addition for improvements on
patented inventions, granted to the owners of such patented
inventions, and to expire with the original patent ; patents
for designs, or models, granted for five years and renewable
indefinitely ; and monopolies for new industries.
Patents are granted first for Portugal, Azores and Madeira ;
these can be extended to the colonies by a special application
and on paying further fees.
Applications for patents are published before grant, and then
open for three months for any one to oppose. The birthplace
of the inventor must be given.
There is an appeal from the decisions of the Patent Office.
Patents must be worked in the realm within two years of their
grant, or if filed under the Convention three years from date of
application, and the working not interrupted for a period of
two years, or the Government can annul them. In practice
this clause appears to be a dead letter.
A patent dates as regards its duration from the date of grant,
as regards the rights of the patentee from the date of application,
or if obtained under the Convention from the date of the original
first application in the countries of the Union for the Protection
of Industrial Property.
The Government can at any time appropriate a patent to its
PORTUGAL— RHODESIA— ROUMANIA. 131
own use, wholly or partially, paying such compensation as may
be agreed upon or decided by arbitration.
Knowingly infringing a patent is a criminal offence.
After a quiet possession of a patent for seven and a half years
the validity of that patent cannot be contested.
Monopolies for New Industries are granted at the discretion
of the Government to persons proving that they are qualified
and have sufficient capital to introduce into the realm and
satisfactorily work there an industry hitherto not existing in
the realm. They may be granted for any term not exceeding
ten years, and if granted for a shorter period can be extended
at the option of the Government to ten years. The monopoly
is for exclusive manufacture only — any one can import the
monopolised article. A foreigner can only get a grant of mon-
opoly by a sort of naturalisation. The application is advertised
and can be opposed. The applicant must give good security
to Government that he will duly work his monopoly, and the
monopoly will be annulled and security can be forfeited if the
industry be not at work within the year to a reasonable extent,
or its operations be abandoned for eighteen months consecu-
tively during the term granted.
A Portuguese patent can be extended to cover the African
dependencies of Portugal and Macao and Timor and Salor within
two years of its grant, to expire with the Portuguese patent.
Registration of designs is granted for Portugal, Azores and
Madeira only (not the colonies).
*_ There is an annual tax on patents of invention.
: Designs or models can be registered for Portugal only.
£; (All registrable goods are divided into 56 classes for designs,
into 62 for models, and into 80 for trademarks.)
RHODESIA.
(See Southern Rhodesia.)
ROUMANIA.
(Law of 26 January, 1906.)
Population, about 17,000,000.
Kind and Duration of Patents. — Patents of invention are
granted to the inventors thereof for fifteen years for new in-
ventions. Patents of improvement on original inventions still
running are granted to the inventor of the original invention
or others for ten years or for the duration of the original invention,
whichever is longest. Patents of importation for inventions
already protected abroad expire with the original foreign patent
or at the end of fifteen years, whichever be the shorter term.
These must be applied for within six months of the foreign
application.
132 ROUMANIA— RUSSIA.
Working in the country must be established within four years
of the date of the patent and not be intercepted for more than
two years on pain of forfeiture of the patent.
What can be Patented. — The law is substantially the same as
the British and American, except that no inventions relating to
food, medicine, healing, or disinfecting (even veterinary) can
be patented. " New " means not published in print or patented
more than six months before in any country and not in use in
the realm before the date of application for the patent. The
Government can expropriate an invention in whole or in part
and keep it for Government use, paying such indemnity for the
same as a court (on failure to agree privately) may decide to be
fair.
There are annual taxes on patents of invention and importa-
tion, but none on patents of addition after grant. Trade marks
can be registered.
RUSSIA.
(Law of 20 May /i June, 1896.)
Population before the war, 180,000,000.
This law is in abeyance. No patents have been granted during
the civil war, and the Patent Office is closed. The following
is the law as it stood before the revolution, and as it will probably
be in the near future. (Recopied from our last edition.)
Kind and Duration o! Patents. — Patents of invention are
granted for fifteen years, subject to annual taxes. Patents of
addition for improvements on existing patents are granted,
to expire with the principal patents.
Patents for improvements on inventions already patented
can, however, be obtained as independent patents of invention,
and in such cases last for fifteen years.
Patents for inventions first patented abroad expire with the
expiration of the period for which the shortest termed foreign
patent for the same invention was granted.
Russia, however, will probably join the Union for the Protec-
tion of Industrial Property, in which case this last clause will
be inoperative in the case of persons claiming under the Union
— see page 22. The act of joining the Union makes the treaty
retrospective.
Who can Obtain a Patent. — The true and first inventor or
his representative, whether Russian or alien, can obtain a patent.
During the first year of grant of a patent of invention only the
patentee thereof can obtain a patent of addition thereon. After
this, others can obtain such patents of addition or improvement,
to expire with the original patent ; but neither party can use
the other's invention without special agreement.
Inventions, however, which are already patented in foreign
RUSSIA. 133
countries can still be legally protected in Russia if the applicant
for the Russian patent be the actual inventor of the foreign
patent or his assign, and the invention be not yet known in
Russia. In such case the Russian patent is limited in its duration
by the term for which the corresponding foreign patent of shortest
duration was originally granted, copy of which has to be supplied
for the purposes of identification.
What can be Validly Patented. — Any new invention capable
of industrial exploitation, except :
1. Anything dangerous to the state or public morals, or
inventions exclusively for warlike use. See paragraph " Govern-
ment Use."
2. Anything already patented, or for which a patent has
been applied for, in Russia, or which has been worked in the
realm.
3. Anything sufficiently described in the literature of any
country as to be reproduced therefrom.
4. Anything which is publicly known abroad without being
patented, or patented in another name than that of the appli-
cant for the Russian patent, unless such other applicant of the
original patent be his assignor, assignee, or representative.
5. Mere unimportant modifications or improvements of well-
known inventions.
6. Chemical products, foods, drinks, medicines, or processes,
or apparatus for making medicines.
Novelty. — See last article.
Requirements. — Besides the usual drawings and specification,
a model is required when in the opinion of the examiners the
case requires such for the full understanding of the invention.
Examination. — Inventions are examined as regards novelty
by experts and committees representative of the various de-
partments of state ; against the decision of these an appeal
can be had to a general meeting of the Technical Committee.
Those members, however, whose decision is appealed against
have no vote, but are present and can speak. Patent applica-
tions were often from three to seven years passing through the
office. There is one advantage in delay, however, the inventor
is protected from the day of application, but his patent begins
to run from the date of grant.
Assignments can be made before issue.
