By an international arrangement infra, the provisions of which have been transferred to a statute, no revocation will be directed before the expiry of three years from the date of the patent, or if the patentee gives satisfactory reasons for his default. Instead of the six or more Privy Councillors mentioned in this connexion in the patent grant, three of the Judicial Committee now form a quorum.

CHAPTER IV

International and Intercolonial Arrangements Legislation has permitted an international agreement to be put into force in this country whereby in certain circumstances a patent may be dated as of the date on which an application was made in a foreign state. A similar arrangement also obtains in connexion with a few British possessions. The time, however, seems far distant when a patent granted in one country will avail in other countries of the world without further procedure. So far as foreign states are concerned, diversity in economic opinion and the different canons employed in construing specifications render attempts in this direction seemingly hopeless. As regards the colonies, a common patent law and a patent which, granted at home or in one of the colonies, should be imperial in its extent does not appear so impracticable.

Formerly patents which were granted here were not confined to the United Kingdom, for the area over which they extended varied according to the request of the patentees—a practice also contemplated by the Act of 1852. Consequently, in a large number of instances patents were granted which availed here and in certain named colonies.

Even at

the present day patents granted in France, Germany, Austria, Italy, and the United States of America are co-extensive with their colonies. For the last half-century and more, in order to obtain protection which shall run throughout the British

dominions, it has been necessary to secure some thirty or so separate patents. The differences in the colonial systems and ours are not, however, fundamental. Colonial enactments have been based upon the common and the statutory laws of this country, while the methods of interpreting specifications have been, through the medium of the appellate jurisdiction of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, brought into line.

As early as the year 1851, an association of patentees included in their list of reforms international arrangements for a mutual recognition of the rights of inventors. It was sug

gested that for the space of six months from the date of a patent the patentee or his assignees should have the exclusive title to the same invention in every country of the world. It was also a recommendation of the Select Committee of 1871-2 that there should be an assimilation of law and practice, and that the Government should inquire how far foreign governments were ready to concur in international arrangements. As a result of this movement, although little progress has been made towards the issue of world-wide patents, "provisional protection" in effect is obtainable in all the principal countries of the world by application in one of them.

The actual practice was instituted by an "International Convention for the protection of industrial property," the privileges of which are shared by some non-signatory states and by certain of our colonies. After congresses at Vienna in 1873, and at Paris in 1878, the Convention was signed in 1883, Great Britain becoming a signatory in the following year. To further the objects of the Convention, conferences have been subsequently held and the terms of the Convention varied. Since 1883 practically all the great nations of the world, Austria, Russia, and Turkey excepted, have joined. To convert into law what was but a diplomatic arrangement, and to that extent to repeal existing legislation-in particular the statute of Henry VI., which forbids the ante-dating of patents-special provisions appear in the Acts of 1883, 1885, and 1902. By these, when the Government has made mutual

H

arrangements with foreign states, and has issued orders in council, an inventor who has applied for protection in one of the states is entitled to an English patent which shall be antedated to the date of the first foreign application, provided the ante-dating does not extend to a greater period than twelve months.

In a few instances, owing to the presence in treaties of "most-favoured-nation" clauses, the benefits of the Convention have been applied to non-signatory states. In this connexion, it may be interesting to remark that in a curious treaty of 1849 with Liberia, which still exists, there is the unique provision that the citizens of Liberia shall be allowed in the dominions of His Britannic Majesty to buy from and to sell to whom they like without being restrained by any monopoly or exclusive privilege of sale or purchase what

ever.

The Act of 1883 also authorises the Government to extend the advantages of mutual protection to British possessions. The privilege of ante-dating is therefore now applicable to applications for patents which were first made in the British possessions of New Zealand, Queensland, Tasmania, and Western Australia.

The foreign or colonial inventor has the choice of two dates. He may obtain a grant having the same date as his application abroad, or he may have it dated in the normal way, i.e. as of the date of the application here. But he must choose which date he will have within the twelve month's "priority" which is given him. The right to ante-date is irrespective of whether the patentee is the real inventor. A corporation, therefore, although not allowed to be a sole applicant ordinarily, may yet, under Convention arrangements, become so. If an applicant claims the priority of date, the foreign or colonial inventor loses the option of proceeding on a provisional specification, for the specification to be filed in such a case must be a complete specification.

As a result, then, of convention, treaties, the Patent Acts, and of orders in council, patents may be ante-dated by as

Before the Act of 1852, the granting of patents for inventions differed but little from the procedure employed when other royal grants, such as patents of nobility, charters of incorporation, and presentations to livings, were concerned. Nine stages had to be pursued which involved dealings with seven distinct offices. The Act of 1852, which created Commissioners of Patents, recognised three offices for the