For every entry in the register of a rectification thereof, or an alteration therein, not otherwise charged .. For cancelling the entry or part of the entry of a trade-mark upon the register, on the application of the owner of such trade-mark. On request to Registrar to correct a clerical error £ s. d. 050 0 10 0 050 050 0 10 0 For certificate of registration to be used in legal proceedings For copy of notification of registration For inspecting register, for every quarter of an hour For making a search amongst the classified representations of trade- Copy of any trade-mark: cost according to agreement. For certificate of Registrar under section 114.. Cost of advertising application in the "Hobart Gazette," for each ACT of the Government of the Bahamas, relating to the Law of [52 Vict., No. 23.] Patents.* [Assented to, May 23, 1889.] WHEREAS it is desirable to make provision for protecting the inventors of new and useful inventions, and for granting to such persons exclusive privileges in connection therewith: May it therefore please the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty that it may be enacted, and be it enacted, by his Excellency Sir Ambrose Shea, Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Bahama Islands, the Legislative Council and Assembly of the said Islands, and it is hereby enacted and ordained by the authority of the same as follows: 1. This Act may be cited for all purposes as the "Patent Act, 1889." 2. Every person who desires to obtain in these islands such exclusive privileges in respect to any invention as are hereinafter in this Act mentioned, shall file or cause to be filed by an attorney appointed for the purpose, in the office of the Registrar of Records, in the city of Nassau, a complete specification of the invention, with a copy of the same, particularly describing and ascertaining the nature of the invention, and in what manner the same is to be per formed. Provided that in the case of persons residing abroad who Amended by Act No. 2 of 1890, page 257. desire to obtain the benefits of this Act, there shall be filed, with the specification required by this section, a copy certified and stamped of any Letters Patent which may have been issued to and obtained by any such person with respect to the invention of which the specification is filed. 3. Every person who files, or causes to be filed, in the Registrar of Record's Office a specification of au invention shall pay to the Registrar of Records for the benefit of the general revenue, a fee of 31. 4. Every person upon filing a specification under the second section of this Act shall, within ten days thereafter, present a petition to the Governor in Council accompanied by a copy of such specification, and a declaration according to the forms hereto annexed, praying for a grant of Letters Patent in connection with his invention. 5. Whenever a petition has been presented to the Governor as aforesaid, it shall be lawful for the Governor, acting with the advice of the Executive Council, to direct the issue of Letters Patent to the said applicant, which shall extend to the whole Colony: Provided however that it shall be lawful for the Governor to refuse the issue of Letters Patent in the following cases:— (1.) When he is of opinion that the alleged invention is not patentable in law. (2.) When it appears to him that the invention is already in the possession of the public, with the consent or allowance of the inventor. (3.) When it appears to him that there is no novelty in the invention. (4.) When it appears that the invention has been described in a book or other printed publication before the date of the application, or is otherwise in the possession of the public. (5.) When it appears that the invention has already been patented in the Colony. 6. Every person having complied with the preceding sections, and having obtained Letters Patent hereunder, his executors, administrators, and assigns, and every of them, by himself and themselves, or by his and their deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as he, his executors, administrators, and assigns, shall at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of seven years from the date of the filing of the specification as aforesaid shall, and lawfully may make, use, exercise, and vend within these islands the invention described in the specification so filed as aforesaid, in such manner as to him, his executors, administrators, and assigns, or any of them, shall in his or their discretion seem meet, and he, his executors, administrators, and assigns shall, and lawfully may have and enjoy the whole profit, benefit, commodity, and advantage from time to time coming, growing, accruing, and arising by reason of the said invention, for and during the term of years herein before mentioned. 7. It shall not be lawful for any person or persons, body or bodies politic or corporate, or any of them, at any time during the continuance of the term herein before mentioned, either directly or indirectly, to make, use, or put in practice the invention described in any specification so filed as aforesaid, or any part of the same, or in anywise counterfeit, imitate, or resemble the same, or to make or cause to be made any addition thereto or subtraction from the same, whereby to pretend himself or themselves the inventor or inventors thereof, without the consent, permission, licence, or agreement of the person who filed the specification thereof, his executors, administrators, or assigns, in writing under his or their hand or hands and seal or seals, first had and obtained in that behalf. 