THE PATENTS, DESIGNS, AND TRADE MARKS ACT, 1883. 46 & 47 VICT. c. 57. An Act to amend and consolidate the Law relating Sects to Patents for Inventions, Registration of 1, 2. Designs, and of Trade Marks. [25th August, 1883.] BE it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: PART I. PRELIMINARY. 1. This Act may be cited as the Patents, Designs, Short title. and Trade Marks Act, 1883. 2. This Act is divided into parts, as follows: Part I.-PRELIMINARY. Part II.-PATENTS. Part III.-DESIGNS. Part IV.-TRADE MARKS. PART V.-GENERAL. Division of Act into parts. B Sects. 3. This Act, except where it is otherwise ex3-5. pressed, shall commence from and immediately after Commence- the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-three. ment of Act. Persons entitled to apply for patent. Married women. Infant. Joint ap As to its effects on applications for patents made before this date, see sect. 45. PART II. PATENTS. Application for and Grant of Patents. 4. (1.) Any person (a), whether a British subject or not, may make an application for a patent. (2.) Two or more persons may make a joint application for a patent, and a patent may be granted to them jointly. The personal representative of an inventor who dies without applying for a patent (s. 34), or dies after application but before grant (s. 12), may obtain the patent for the invention. There is nothing to prevent a woman, married or single, or an infant, from applying for a patent-no other person can apply on their behalf, as such person would not be the first inventor. The person applying must, in order to obtain a valid patent, be the first and true inventor of an invention within the meaning of sect. 6 of the Statute of Monopolies, otherwise the patent, if granted, will be void. See definition of a "Patent," and "Invention," in sect. 46. Where joint application is made under this section by two or more persons, it will be sufficient if the declaraplication. tion attached to the application be taken by one or more of the applicants (s. 5, sub-s. 2). A body corporate may apply for a patent (s. 117), and Body will be registered as proprietor by its corporate name corporate. (Patents Rules, 70). Applica The application must be made in the English language (Patents Instructions, 1). 5. (1.) An application for a patent must be made (a) Person includes body corporate, s. 117. in the form set forth in the First Schedule to this Sect. 5. Act (a), or in such other form as may be from time tion and to time prescribed (3); and must be left at, or specificasent by post to, the patent office in the prescribed manner (y). (2.) An application must contain a declaration (8) to the effect that the applicant is in possession of an invention, whereof he, or in the case of a joint application, one or more of the applicants, claims or claim to be the true and first inventor or inventors, and for which he or they desires or desire to obtain a patent; and must be accompanied by either a provisional or complete specification. (3.) A provisional specification must describe the nature of the invention, and be accompanied by drawings, if required. (4.) A complete specification, whether left on application (e) or subsequently, must particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the invention, and in what manner it is to be performed, and must be accompanied by drawings, if required. (5.) A specification, whether provisional or complete, must commence with the title, and in the case of a complete specification must end with a distinct statement of the invention claimed. tion. The word "application" is used differently in different sections of the Act. In this section it means the form of "Applicaapplication contained in the Patents Forms; whilst in tion." other sections, such as sect. 7, sub-sect. 4, it includes the specification left with such form of application. The form of application ($) will be found in the Patents The formal Forms (A, A1). It must contain a declaration as to its applica (a) New Forms have been prescribed by Patents Rules, 5, 6. (B) For Forms, see Patents Forms, A, A1. As to size of documents, see Patents Rules, 9, 10. (7) Patents Rules, 19. tion. Sect. 5. truth, made before a Justice of the Peace or Commissioner (a), if made within the United Kingdom, or before a British Consular Officer or other officer duly authorised, if made abroad, under the provisions of the Statutory Declarations Act, 1835 (B). By sect. 21 of that Act, any person who shall wilfully and corruptly make and subscribe any declaration, knowing the same to be untrue in any material particular, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor. Provisional specification. The form requires a 17. stamp, and may be either left at the Patent Office or sent through the post by prepaid letter. In the latter case it will be deemed to have been Imade at the time when the letter would be delivered in the ordinary course of post (s. 97; Patents Rules, 19). The formal application must be accompanied by either a provisional specification or a complete specification. The former requires no stamp; the latter requires a stamp of 37. The refusal of an application accompanied by a complete specification will therefore entail a loss of 37., and the acceptance, the immediate publication of the complete specification (Patents Rules, 26). The lodging of the application will give the applicant priority over a subsequent applicant for the same invention (sect. 7, sub-sect. 6), and the patent, if granted, will be sealed as of the day of application (s. 13). No action can be maintained for any act of infringement committed before the publication of the complete specification (s. 13). Applications will be numbered in the order in which they are received at the Patent Office (Patents Rules, 22). The object of the provisional specification is to describe the "nature of the invention." It need not contain all the minute directions necessary for carrying the invention into effect, or to enable a workman of ordinary skill to make it. It is sufficient though it discloses the invention in its rough state, if it shows what the invention really is. See as to the provisional specification the remarks of the late Master of the Rolls in Stoner v. Todd, L. R. 4 Ch. D. 58; and of Lord Blackburn in Bailey v. Roberton, L. R. 3 App. Cas. 1073. Also In re Newall and Elliott, 4 C. B. N. S. 269; Newall v. Elliott, 10 Jur. N. S. 954; Penn v. Bibby, L. R. 2 Ch. 127. It must commence with a title (sub-sect. 5), but a claim is not necessary. (a) If made before a Justice no additional stamp is required, but if made before a Commissioner an additional stamp of 2s. 6d. is necessary, obtained by leaving form with the Postmaster to be stamped (Patents Instructions, 6.) (B) The declaration must be signed by the applicant himself. |