the legislature, so far as regards patents, are those already mentioned in the preceding chapters relating to the various steps to be taken on applications for patents, on oppositions to grants, on the issue of patents, and on applications for leave to amend specifications.

In addition to these, which may be called his zoutine duties, though some of them will call for the exercise of much care and thought, he is required, by section 40, to issue periodically an Illustrated Journal of Patented Inventions, as well as reports of patent cases decided by courts of law, and any other information that he may deem generally useful or important. He has to make provision for keeping on sale copies of the journal, and also of all complete specifications for the time being in force, with their accompanying drawings. And he is directed to continue in such form as he may deem expedient the indexes and abridgments of specifications hitherto published, and to prepare and publish from time to time such other indexes, abridgments of specifications, catalogues, and other works relating to inventions as he may see fit.

He is empowered to refuse patents when their use would, in his opinion, be contrary to law or morality (sect. 86).

He is enabled to correct clerical errors in or in connection with applications for patents, or in the name, style, or address of the registered proprietor of a patent (sect. 91).

By Rule 18 the Comptroller is empowered to amend documents and to obviate irregularities in procedure; by Rule 47 he is authorised to enlarge the time prescribed by the Rules for doing any act or taking any proceeding thereunder, and by Rule 77 large powers are given to him, with the sanction of the Board of Trade, to dispense with acts, documents, evidence, &c., required under the Rules.

Where any discretionary power is by the Act given to the Comptroller, it is expressly directed by the ninetyfourth section, that he shall not exercise that power adversely to the applicant for a patent, or for amendment of a specification, without (if so required within the prescribed time by the applicant) giving the applicant an opportunity of being heard personally or by his agent. As to the procedure, see Rules 11-14 of the Patents Rules, 1883.

In any case of doubt or difficulty arising in the administration of any of the provisions of the Act, the ninety-fifth section directs that he may apply to either of the law officers for directions in the matter.

The Comptroller is required by the 102nd section to cause a report respecting the execution by or under him of the Act to be laid before both Houses of Parliament, before the first day of June in every year, and to include therein for the year to which each report relates all general rules made in that year under or for the purposes of the Act, and an account of all fees, salaries, and allowances, and other money received and paid under the Act.

In case of the absence of the Comptroller any act, or thing directed to be done by or to him may be done by or to any officer authorised in that behalf by the Board of Trade (sect. 82, sub-sect. 4).

GENERAL RULES.

The Board of Trade is empowered by the 101st section of the new Act to make rules for regulating generally the business of the Patent Office and all things placed under the direction and control of the Comptroller or of the Board; and particularly for regulating the practice of registration; for making or requiring duplicates of specifications, amendments (sic), drawings, and other documents; for securing and regulating

the publishing and selling of copies thereof; for securing and regulating the making, printing, publishing and selling of Indexes to abridgments of specifications and other documents in the Patent Office, and providing for the inspection of indexes, abridgments, and other documents. Such general rules are to be of the same effect as if they were contained in the Act, and are to be judicially noticed. They must be laid before the two Houses of Parliament, either of which has power within a limited time to annul any of them.

The Rules which have been issued by the Board of Trade, with the short title of the Patents Rules, 1883, are reprinted in the Appendix to this volume.

THE SEAL OF THE PATENT OFFICE.

By the eighty-fourth section of the Patent Act of 1883, it is directed that there shall be a seal for the Patent Office, and that impressions thereof shall be judicially noticed and admitted in evidence.

OFFICIAL DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE.

By the eighty-ninth section of the same Act it is enacted that printed or written copies or extracts, purporting to be certified by the Comptroller and sealed with the seal of the Patent Office, of or from patents, specifications, disclaimers, and other documents in the Patent Office, and of or from registers and other books kept there, shall be admitted in evidence in all courts and in all proceedings, without further proof or production of the originals.

Then by the ninety-sixth section a certificate purporting to be under the hand of the Comptroller as to any entry, matter, or thing which he is authorised by the Act, or any general rules made thereunder, to make or do, shall be primâ facie evidence of the entry having

been made, and of the contents thereof, and of the matter or thing having been done or left undone.

By the twenty-third section of the same Act, it is enacted that the Register of Patents to be kept at the Patent Office shall be primâ facie evidence of any matters directed or authorised to be inserted therein.

Finally, by the hundredth section of the Act it is directed that copies of all specifications, drawings, and amendments left at the Patent Office after the commencement of the Act, printed for and sealed with the seal of the Patent Office, shall be transmitted to the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, and to the Enrolments Office of the Chancery Division in Ireland, and to the Rolls Office in the Isle of Man, within twenty-one days after the same shall respectively have been accepted or allowed at the Patent Office; and certified copies of or extracts from any such documents shall be given to any person requiring the same on payment of the prescribed fee; and any such copy or extract shall be admitted in evidence in all courts in Scotland and Ireland and in the Isle of Man, without further proof or production of the originals.

REGISTERS.

The Register of Patents kept at the office and mentioned in the chapter on Registration is open to public inspection daily (with certain exceptions mentioned in Rule 75) between the hours of ten and four. Up to the end of 1883 the registers kept at the Patent Office were two. In the one called the Register of Patents were recorded, in chronological order and with the dates, all patents granted under the Patent Act of 1852, as well as the deposit or filing of specifications, disclaimers, memoranda of alterations, amendments, confirmations, and extensions, and the expiry, vacating, and cancelling of patents. The other register, called the Register of

Proprietors, contains entries of the assignments of patents, or of any share or interest therein; and of licences, mentioning the districts to which they relate, with the names of persons having shares or interests in patents and licences, and the dates at which such shares. or interests were acquired.

PUBLICATIONS AND INDEXES.

Besides the Illustrated Journal of Patented Inventions and reports of Patent cases directed to be published by the fortieth section of the new Act, several other publications are issued by the Patent Office. Printed copies of all the specifications filed under the Patent Act of 1852, and of all specifications enrolled previously to the passing of the said Act are purchasable for small sums at the office, with lithographed outline copies of the drawings accompanying such specifications. All the complete specifications under the new Act are also printed and published when approved.

Alphabetical indexes of all the specifications of patents enrolled in Chancery, from 1617 to the latest available date, have been published under the authority of the office, as well as an index arranging the specifications according to the subject matter, and supplemental indexes continue to be published annually. Chronological indexes of patents, from the earliest date to the year 1875, have also been published. Another index, called the Reference Index of Patents, points out the office in which each enrolled or filed specification of a patent may be consulted; the books in which specifications, law proceedings, and other subjects connected with inventions have been noticed; also, such specifications as have been published under official authority. These indexes are of great service in tracing the history of inventions.