Government Use. — Patents for inventions useful to Govern-
ment only, such as munitions of war, are not granted, and those
useful alike to Government and to private individuals, such as
warlike materials that can be used for sporting purposes, are
granted with the reservation that the Government shall have
the use of them. (Compensation settled by the Council of
State.) The Government have power to expropriate a patent
altogether and keep the matter secret, the Council of State
134 RUSSIA.
settling the terms of compensation. Severe penalites are or-
dained against an inventor of such patent if he betrays the secret
or takes out a foreign patent.
Provisional Protection. — An application having been made
in due form, the name of the applicant, the date of application,
and the title of the invention are published, and a certificate of
safeguard (provisional protection) is granted. This enables the
inventor to publish and work his invention without danger to
the subsequent grant of a patent for the same and to notify
infringers that they are exposing themselves, in the event of
the patent being granted, to judicial prosecution for all infringe-
ments made after the date of the certificate of safeguard. Any
time before the patent is granted, the grant can be objected to
by the examining officials or any other person notifying them that
the invention is old or has been wrongfully obtained by the
applicant. The objection of the examiners or any notification
that the invention is old is submitted to the applicant, who has
then three months during which he can furnish a reply, and the
general body of the examiners thereupon come to a decision.
If, however, the notification be that the invention has been
wrongfully or fraudulently obtained, the patent is refused,
and the parties are obliged to submit the matter to a court of law,
who can make such order in reference to the patent as it may
consider right.
The production of a patent granted in Germany for the same
invention will often expedite the examination, and Russians
frequently apply for patents in Germany before applying in
their own country.
Conflicting Applications. — If two applications be filed for the
same invention, the first applicant receives the grant, unless
the two applications be made the same day or the first be opposed
by the second. If the two be of even date, they are invited to
come to agreement ; and if they do not agree within three
months neither application is allowed until the matter has been
decided by a court of law.
Working. — A patent must be worked in the realm and the work-
ing proved to the Department of Commerce and Manufacture
within five years of its grant or the patent will be declared void.
This working must be a bond fide working of those parts of the
invention claimed. Thus if the claim were " in combination
with a slotting machine," a tool of a given kind, it would be suf-
ficient to make the tool in Russia. If the invention be for a
process of turning articles to a true oval — the lathe that does it
can be imported and the process " worked " by using such lathe.
Itfis always safest, however, to make one complete machine
in*Russia. Babcock and Wilcox had their patent upset, though
they had made a patent boiler in Russia, because a small part
of it and many complete boilers had been imported from England.
ST. HELENA— ST. LUCIA— ST. VINCENT. 135
Assignments of entire interest must be registered, and licenses
or partial assignments are not recognised.
Government Guarantee. — During the first two years action
can be brought to upset the patent on any statutory ground.
After two years, it can only be revoked by a sentence or order
of a criminal court.
Patents of Addition are granted to the proprietor of a patent,
to expire with the original patent. There are no annual taxes
on these. After the first year of a patent any one can apply
for a patent of addition thereon, but neither patentee can use
the patent of the other without license.
Taxes. — A patent becomes void if annual taxes be not paid
as they become due. They can, however, be paid within three
months after date on payment of a fine.
New designs or models can be protected for any period up
to ten years, not renewable.
Trade marks are registrable.
ST. HELENA.
(Ordinance No. 3 of 1872.)
Population, 4,000.
A British patent can be extended to this colony.
There are no annual taxes or compulsory working. The rights
expire with the British patent.
ST. LUCIA.
(Ordinance No. 14 of 27 October, 1899.)
Population, 55,000.
The English law of 1883, with requisite alterations, has been
enacted in the colony. There are no compulsory working
clauses.
ST. VINCENT.
(Ordinance of 30 June, 1898.)
Population, 51,000.
The English law as it existed in 1888, with slight modifications
to adapt it to the colony, has been enacted in St. Vincent.
Annual taxes have to be paid before end of the fourth and each
subsequent year.
136 SALVADOR— SERVIA— SEYCHELLES ISLANDS.
SALVADOR.
(Laws of 24 April, 1901, i May, 1909, and 19 June, 1913.)
Population, 1,300,000.
Who can Patent. — Only the true and first inventor, or his
attorney for him, can validly obtain a patent.
What can be Patented. — Practically anything patentable in
Great Britain or the United States not yet published in any
country except in official Patent Office publications, or through
being exhibited in international exhibitions. A patent can only
be for one article or process, and if two or more have to be com-
bined to produce a new industrial result there must be two or
more patents. There is an examination system by experts
and oppositions are allowed prior to the grant of the patent.
Kinds and Duration of Patents. — Patents of invention for
fifteen years and patents of addition to expire with original
patent, and patents of precaution, equivalent to an American
caveat, which lasts a year and can be renewed for one more year ;
these are kept secret, but can be used as evidence in oppositions.
The patent can be renewed by the Executive at the end of
the fifteen years for a further period of five years ; then a fresh
tax is required. In the case, however, of inventions patented
abroad, the patent falls with the first foreign patent. All ap-
plications are published for three months, when, if there be no
opposition and the papers appear in order, they are granted.
Government can compulsorily purchase a patent, and, if
the inventor refuse to work the invention in the realm, can annul
the patent.
Otherwise there is no compulsory working clause.
Annual taxes have to be paid on all patents, even patents
of addition, on pain of forfeiture of patent.
SERVIA.
(See Jugo-Slavia.)
SEYCHELLES ISLANDS.
(Ordinance No. 5 of 13 March, 1901.)
Population, 23,000.
This law is very similar to the British, the differences being,
first, an assignee of the inventor's right can apply for a patent.
Taxes have to be paid before the end of the fourth and each
subsequent year to maintain the patent in force.
SHAN STATES.
The Indian Patent Acts of 1898 and 1910 have, by notification,
been extended to the Shan States,
SIAM, SIERRA LEONE PROTECTORATE, ETC. 137
SIAM.
Population, 6,700,000.
The English Patent Act extends to Siam in so far that any
British subject or subject of any other country which has come
into the arrangement in Siam can be prosecuted in a consular
court in Siam by the owner of a British patent for infringement
of such British patent in Siam, provided that the owner of the
said British patent is a British subject or a subject or citizen
of another country making the same arrangement in Siam in
regard to its subjects or citizens.
A law for the registration of trade marks has been passed.
SIERRA LEONE AND PROTECTORATE.
(Ordinance No. 3 of 6 March, 1913.)
Population, white, 500.
„ coloured, 6,700,000.
The owner of a British patent can obtain protection in the
colony, to expire with said British patent. A patent can
be declared void on most of the grounds that a British patent
can. There are no compulsory licenses. The privilege is very
little used. Trade marks can be registered.
SOLOMON ISLANDS PROTECTORATE (BRITISH).
(Regulation No. i, 1917.)
