the Colonial Secretary a specification of his invention, which is referred to the Attorney General, who reports upon it, and the Attorney General issues a warrant for the grant.

A writ of scire facias may be sued out for the repeal of the patent.

The letters patent are void unless a stamp duty of 101. is paid at the expiration of the third year, and of 201. at the expiration of the seventh year of the grant.

Letters patent for foreign inventions expire with the foreign grant.

The regulations as to disclaimers, prolongations, and confirmations, are similar to those of the home patents.

A register of patents and of proprietors is kept.

There is a penalty of 100l. for the unauthorised use of the word 'patent.'

Particulars of breaches and of objections are to be given in patent actions.

CEYLON.

The Inventions Ordinance 1859 governs the law of patents in this country.

The inventor of any new manufacture may petition the Governor for leave to file a specification thereof; such petition must be in writing, and signed by the petitioner or his agent, and must state the name, condition, and place of residence of the petitioner, and the nature of the invention, upon which the Governor may order the petitioner to file a specification.

The specification must be filed within six months from the date of the order, upon which the Governor may grant to the inventor the sole and exclusive privilege of making, selling, and using the said invention in Ceylon for the term of fourteen years from the time of filing such specification; and for a further term not exceeding fourteen years, upon petition to be presented by such inventor, not more than one year and not less than six months before the expiration of the exclusive privilege thereby granted.

The specification must be in writing, and signed by the petitioner, and must particularly describe and define the nature of the invention, and the manner in which the same is to be carried out.

No specification can be filed until the petitioner has paid all fees. The fee on filing a specification is 107,

HONG KONG.

The ordinance for this colony is No. 14 of 1862, by which all British patents can be extended to Hong Kong. A petition, specification, and declaration are to be filed in the office of the Colonial Secretary, and notice thereof and of the intention to apply for letters patent and of the time of the sitting of the Executive Council, before whom the matter of the petition will come for discussion, together with such other particulars as the Governor shall require, must be inserted twice in the Hong Kong Government Gazette.' The Governor, by the advice of the Executive Council, will either grant or refuse the patent. The letters patent, when granted, are directed to be in the form prescribed by the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852, for British letters patent, and the letters patent, if granted, confer privileges similar to those granted by British letters patent.

The petitioner must, in all cases, be either the patentee or the owner by assignment of the patent in Great Britain.

INDIA.

The Act relating to patents for inventions is dated May 17, 1859.

Exclusive privileges may be obtained for protecting the invention or improvement of any art, or process, or manner of producing, preparing, or making an article, and also the invention or improvement of any article prepared or produced by manufacture. It is required that the invention be useful, and that it be new; and an invention is to be considered new if it have not, at the time the exclusive privilege is applied for, been publicly used in India or in any part of

the United Kingdom, or been made publicly known in any part of India or of the United Kingdom by means of any written or printed publication. If, however, the knowledge of an invention has been obtained surreptitiously, or has been communicated to the public in breach of confidence, the public use or knowledge is in that case to be no bar to the acquisition of the exclusive privilege, if the inventor have not acquiesced in it, and if he make his application within six months after the public use has commenced; nor is the use of an invention by an inventor, or his agent, or any person with its licence, for a period not exceeding one year before the exclusive privilege is applied for, to be deemed a public use within the meaning of the Act. The provisions of the Act are available, not merely for actual inventors, but also for the personal representatives and the assignees of actual inventors; and they extend also to foreigners, whether resident abroad The importer of a new invention into India is, however, expressly excluded from the benefits of the Act, unless he be also the actual inventor, or his personal representative or assignee.

or not.

The exclusive privilege is acquired by merely filing a specification of the invention, upon which, without any further process, the applicant becomes at once entitled to the exclusive right of using and selling the invention in India, and authorising others to do so, for the term of fourteen years from the date of filing the specification. Leave to file the specification must, however, be previously obtained; and for this purpose a petition must be presented to the Governor General in Council, who is empowered to refer it to any person or persons for inquiry, and, in the event of an order authorising the specification to be filed being granted, to annex any conditions he deems proper to the order. The fees attending the inquiry are paid by the petitioner, and no specification is to be filed until all the fees have been paid. Every specification must be filed within six months after obtaining the Governor General's order.

The specification must be confined to one invention only; it must be in writing, signed by the petitioner, and must par

INDIA.

ticularly describe the invention, and how it is to be performed. The petition and specification are each accompanied by a declaration, signed by the petitioner, or by his agent if he be absent from India, stating that he is in possession of the invention, which he believes will be of public utility, and that to the best of his belief it is not known or used in India, or in any part of the United Kingdom, and that it is truly described in the petition and specification. Persons making false statements in these declarations are to be considered guilty of perjury; and wilful misstatements in the petition or specification will render the exclusive privilege liable to be declared void. The specifications filed under this Act are registered in a book, kept in the office of the Secretary to the Government Home Department, open to the public on payment of a small fee. If the patent has been taken out in England by an agent as a communication it must be assigned to the inventor, and the assignment must accompany the specification for India.

Any part of an invention may be disclaimed, should it appear at a future time to the petitioner that he ought not to have included it in his petition or specification; and in case of any defect or insufficiency in the latter, leave may be obtained to file an amended specification, which, however, is not to extend the exclusive privilege before acquired. In both these cases, moreover, it must be shown that no fraud has been intended. The term of an exclusive privilege may be extended for a term not exceeding fourteen years from the expiration of the first fourteen years, upon taking certain proceedings not more than one year, nor less than six months prior to the expiration of the original term.

Every exclusive privilege granted is to cease, if the Governor General in Council shall declare the same, or the mode in which it is exercised, to be mischievous to the State or prejudicial to the public. Further, if satisfactory proof be afforded to the courts of law that leave to file a specification was granted, has been broken, any condition, upon which power is given to the Governor General in Council to declare that the exclusive privilege thereby obtained shall

cease.

Any inventor who has obtained letters patent for the exclusive use of an invention in the United Kingdom may, by taking proper proceedings within six months from the date of filing his complete specification in England, obtain protection in India for his invention, which is to be deemed new there if it was not publicly used or known in India before the date of the petition for letters patent; but no such exclusive privilege is to extend beyond the term of the letters patent, unless they are renewed, in which case the exclusive privilege may also be extended for a like term.

If any person, not being the actual inventor, or the representative or assignee of an actual inventor, has fraudulently obtained any exclusive privilege for protecting an invention, he may be compelled, upon proof of the fraud, to assign the exclusive privilege to the actual inventor, or his representative or assignee, and to account to him for the profits.

The Act contains provisions allowing persons to apply to the courts of law for a declaration that any alleged exclusive privilege has not been acquired, in consequence of non-compliance with the requirements of the Act; and there are also regulations respecting the conduct of proceedings to restrain infringements, &c. ; but as these relate mainly to the practice of the Indian Courts it is unnecessary further to refer to them here.

The Indian Government in granting patents reserve to themselves the right to use the invention without compensation to the patentee.

JAMAICA.

The law of patents in this island is governed by an Act passed in the year 1857, the 21st Victoria, chap. 30.

Every inventor desirous of obtaining a patent must petition the Governor; the petition, accompanied by a declaration as to the invention, and a specification fully describing the same, is then referred to the Attorney General, who gives a certificate of his allowance, upon which the Governor issues letters patent.

Drawings are to be furnished in duplicate.