8. If any person or persons whomsoever, body or bodies politic or corporate, shall during the continuance of the term herein before mentioned, at any time either directly or indirectly make, use, exercise, put in practice or vend the invention described in any specification so filed as aforesaid, or any part thereof, within these islands, without a consent, permission, licence, or agreement in writing first had and obtained from the person who filed the specification thereof, his attorneys, executors, administrators, or assigns, under his or their hand or hands and seal or seals, the person who filed the specification thereof, his executors, administrators, and assigns, shall have and be entitled to such and the like remedies both at law and in equity in the courts of these islands, against every such person or persons, body or bodies politic or corporate, for every such infringement or violation of the rights and privileges to which he and they is and are under this Act entitled, or against the person or persons for whose benefit the said invention or any part thereof shall have been so made, used, exercised, put in practice or vended without such consent, permission, licence, or agreement as aforesaid, as the grantee of any Letters Patent for any invention. would be entitled to in the like case by the law of England, but to none other remedies; and in any action, suit or other proceeding which may be brought, instituted, or taken against any such person or persons, body or bodies politic or corporate, it shall be lawful for the defendant to plead any such matter in defence as may be pleaded by any defendant in any action brought in any division of Her Majesty's High Court of Justice in England for the infringement of any patent granted by Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen. 9. Nothing in this Act contained shall be deemed to confer on any person who files in the office of the Registrar of Records a complete specification of an invention the exclusive privileges mentioned in sections 6, 7 and 8 of this Act, if the invention described in such specification is not at the time when such specification is filed a new invention as to the public use and exercise thereof within these islands, or if such person is not the true and first inventor within these islands of the invention described in such specification, or if such invention was at the time when such specification was filed an invention well known elsewhere, and also known to some person or persons in these islands other than the person filing such specification. 10. Nothing in this Act contained shall extend or be construed to extend to give to any person who files in the office of the Registrar of Records a complete specification of an invention, or to his executors, administrators, or assigns, or any of them, privilege to use or imitate any invention or work whatever which has prior to the filing of such specification been found out or invented by any other person whomsoever, and publicly used or exercised within these islands, and for the sole use, exercise, and benefit whereof within these islands the exclusive privileges mentioned in sections 6, 7, and 8 of this Act, or similar privileges, have prior to the filing of such specifications been obtained; but the person filing such specification, his executors, administrators and assigns, and all and every other person and persons who have as aforesaid previously obtained like privileges, shall distinctly use and practise their several inventions by them invented. and found out. 11. When the invention described in a specification filed under this Act is not brought into operation within a period of three years after the filing of the specification, the exclusive right hereby granted or intended to be granted shall be forfeited, and shall cease to exist. 12. All specifications filed under this Act in the office of the Registrar of Records shall be numbered in that office consecutively from number one upwards in the order of the dates on which they are filed. 13. Every patent for an invention, whensoever issued, shall be assignable in law either as to the whole interest or as to any part thereof, by any instrument in writing; but such assignment, and also every grant and conveyance of any exclusive right to make and use the invention patented within and throughout the Colony, or any part thereof, shall be registered in the office of the Registrar of Records in the same manner as deeds and other papers are now recorded therein; and every assignment affecting a patent for invention shall be deemed null and void against any subsequent assignee, unless such instrument is registered as herein before prescribed before the registering of the instrument under which such subsequent assignee may claim. 14. Whenever a specification is filed under this Act and Letters Patent have been granted in connection therewith, the Registrar of Records shall cause to be inserted in the newspaper in the Colony in which Government notices are published, a notice to the following effect : A specification having been filed in this office, under "The Patent Act, 1889," by [name of inventor] for [state nature of invention], Letters Patent have been granted to the said [name of inventor] in accordance with the provisions of "The Patent Act, 1889." A. B., Registrar of Records. 15. Every person who at any time after the passing of this Act is, in respect of any invention, entitled under this Act to the exclusive privileges mentioned herein or to similar privileges, may on or before, but not after, the expiration of such privileges, obtain a renewal thereof upon application to the Governor in Council for a second or further period of seven years, and may on or before, but not after, the expiration of such further period again obtain a renewal thereof upon application as aforesaid for a third period of seven years; provided always, that no person shall enjoy the exclusive privileges mentioned in this Act, or similar privileges for more than twenty-one years. 16. Every person who obtains a renewal of the exclusive privileges to which he is in respect of any invention entitled for a second or further period of seven years shall pay to the Registrar of Records for the benefit of the general revenue the sum of 107., and shall thereupon become entitled to such exclusive privileges during such second or further period; and every person who obtains a renewal of such exclusive privilege for a third period of seven years shall pay to the Registrar of Records for the benefit of the general revenue the sum of 207., and shall thereupon become entitled to such exclusive privileges during such third period. 17. The Registrar of Records shall, on receipt of any fee under the last preceding section of this Act, fill up and give to the person by or on whose behalf the same is paid, a certificate having on it the number of the specification of the invention to which it relates, and of the following form: Specification, No. I hereby certify that the exclusive privileges enjoyed by in respect to the invention described in the specification above referred to have been this day renewed for a period of seven years. |