British patents can be registered in the islands so as to be
operative therein as long as the British patent remains in force.
SOUDAN (ANGLO-EGYPTIAN).
Population, 2,000,000.
There is no patent or trade mark law for the Soudan. The
French law covers the French Soudan.
SOUTH AFRICA (UNION OF).
(Act No. 9 of 1916.)
Population, white, 1,500,000.
,, coloured, 3,500,000.
Formerly the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Transvaal, and Orange
Free State, each granted patents independently. The owners
of these had the option of exchanging them on certain terms
under the present law for Union patents or of continuing their
provincial patents under the provincial laws but of paying their
taxes at the Patent Office of the Union at Pretoria Patent Office.
138 SOUTH AFRICA— SOUTHERN RHODESIA— SPAIN.
The Patent Law of the Union of South Africa is practically
identical with the British, except as follows : Patents are granted
for fourteen years instead of sixteen. In an opposition, the op-
ponent is allowed to plead want of novelty against the patent,
and instead of the heavy annual taxes required by the British
law there are small taxes just before the ends of the third, seventh,
and tenth years on pain of forfeiture. Compulsory licenses
can be applied for at the end of two years instead of four.
South Africa has joined the Union of Industrial Property
(Convention), see page 22.
SOUTHERN RHODESIA.
(Ordinance No. 7 of 1904.)
Population, white, 23,000.
„ coloured, 800,000.
In September, 1904, an Act, almost a copy of the English
law of 1883, was passed, but the rules re oppositions are greatly
improved, and costs allowed to the winning party.
The prior grant of a foreign patent for the same invention does
not affect the Rhodesian one if the latter be applied for within
one year of such grant. Publication in the interim is also no
bar to validity.
Provisional protection lasts nine months, the patent 14 years.
Annual taxes, to maintain the patent, commence at the end
of third year, increasing annually. If taxes be accidentally
delayed, they can be paid during the next three months with a
fine, depending on the time elapsed since they were due.
No design registration. Trade marks are, however, registrable.
SPAIN AND COLONIES.
(Law of 7 June, 1902.)
Population, Spain, 20,000,000.
Colonies, 500,000.
There are three kinds of patents :
i. Patents of Invention for twenty years granted to any
person, firm, or corporation who intends to establish, or who has
established, a new industry unpublished and unpractised at
home or abroad, except in international exhibitions (when
exhibited by the patentee) or under the exceptions allowed by
the Union for the Protection of Industrial Property ; but ex-
perimental use by the applicant before patenting is not considered
publication or practice of the invention.
SPAIN AND COLONIES. 139
2. Patents of Importation for five years granted to any person,
firm, or corporation who establishes an industry new in the realm,
though it may have been worked or published abroad.
3. Certificates of Addition, Alteration, or Improvement on
original patented inventions which are made by the patentees
of such original patented inventions and which lapse with the
original patent, and after grant form a part of the original patent.
Patents of invention and their certificates give the sole right
of making, using, and importing.
Patents of importation do not give any right to stop importa-
tions of the patented article.
Medicines cannot be patented, but modes of producing them
can, and their names can be registered.
There is no examination as to novelty, but all applications
are granted if in order.
The holder of the patent can at any time after grant during
its existence obtain a certificate of addition, alteration, or dis-
claimer for any improvement, alteration, or deletion he wishes
to make in the specification, and the patent from thenceforth
is modified by that certificate, but without prejudice to the rights
of other parties existing at the time. There are no annual taxes
on these certificates, but they fall with the original patent.
A patent can be expropriated by a special Act of Congress,
in which case the indemnity for such expropriation is also de-
creed, and who is to pay it.
Working. — A patent must be worked in Spanish territory,
within three years of the date of the patent " in reasonable pro-
portion to its employment or consumption " ; and that working
proved before an official (who grants a certificate and is much
more strict than formerly). If there be no market, the existence
at the disposal of the public of machinery or materials sufficient
for the manufacture will be considered a working. Any rival
manufacturer or any person who has been refused a license
can challenge in a court of arbitration at his own expense the
sufficiency of such proved working. It is sufficient to upset the
patent to show that working has been suspended for a year and
a day without very strong reason.
Licenses and Assignments must be registered at the Con-
servatory of Arts (Madrid) before they become valid against
third parties. This register is always open to public inspection.
Nullification. — As in most other countries, if it be found that
the specification does not fully and correctly describe the inven-
tion and its objects, so that any one could work it who is con-
versant with the branch of art to which it is nearest related, or
if there be clear evidence of deceit or of reservation of valuable
information on the part of the patentee in drawing up his speci-
fication, the patent will be declared void.
Infringers of Patents are liable to a fine of from £8 to £80 for
140 SPAIN— STRAITS SETTLEMENTS— SWEDEN.
the first offence ; if, after being fined, the infringer again infringes
within a period of five years, he is liable to a fine of from £80
to £800. Persons knowingly assisting in such infringement lay
themselves open to a fine of from £2 to £8 for the first offence,
and of from £8 to £80 for the second. All counterfeit products
seized become the property of the patentee, and all damages
must be made good ; and if the fines and damages be not prompt-
ly paid, imprisonment for an equivalent period is the only alter-
native. In infringement trials, the infringer can plead invalidity
of the patent, and get his action suspended till the validity
of the patent has been tested by the public prosecutor before a
jury of experts.
New ornamental designs and patterns are registrable for
5, 10, 15, or 20 years.
What Inventions Pay. — The spirit of enterprise is rapidly
rising again in Spain ; and at the present time there is a great
demand for manufactures requiring small capital to work them.
Patents for small domestic articles, stationery, simple articles
of husbandry, or connected with the wine trade, mining, and
guns and pistols, are especially sought after. About 2,500
patents are issued annually.
Taxes. — Patents are subject to an annual progressive tax on
pain of forfeiture. Accidental non-payment can be rectified
by fine within three months. All the taxes can be paid at once
if desirable, in which case a discount of 5 per cent, on five-year
patents and 20 per cent, on twenty-year patents is allowed.
Trade marks can be registered.
STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.
(Ordinance No. 12 of 1871.)
Population, 700,000.
These include Singapore, Penang, Province Wellesley, and
Malacca. The patent law is very similar to the British, except
that there are no compulsory licenses or annual taxes. Any in-
ventor possessed of a British patent can have the same registered
in the colony at any time during its existence so as to be operative
over the Settlements. The first importer of an invention can
obtain a valid patent therefor. Duration of patent, 14 years.
SWEDEN.
(Laws of 16 May, 1884, and 9 May, 1902.)
Population, 5,500,000.
