SUMMARIES OF THE PATENTS, DESIGNS, AND TRADE MARKS' ACT, 1883, AND OF THE PATENT LAWS OF ALL FOREIGN COUNTRIES AND BRITISH COLONIES. BY A. M. & WM. CLARK, FELLOWS OF THE INSTITUTE OF PATENT AGENTS. LONDON: A. M. & WM. CLARK, 53, CHANCERY LANE, W.C. PREFACE. THE aim of the following pages is to furnish, in a form convenient for reference, a comprehensive analytical summary, not only of the new Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks' Act, but also of the patent laws of all foreign countries and colonies where patents or exclusive privileges are obtainable. In the preparation of these summaries the object in view has been principally to supply information respecting such of the provisions of the various laws as affect the validity and duration of patents granted thereunder, as it cannot be doubted that the conditions which govern the obtainment and continuance of valid patents are of the highest importance both to patentees and purchasers of patents. To the summaries of the foreign and colonial laws, some particulars of the manufacturing industries of the respective countries have been added, which, although necessarily brief, may be found useful to intending patentees. BRITISH, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL PATENT OFFICE, 53, Chancery Lane, London. Applications for LETTERS PATENT, and for the REGISTRATION of DESIGNS and TRADE MARKS, at home and abroad, attended to. SPECIFICATIONS drawn and revised; opinions given; cases prepared for counsel, and all other business relating to the Protection of Inventions transacted. -:0: MECHANICAL MOTION.-Plates of 125 Mechanical Movements, with key, together with a Summary of the new English Patent Law only, may be had on application. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. -:0: PATENTS, DESIGNS, AND TRADE MARKS ACT, 1883. (46 and 47 Vict., cap. 57.) PATENTS FOR INTRODUCTION. UNDER the new Act, which came into force on the 1st January, 1884, Letters Patent will be granted for new and useful Inventions at greatly reduced fees, and will confer the exclusive right to make, use, exercise, and vend the Inventions to which they relate, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Isle of Man (but not the Channel Islands) for the term of 14 years, subject only to the payment of the annual taxes hereafter mentioned. By this Act the Laws relating to Patents for Inventions have been consolidated and amended, the whole of the previous enactments having been repealed with the exception of the Statute of Monopolies (21 James I., cap. 3). The most important changes in the practice effected by the new Act are:-a reduction in the Government fees on application, and the substitution of annual taxes in lieu of the £50 and £100 duties heretofore payable; the extension of provisional protection from six to nine months; the postponement of the "opposition" stage until after the complete specification has been filed and is open to public inspection; and the creation of a body of B |