ments, prospectuses, labels, stamps, etc., uses the word "breveté" or "brevet (patented or patent) in connection with the patented article, without adding the words "sans garantie du gouvernement" (without guarantee of the government), is liable to a fine of not less than £2 or more than £40. In the event of a repetition of the offence the fine may be doubled. The initials "s. g. d. g.," though almost universally used, have been held on one occasion not to be sufficient. Any one using the name, title, or trade mark of an inventor without his sanction, or marking a thing "patent" that is not patented, can be made to pay damages to the owner of the patent nearest resembling it. Specifications are now printed and published separately (and without waiting for two years and then publishing them in the volumes as was the case till 1901). Cost of a printed specification, three shillings. One copy is sent to the patentee, who can notify the officials during the space of three months of any errors or inaccuracies therein when they will be corrected, after which the document will be considered a true copy of the specification and unalterable. About 11,000 original patents are taken out every year in France, and the number issued up to December, 1904, was over 346,000. Usual costs: Original patent, £12 to £14. Certificate of addition, 10. Annual tax on original patent, including agency fee, £5. Securing certificates of working, £9 to £10. Application for permit, £1. Registering a trade mark, £4 10s. Registering a design, £4 155. GAMBIA AND PROTECTORATE. (Population, 144,000.) The law is almost a copy of the British with these exceptions. An assignee can apply for a patent and the holder of a patent in any other state or colony can get that patent registered for Gambia for the remainder of the period for which such foreign patent was granted. The fees are double the fees exacted in Great Britain. Usual costs: Provisional protection, £7. Registering foreign patent in the colony, £25. Taxes at end of 4th and subsequent years, £10, £10, £10, £10, £15, £15, £20, £20, £20, and £20. Fee arranging tax, I. GERMANY AND COLONIES. Kinds and Duration of Protection. --There are three kinds--Patents of Invention, of Addition, Registrations of Design. The first last for fifteen. years subject to annual taxes. The second (additions to or improvements on existing patents) are granted. to expire at the date when the original patent would expire-the taxes of the original patent serving for both. The third for three years renewable for a further term of three years for novelties of useful design. These will be treated in a paragraph to themselves, the following information applying only to the first and second class of patents. Who can Patent.-Any person the true and first inventor or his assigns, and practically any applicant with the connivance of the inventor, can obtain a patent. A person outside the realm can only obtain a patent through a representative in the country. This person, usually the correspondent of his local patent agent, represents the patentee in all civil law suits, and can enter criminal suits for infringing said patent. What can be Patented.-Any invention permitting of an industrial exploitation, with these. exceptions-foods, drinks, medicines, and chemical products are not patentable. Where, however, a new chemical process is patented, the patent is held to cover such products as are actually manufactured under that process. In the case of imported articles where there is good reason to suspect that they are made by a given patented chemical process, the burden of proving that they are not so patented rests with the importer, and in default of such proof they are held to be infringements. Two separate inventions cannot be granted under one patent. This rule is rigorously enforced. Novelty. For a patent to be valid the invention must not before the date of application for the patent have been publicly used in the Empire, or published in any book or public print, within a hundred years prior to the date of the patent, to such an extent as to enable a person versed in the trade to manufacture it. Germany having joined the Union for the Protection of Industrial Property, Patents taken out under the convention and based on a foreign application applied for within the previous twelve months, are not invalidated by publication after the application for such foreign application. Official publications of certain countries which have granted reciprocal privileges are not considered publications within the meaning of the above clause till three months after their issue. Neither Great Britain nor the United States are in this category at present. The first person who applies for the patent gets it, irrespective of whether he be the inventor or not, with this reservation-if the applicant be proved to have obtained the invention surreptitiously or without permission from the description, drawing, models, or devices of another, that other can get the patent annulled, and on application within a month after said annulment can obtain a similar patent for himself, with a date prior to the day of publication of the original patent. A patent is without effect on any person who has worked or made the necessary arrangements for working the invention in the Empire prior to the application for the patent. Such person can continue using the invention in his own or other workshops according to the requirements of his own business, and if he sells his business this right to use the invention passes to his successor. Examination.-All inventions are rigidly examined in regard to novelty by the Examination Department of the Patent Office, and many inventions which would pass the United States examiners or a British court of law as novel are refused because the principle of the invention is old. If an application be allowed, it is published and is then open to opposition for two months before being granted; even those applications that are refused on opposition are published, but in any case the applicant on petition can get a delay of three or even six months before publication. Oppositions and Petition for Annulment of patents are heard by the Patent Office and not by courts of law. For this purpose, the Patent Office is provided with a large staff of judicial and technical experts divided into the application, annulment, and appeal departments. These three are entirely distinct, members of the application department not being allowed to have anything to do with appeals or annulments, and those of the other departments having no voice in granting applications (except, of course, when these applications have been refused and the decision is appealed against). Outside experts may be called in, but are not allowed to vote. The examiners of the application department are appointed for life. By this machinery there is abundant provision made for appeals from the primary examiner to the rest of the application department, and from them again to the appeal department. In the case of actions for infringement and for nullification there is also an appeal from the appeal department to the Imperial Supreme Court of Leipsic. An application is refused if found to be (1) not new; (2) not a patentable invention; (3) not drawn up in accordance with the requirements of the law and the applicant declines to amend it; (4) contrary to law and order; or (5) if it be proved that the invention was abstracted from the specifications, drawings, models, implements, or devices of another, or from a process employed by the same. Rights Secured by Patent.-A patent gives the sole right to make, use, and sell the invention. A patent once granted is guaranteed by the Government until a successful suit be brought against the Patent Office to annul the same, and it is no defence in an action for infringement that the invention is not new, not sufficiently described, or not patentable. The penalty for knowingly infringing a patent is a fine up to £250, or imprisonment not exceeding one year, and the indemnification of the injured party. The patentee has also the right of publishing |