Kinds and Duration of Patents. — Patents of invention are
granted for fifteen years, subject to an annual tax. Patents of
addition, for improvements on existing patented inventions, are
granted to the original inventor of said existing patent, free of
SWEDEN. 141
annual tax, to expire with the original patent. And at the option
of the King, provisional protections for one year to subjects
of countries granting reciprocity in this respect.
Who can Patent. — Patents are granted only to the true and
first inventor, or his legally qualified representative or assignee.
What is Patentable. — All new industrial inventions and new
modes of manufacture, except foods and medicines, are patent-
able ; the modes of compounding foods and medicines are, how-
ever, patentable if new.
If an application contain more than one invention, the rule
set forth under Denmark is followed (see middle of page 79).
Novelty. — An invention is new if it has not been already
described in any country in an ordinary accessible printed pub-
lication, or so openly practised that any one skilled in the art
to which it relates could manufacture it from such information.
The publication of the invention, however, by exhibition at
an international exhibition, is no objection to the grant of a patent,
provided that the applicant applies for a patent within three
months after such publication or opening of such exhibition.
Publication of the invention by a foreign patent authority
is, however, sufficient to invalidate a subsequent application
in Sweden, unless such application be made under the provisions
of the International Convention, and such publication be after
the date of priority secured under the Convention.
In the case of an application for a patent for an invention
first patented abroad, in a country under the Convention or
having a corresponding regulation, a Swedish patent is granted
without being prejudiced by interim publication, to date the
same date as the said foreign patent, provided the application
be made within twelve months of the date of application for
the foreign patent.
Requirements as regards a full and complete specification
are as strict as in England or America, and a model or samples
may be called for. An applicant outside the realm must have a
resident representative (his patent agent's correspondent is
sufficient), who, in all matters of the patent, shall be considered
the representative of the patentee. He can be changed by the
patentee for some one else, but if he dies, or leaves the country,
another must be appointed. There is an examination as to
sufficiency of description of the invention, and also as to novelty.
If two inventors apply for the same invention, the first applicant
has the preference.
Applications on being allowed are advertised, and for two
months are open to opposition.
Assign ments to be valid have to be registered, and until such
registration the registered owner for the time being is the legal
owner. Any second assignment from him, therefore, registered
before a previous assignment takes precedence of the latter.
142 SWEDEN.
Working. — All patents except as hereinafter stated must be
worked in a substantial manner in the kingdom, commercially,
within three years of their date, and the working once begun
must not be intermitted for an entire year, otherwise, on the
application to the courts by a third party, the Government
can grant a license on such terms as regards compensation to
the patentee as the court may consider just. The patent author-
ities, under exceptional circumstances, can extend the time.
Any foreigner having a bond fide industrial or commercial
establishment in the realm, and having patents for the same
invention in Sweden and in his own country, will be held to
have " worked " the invention in the realm if he works it in his
own country.
Rights conferred. — A patent in Sweden confers substantially
similar rights to what a patent in England does. A patent is
not valid against any one who, before the date of the patent,
either used the invention in the realm, or made extensive pre-
parations— such as by putting down plant — for such use. The
Government can confiscate a patent for the public good, or
Government use, but must indemnify the owner. In such case,
if the owner and the Government cannot agree as to the amount
of the indemnity, a special Commission assesses the amount.
The Penalty for Infringing a Valid Patent is a fine of not
less than 20 crowns (£i zs. 2\d.} or more than 2,000 crowns
(£111), or imprisonment ; and if after the commencement of
the action the infringement has been continued, each time a
summons has been served — provided the infringement has been
continued between the dates of serving — entails a separate fine.
Nullification. — Any one can contest the validity of a patent
at law ; and if the verdict be against the patentee, the fact
is registered in the Patent Office.
If a patent be rejected, part of the fee is returned.
About 3,500 patents are applied for annually, and about
2,000 issued.
Sweden is a large iron, steel, wood-pulp and timber-producing
country and has abundance of water power.
New models or designs relating to metal industry only, can be
protected for five years.
Taxes. — Patents of invention are subject to an annual tax
before the end of each year. The payment of this tax can at
any time be discontinued, and the patent allowed to go void.
If accidentally omitted, it can still be paid, and the patent hold
good, provided the amount of the tax, together with one-fifth
of the amount by way of fine, be paid within the next ensuing
three months after the date when the tax became due.
Trade marks are registrable. ,
I
SWITZERLAND. 143
SWITZERLAND.
(Laws of 21 June, 1907, and 30 March, 1911.)
Population, 3,900,000.
Kind and Duration of Patents. — Patents for new inventions
other than medicinal are granted for fifteen years ; medicinal
ones for ten — in each case from the date of application. A
patent for an improvement on a prior patent owned by the
applicant is granted to expire with the original patent. If
an original patent becomes void, its patents of addition can during
the next three months be converted into full patents.
What can be Patented. — Any new invention susceptible of
being patented in Great Britain or the United States can be
protected in Switzerland, except those for chemical substances
and processes for the manufacture of chemical substances in-
tended principally for the nourishment of man or beast,
medicines, food, or beverages which are manufactured by other
than purely chemical processes, and processes not purely me-
chanical for improving textile fibres or fabrics. Two inventions
cannot be combined in one application, and in the case of chemical
processes each patent must be for the manufacture of only one
product, and the constituents must be clearly and accurately
set forth, and full sets of samples of the constituents and of the
finished product supplied. If variations of the process consisting
in the employment of equivalent chemicals to those set forth
in the original patent, and for the production of products
analogous in point of view of their application, have to be
covered, such can be taken out as patents of addition on the
original patent. Thus if potash be used in the original patent,
patents of addition can be obtained for soda and ammonia
replacing it ; but the original patent cannot be taken out in
which the word " alkali " is used instead of soda, potash, or
ammonia. Except in chemical patents, a process and a product
can be covered in one patent.
Novelty. — An invention is considered new if it has not been
publicly known in Switzerland or appeared in print in that realm
before the date of application for the patent, sufficiently to enable
those skilled hi the art to which it relates to make and use the
same. Any person who has worked an invention in Switzerland,
or made bond fide arrangements for working it before the date
of the application for a patent, can continue to work it hi his own
works without paying royalty. He can sell or assign this right
to another only together with the business.
Rights conferred. — These are similar to those conferred by
patents in Great Britain or United States.
Working. — Patents must be worked in a bond fide manner in
Switzerland within three years of application on pain of for-
144 SWITZERLAND.
feiture, or any person interested can bring an action for nulli-
fication, and the patent will then be nullified unless in the opinion
of a court the inventor justifies his inaction by convincing the
court that '} he has done the best he could or that the invention
was actually at work in the realm at the date on which the action
was commenced. By an agreement between Germany and
Switzerland working in either country is sufficient to satisfy
the working clauses in the other, if the invention be patented
in both countries and if the patentee be a citizen of or be domi-
ciled in either country.
A person proving in court that an invention has been sur-
reptitiously or fraudulently obtained from him, and patented,
can have the patent transferred to him.
Compulsory Licenses. — A license can be compulsorily obtained
for any patent by a person proving that he has a prior patent
which cannot be worked to best advantage without such license,
and if the two parties cannot agree upon the terms of the license,
the court will decide what royalty shall be paid. The state can
expropriate a patent, paying a fair price therefor.
Patents are published as soon as granted, but an inventor
can on petition have his specifications and drawings kept secret
for one year from application. About 5,000 patents are granted
yearly.
Switzerland has joined the Union for the Protection of In-
dustrial Property, and the office of the Union is at Berne.
Infringers are liable to be punished with a fine of at least
£200 or imprisonment for one year. In the case of a second
offence the penalty is doubled. They are also similarly liable
for damages to the patentee, and the forfeiture of the counter-
feit articles, and plant used in their manufacture, and the sen-
tence can be ordered by the court to be published in the news-
papers at the expense of the guilty party.
Any person implying that an invention is patented when it
is not, is liable to a fine of at least £40, and in the case of a second
offence the fine is doubled.
An inventor resident abroad must appoint an agent in Switzer-
land to represent him. This is usually the correspondent of
his local patent agent. In any actions for nullification of a patent,
it is sufficient to notify this agent.
There is no examination system as to novelty.
Taxes have to be paid each year on pain of forfeiture of the
patent — on principal patents only, patents of addition not being
taxed in this way save except when converted into full patents.
Three months' grace is allowed for paying taxes without fine.
New designs and models, or sets of models or designs, regis-
tered for ione party at one time, can be protected for five years,
renewable to fifteen. Trade marks are also registrable.
TOBAGO— TRAVANCORE— TRINIDAD, ETC. 145
TOBAGO.
(See Trinidad.)
TRAVANCORE.
(Patents and Designs Regulation, 1915.)
A law, closely resembling the British, grants patents for
fourteen years, subject to annual taxes after three years and eleven
months from application.
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO.
(Ordinance No. 76 also No. 13 of 1905.)
Population, 330,000.
Fourteen-year patents can be obtained by the inventor or
importer, or his assigns, for new inventions.
The colony has joined the Union for the Protection of In-
dustrial Property.
There are no annual taxes, but in other respects the law of
patents and trade marks, except as regards costs, is substantially
the same as that of Great Britain.
Designs and trade marks are registrable.
TUNIS.
(Law of 26 December, 1888.)
Population, 2,000,000.
The law is very similar to the French, except that a patent
can be opposed prior to grant.
There are annual taxes.
A design model, or series of designs or models, packed in a
box of not exceeding 40 centimetres in either dimension, or weigh-
ing over 10 kilograms, can be secured for five, ten, or fifteen
years.
Trade marks are registrable.
TURKEY.
(Law of 2 March, 1880.)
Population before the war, Europe, 2,700,000.
„ „ Asia, 15,200,000.
Any new industrial product, new means, or new application
of known means, for obtaining a new industrial product or result,
can be patented, with the exception of medicines and devices
for banking or finance. Patents are granted for fifteen years.
Patents are granted without examination, and at the risk
10
146 ,. TURKEY— UGANDA PROTECTORATE, ETC.
of the applicant, as in France. In the case of warlike inventions,
the Government reserve the right of taking them, and rewarding
the inventor, and if they do not take them up they almost in-
variably refuse them as mischievous to the state. Gold, silver,
and copper medals are granted to the inventors of valuable
inventions, and the designs of these medals must be reproduced
as trade marks by inventors.
Patents of addition, alteration, or improvement can be ob-
tained during the entire duration of patent, free of annual tax,
to expire with and form part of the original patent. Patents of
addition granted to one owner or licensee of a patent belong
equally to all other owners or licensees, in the same proportion
and extent as the original patent.
Patents must be worked in the realm within two years of
grant on pain of forfeiture on the part of any interested party,
and such working must not be intermitted for two consecutive
years.
Importation of the patented article by the patentee or his
representatives is a ground for revocation of the patent.
The law as regards novelty, introducing specimens into the
country, and annulling patents, is the same as the French,
except that Turkey has not joined the Union for the Protection
of Industrial Property and its rules do not apply. The law against
infringements, especially in the case of second offences, is very
severe.
An annual tax has to be paid each year.
Trade marks are registrable.
For the newly-occupied Turkish territories (Mesopotamia, etc.),
see article "Palestine."
UGANDA PROTECTORATE.
(Ordinance No. 12 of I July, 1912.)
Population, 2,900,000.
Inventions patented in Great Britain can be patented in
Uganda by the legal owner of the English patent or his assignee.
Such patent carries the same powers and privileges in Uganda
that an English patent does in England. The law is strictly
enforced re unlawfully marking things as patents; fine, 75
rupees. The patent based on the British expires with it.
UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA.
(See South Africa.)
UNION FOR THE PROTECTION OF INDUSTRIAL
PROPERTY.
See page 22, International Protection.
UNITED STATES. 147
UNITED STATES.
(Revised Statutes 1897 and Act 14 of 18 Sept., 1913, and others.)
Population, 110,000,000.
Kinds and Duration of Patents. — There are two kinds of
patents — patents of invention and patents of design.
The duration of a patent of invention is seventeen years,
which can be extended only by a special Act of the United States
Congress, which is hardly ever passed.
Patents of design are granted for new, original, and orna-
mental designs for articles of manufacture, and at the option
of the applicant for three and a half, seven, or fourteen years.
Short term patents cannot, however, be extended after the
allowance of the application.
Who can Patent. — Any person, citizen, or alien, even a minor
or married woman, being the original inventor, or his executor,
or administrator appointed guardian of insane inventor, or foreign
administrator, or executor furnishing certified copy of letters
of appointment in his own country certified by a United States
Consul, can patent. There is one exception to this, however, —
no employee of the Patent Office can validly obtain any interest
in a patent except by inheritance. A patent can be assigned
before issue and the assignment recorded, in which case it is
issued to the assignee provided the assignment contain a request
to that effect and be filed sufficiently in advance of issue.
What is Patentable. — " Any new and useful art, machine,
manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new or useful
improvement on any art, machine, manufacture, or composition
of matter," can form the subject of a valid patent. The in-
vention, to fulfil the definition " useful," must be capable of
some use, but the amount of utility is legally unimportant.
A patent can only cover a single invention, but that invention
may consist of several parts or combinations, all tending to a
common manufacture, and working one with another to the same
end, when the principle involved in the combination is new —
and combinations of known elements can be validly patented
if a new or greatly improved result is obtained ; improvements,
however, of two known and old parts of one machine cannot,
as a rule, be patented in one patent, such, for instance, as an im-
proved fly-wheel and an improved piston used in the same engine.
Similarly a process and a machine for working that process, or
a machine and its product, require separate patents ; but a pro-
cess of manufacturing a product and that product can be covered
in one application, i
Rights conferred by Patent— A patent gives the sole right of
excluding others from making, using, selling, or importing the
patented invention from the date of issue of the patent.
148 UNITED STATES.
When a patent is granted, the right in the subject-matter
relates back to the time of the invention, so that the party who
has practised the invention, between the time of the discovery
and the issuing pf the patent, must cease to do so, or can be
sued for infringement. The same is true of acts done in viola-
tion of a patent which is surrendered and re-issued on account
of defects in the specification if such violation be done subsequent
to the granting of the disclaimer (see page 152). Any person,
however, who has purchased from the inventor, or with his know-
ledge and consent constructed any newly invented machine,
manufacture, or composition of matter, prior to the application
by the inventor or discoverer for a patent, has a right to use,
and vend to others to be used, the specific machine, manufacture,
or composition of matter so made or purchased, without liability
to the owner of the patent.
Novelty. — Each application in America is rigidly examined
as regards novelty.
The invention must not have been in public use or on sale
in the United States more than two years previous to the applica-
tion, must not have been abandoned to the public, and must
not have been fully described in any printed publication, more
than two years prior to the date of the American application,
or have been published or patented by another party in any
country prior to its invention by the applicant, and no foreign
patent for the same invention must have expired prior to the
application for the United States patent. Nor will a United
States patent be granted after the grant of a foreign patent for
the same invention to the applicant or other party if the appli-
cation for the foreign patent took place more than twelve months
before the application in America. By " full description " is
meant such description as would enable a competent workman
to work the invention successfully, without experiment or
inventive talent. The mere use, however, of the invention
abroad will not prevent any other person who may invent in-
dependently from validly patenting it in America, provided
it has not previously been fully patented by any other person
in any other country, or appeared anywhere in print prior to
his invention of the same in the United States or of his introduc-
tion of it therein.
The American Patent Office is the most perfect institution
of the kind in the world, but unfortunately has twice suffered
seriously by fire, once in 1836, when the entire records, models,
etc., were burnt ; and again in 1877, when a large wing of the
beautiful museum of models was destroyed.
Procedure in obtaining Patents. — Every applicant must pro-
duce a specification and drawing where the case admits of one,
made according to the rules of the Patent Office, which are
very exacting, and in rare cases — where the examiner considers
UNITED STATES. 149
that it is essential to the proper understanding of the invention —
a model. This model must not be over one foot in length, width,
or height, and if made of pine or other soft wood, must be painted,
stained, or varnished. Glue must not be used, and it must be
capable of resisting without damage the action of ordinary
heat and of moisture. The name of the inventor, and the exact
title of the invention, must be affixed to it in a permanent manner.
In patents for compositions, specimens of the article and of each
of its ingredients (when not dangerous or liable to decomposition)
may be requisitioned by the examiner to be provided in neatly
labelled bottles. Neither a machine and its products nor a pro-
cess and mechanism for carrying out that process can be combined
in one patent, nor can two alternative methods of carrying out
the invention be specifically claimed — both can be shown, and one
method, and the matter common to them both, can alone be
claimed. A claim that would be admirable in England as claiming
the invention concisely and clearly will often not be allowed in
America as setting forth a principle, or a function, while the
usual run of claims of American patents are unsuitable for
England, from their omitting to claim anything more than the
specific combination. While English courts construe the claim
rigidly, but admit the right of the inventor to claim all appli-
cations of a new principle, if he describe one such application
and set forth the principle in his claim, the United States courts
hold a patent invalid if it claim a principle, or even a special
adaptation of a principle, " and its mechanical equivalents."
At the same time, while vigorous in disallowing all claims for
principles, the United States courts are extremely liberal in
construing claims, especially in the case of " pioneer " patents
or patents of considerable originality, adjudging everything to
be an infringement if the same result be obtained by equivalent
means operated on the same principle as the adaptation claimed.
In the words of Justice Nelson, in Blanchford v. Beer, " No
man can appropriate the benefit of new ideas which another
has originated and put into practical use, because he may have
been enabled by superior mechanical skill to embody them in a
form differing in appearance or differing in reality. For although
he may not have preserved the exterior appearance of the previous
machine, he may have appropriated the ideas which give to it
all its value."
If, however, another inventor discovers a new mode of ac-
complishing the same object, embracing fresh principles, and not
mere mechanical equivalents of the original invention, the
Government will grant a patent to the second inventor, and the
new mode will not be held an infringement of the older patent,
unless the latter claim the object itself.
The applicant must make oath or affirmation that he verily
believes himself to be the true and first inventor, and that he
150 UNITED STATES.
does not know and does not believe that the same was ever
before known or used prior to his invention thereof (and if it
be already patented abroad, he must state, in his oath, where
and when it has been patented), and that it has not been in use
or on sale in the United States, to the best of his knowledge and
belief, for a period of more than two years prior to the date of
application in that country, and that it is not described in any
printed publication before his invention thereof, and has not been
patented in any country on an application filed more than twelve
months prior to the date of his American application.
The specification and drawings having been filed, with the
necessary fees, the invention is examined by the examiner of
the class of inventions to which it relates (each examiner having
all applications on certain specified subjects or classes apportioned
to him). If the invention be, in the opinion of the examiner,
new, useful, and sufficiently described, it is granted ; if other-
wise, it is referred back to the applicant or his agent, with ob-
jections and references to prior inventions covering part or all
the ground of the alleged invention. The applicant is then
permitted during the space of one year to alter his claims to
obviate the objections, when it is again examined. If new
grounds of objection be stated, another year is allowed to over-
come them or make amendments. Should the examiner eventu-
ally reject it, appeal can be made at moderate rate to a board
of five examiners-in-chief, of whom three form a quorum, and
again, if desirable, to the Commissioner, and even from him
to the Court of Appeals of the district of Columbia. The exam-
iners, as a rule, however, are very just and liberal in their decisions,
and very few appeals are required when we consider the vast
number of applications (upwards of 60,000 to 70,000 a year).
If an application be granted, a final fee of $20 (£4 2s. 6d.)
has to be paid strictly within six months, or the issue of the patent
is withheld. Any person who has an interest in the invention
may renew the application on the original papers, provided the
second application be made within two years after the allowance
of the original application. Abandonment in such situation will
be considered as a question of fact.
The question of priority of invention does not consist in who
first conceived the idea, but who both first conceived and first
worked it out into practical success. The mere first conception,
if not diligently worked out, will not be held of value against a
subsequent inventor who worked out the invention first into a
practically useful result.
Whenever an application is made for a patent which, in the
opinion of the Commissioner, would interfere with any pending
application, or with any unexpired patent, he is required to
give notice thereof to the applicants, or applicant and patentee,
as the case may be, and an interference is then declared upon
UNITED STATES. 151
claims common to the two applications. Proofs are taken and
briefed, and the matter is argued in the first instance before
the Examiner of Interferences, who awards priority to one or
the other, or partly to each, as in his judgment seems appropriate.
From his finding appeals lie successively to the Examiner-in-
Chief, to the Commissioner, and to the Court of Appeals of the
District of Columbia. A patent will issue in accordance with the
finding of the highest one of these several tribunals to which
the case is taken by appeal. Though a patent may be issued to
an applicant who has successfully contested an interference,
with a patentee, the Commissioner has no power to annul the
earlier granted patent. Either patentee may institute proceed-
ings in equity to have conflicting claims of the other party's
patent declared void, and this may be done as to the whole of
the United States and its territories, or for a particular section
only thereof, according to the interests of the parties involved.
Damages can be recovered only for the period subsequent to
adjudication of the cause. The same questions may be tried
out in the event of suit being brought for infringement of either
patent.
Either patentee may bring a suit in equity, in the nearest
United States circuit court, against the owners of the other
interfering with him to stop such interference. Separate state
courts have no jurisdiction. The court can adjudge and declare
either patent void, in whole or in part, and decree costs, and also
damages to the successful litigant, not exceeding in amount
three times the actual damage proved to have been sustained.
Re-issues. — If, soon after a patent be obtained, the owner
finds that through accident, inadvertence, or mistake, the
specification was unintentionally drawn up so as not to suffi-
ciently or correctly explain the invention, or to claim all of the
invention set forth in the specification, drawings, or model,
he can surrender the patent to the Government, and demand
one or more new ones for the unexpired portion of the term of the
original patent, setting forth and claiming the invention fully.
The cost of this re-issue is usually a little more than that of the
original patent. The specification and claims are examined and
dealt with by the examiners, the same as if forming part of an
original application. The patent when thus re-issued is as good
against infringements taking place after the date of re-issue as
an original patent could be, but it cannot be used against parties
who have acquired intervening rights between the date of the
original patent and the date of the application for re-issue.
What are, and what are not, intervening rights is a matter for
the courts to decide. No new matter can be inserted in a re-
issue patent, but only such as can be reasonably shown by the
model, drawings, or specification to have been intended to form
part of the original specification. This re-issue system was till
152 UNITED STATES.
lately allowed to be applied to all patents still in force, .but was
found to open a door for fraud, and, latterly, the United States
authorities have refused to allow re-issues unless made within
a reasonable time after the issue of the original patent, and
unless it be evident from the original patent drawings and
specification that the inventor intended to cover the matter
added in the re-issue, its mere presence in the drawings and
models not being held sufficient. The re-issue must satisfy the
authorities that it was a part of his original invention.
Disclaimers. — If the owner of a patent discover that, through
ignorance or accident, his patent has been made to cover matter
of which he or the original patentee of his patent was not the true
and first inventor, his patent will still be held valid for those
portions of his invention that are rightfully his, provided, as soon
as possible after he becomes convinced of having claimed more
than is rightly his, he files a disclaimer at the Patent Office dis-
claiming the portion not legally his own. This disclaimer, if
in due form, and accompanied by the required fee, is always
allowed, but it must in no way enlarge the scope of the claims.
The patent is now unimpeachable, in so far as having previously
contained what was old is concerned. The filing of a disclaimer
has no effect on an action pending at the time for infringement
of a sound part of the patent, unless the inf ringer prove that
the party disclaiming unreasonably neglected or delayed to
file the disclaimer, in which case the infringer will gain his case
with costs.
Infringements. — In cases of infringements the defendant can
successfully plead any of the following pleas : —
1. That the patentee kept back a part from, or added some-
thing to, his specification, with intent to deceive or withhold
from the public a valuable part of his invention.
2. That the patentee surreptitiously or unjustly obtained the
patent for that which was in fact invented by another, who was
using reasonable diligence in adapting or perfecting the same.
3. That the alleged invention had been patented or was de-
scribed in print before the patentee's supposed invention or
discovery thereof.
4. That the patentee was not the original or first inventor
of any material part thereof.
5. That the said invention had been in public use or on sale
in the United States for more than two years before the patentee's
application for the patent, or it had been abandoned to the
public.
6. That it was patented abroad prior to the United States
patent, and on an application made more than twelve months
prior to the United States application.
If none of these pleas be sustained, and the infringement
be proved, the damages are assessed and levied on the infringer.
UNITED STATES. 153
The court has the power in flagrant cases of increasing the damages
up to threefold, but this option is very rarely put in force.
Damages cannot be recovered for infringements made more
than six years prior to the filing of the bill of complaint or the
issue of the writ.
If the patentee sue on several claims and he fail on one or more
of these, but he succeeds with others, the case is decided in his
favour as regards an injunction, but he usually has to pay a
part or all of the costs in such case.
To successfully plead abandonment of the invention to the
public, it is necessary to show that the invention was publicly
used, worked, or sold extensively in the United States by parties
independent of the inventor, with the knowledge and tacit or
expressed concurrence of the inventor before his application
for a patent, or that by some well-defined action he offered the
public the free use of it. Allowing others to use the invention
as an express favour, or on royalty, for a period of less than two
years immediately prior to the application for the patent, is
not an abandonment to the public. But the open con-
currence in independent parties using, working or selling the
invention in the United States prior to the application is an
abandonment to the public.
Infringement of a patent consists in making, using, selling,
or importing the patented article or process without license
from the patentee. A mere workman employed by another to
use or operate a patented machine or device is not an infringer,
but his employer is. Sale by a sheriff is not an infringement.
The sale of articles produced by a patented machine or process,
if not themselves patented, is not an infringement.
The description of a part of an invention in a patent speci-
fication, but specially reserving it as covered by another pending
application, and claiming other parts, does not amount to an
abandonment of the unclaimed part to the public.
Assignments and Licenses.— A patent can be sold or assigned,
in whole or in part, by an instrument in writing, but that con-
veyance is not binding against any subsequent purchaser or
mortgagee purchasing or mortgaging in good faith, unless within
three months of the date of the document it be recorded in the
Patent Office. Licenses need not be recorded. Joint owners
of a patent without special agreement are not partners, but each
can work the invention independently of the other, and grant
licenses, but not exclusive licenses, to third parties. He is, how-
ever, not liable to them for a share in the profits obtained by
his own working of the patent, so long as he works the actual
machine or thing patented. It is, therefore, very desirable in
the case of joint patentees to have a properly drawn agreement
from the outset.
The holding of a simple license, without covenants or recitals
154 UNITED STATES.
acknowledging the validity of the patent, does not prevent, under
some circumstances, a licensee from afterwards contesting the
validity of a patent, and using its invalidity as a plea for not
paying royalty or for infringing. It is permissible for him
to make use of " the prior art " as determining the construction
to be placed on the claims of the patent, for the purpose of getting
the court to decide the question of infringement. But a licensee
cannot hold his license and at the same time contest the validity
of the patent.
A patent can be granted and issued, or " re-issued," to the
assignee of the inventor, but the assignment must first be regis-
tered at the Patent Office, and in all cases the original inventor
must take the oath, and sign the specification. The executor
or legal representatives of a dead inventor can take the oath,
and obtain the patent in trust for his heirs.
Marking Goods.— All patented articles should be inscribed
with the word " Patented," and the date of the patent ; but if
this be impracticable, owing to the nature of the article, the in-
scription can be placed on the case or wrapper instead. Any
patentee failing so to mark his goods will be debarred from
obtaining damages in suit for infringement, unless he proves
that the infringer continued to infringe after being duly notified
of the patent.
Any person wrongfully marking anything as " patent," or
" patented," or other similar expression, or with the name or
trade mark of a patentee with the purpose of deceiving the public,
is liable to a penalty of $100 (£20) for each offence, one-half of
which goes to the informer prosecuting.
Design Patents. — Patents are also granted for new, original,
ornamental designs of manufactured articles. These do not
require a model, if the drawings and specification fully describe
them. They are granted for three and a-half , seven, or fourteen
years, at the option of the applicant, the price of course varying.
Where the applicant, in the first instance, requests a patent for
one of the shorter terms, he may, at any time before the allowance
of the application upon payment of the additional fee, amend his
application to request a longer term. Except in these respects,
and the rule that a design patent must be applied for in the
United States within four months of its being patented in any
other country, the same rules apply to patents of designs as to
those of invention.
United States patents cover the Canal Zone, Panama, and
can be extended to the Philippines and Porto Rico, on application
with fees.
There are about 65,000 applicants for United States patents
yearly, of which about three-fourths are granted, upwards of
a million having been issued by June 1914, and about
350,000 are still nominally in force. Copies of specifica-
URUGUAY— VENEZUELA. 155
tions can be had at low rates, as in the English Patent
Office.
There are no annual taxes.
Trade marks are registrable.
URUGUAY.
(Law of 12 November, 1885.)
Population, 1,400,000.
Patents of invention except for medicines and chemicals
are granted to the original inventors of inventions which have
not yet been published in print at home or abroad, and that are
not in use in the realm and have not been worked more than
one year previously abroad. Financial devices are unpatentable.
Patents of importation are granted for inventions already
patented abroad — not more than one year prior to the appli-
cation in Uruguay — and prior publication of the foreign patent
does not invalidate them. Patents of addition are granted to
the original patentee for improvements on his original patent.
They are also granted at a higher rate to other parties, but these
must pay to the original patentee such royalty as the Government
shall decide to be fair.
Patents are granted at the option of the applicant for three,
six, or nine years, not renewable. Models or specimens of good
workmanship are required where the case admits of them.
There is an annual tax, and if this be omitted to be paid
any year for ten days after it becomes due, the Government
considers the patent void. A period during which effective
working must be commenced in the realm on pain of forfeiture
is stated in the grant of each patent, being generally limited
to one year from grant. The Government has power to prolong
the term (if petitioned) beyond the stated period, but all terms
must be strictly observed, and a foreigner should not count on
favour.
Infringement is both a criminal and civil offence, entailing
fine, imprisonment, forfeiture of the counterfeited articles, and
costs and damages.
A patent granted in the Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, or Peru
carries with it provisional protection for one year in each of
the others.
Trade marks are registrable.
VENEZUELA.
(Law of 25 May, 1882, and Decree of 28 February, 1905.)
Population, 2,600,000.
Patents are granted to the true and first inventor only, for
five, ten, or fifteen years, at his option, for new inventions other
156 VENEZUELA— WEST INDIES— ZANZIBAR.
than medicines — that is, inventions not yet known to others
in the realm, and not published anywhere, and that have not
been worked anywhere more than two years. If an invention
be not worked in the realm within the first half of the term of
its grant, and it be shown to the satisfaction of the court that the
inventor is not able or willing by himself or by agents or licensees
to satisfy the legitimate demands of the country, the patent
can be declared void.
Any one obtaining a patent of invention for an invention
in Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, or Peru, is provision-
ally protected for such invention for two years in the others
of them.
Importing a machine from abroad, if it cannot be conveniently
made in the country, is held to be working so long as that machine
is worked in the realm, provided that the patentee or his represen-
tatives are prepared to supply others.
Patents are granted, as in France, without guarantee of the
Government, and without an examination as to novelty or
utility.
Patents of importation, and to expire with said foreign patent,
are granted to the patentee and inventor of any foreign patent
for the same invention, at any time during the continuance of
such foreign patent, provided no prior applicant has claimed the
invention.
There are annual taxes after the first half of the duration
of the patent.
Trade marks are registrable.
WEST INDIES.
Hispaniola, divided into the two republics of Hayti (population,
1,250,000) and St. Domingo (population, 800,000), has no patent
law, but special privileges can sometimes be obtained from the
two legislatures at moderate rates.
Cuba (population, 2,100,000), Jamaica (population, 850,000),
and Trinidad and Tobago (population, 350,000), the Leeward
Islands (population 140,000), British Honduras (population,
50,000), the Bahamas (population, 60,000), St. Lucia (population,
55,000), St. Vincent (population, 51,000), Bermudas (population,
18,000), and Grenada (population, 73,000), all of which have
been noticed in previous pages, require each a separate patent.
ZANZIBAR PROTECTORATE.
(Orders Nos. 10 of 1911 and 16, 1917.)
Population, about 200,000.
Any valid patent granted in Great Britain or India can be
practically extended by its author or owner to Zanzibar for the
ZANZIBAR PROTECTORATE. 157
duration of such patent, provided at the date of application it
be not publicly known in Zanzibar. There are no compulsory
working rules. There is a tax before the end of the fourth and
eighth years instead of annual taxes ; in other respects the law
is very similar to the British. Actions for infringement or
revocation take place before his Britannic Majesty's Court in
Zanzibar.
PRINTED BY
HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, UX,
LONDON AND AYLESBURY.
000 949 865 o
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