for want of working, the Luxembourg Government can continue the grand ducal patent. Working in the duchy must be proved within three years of grant. Compulsory licenses can be obtained at rates fixed by Government, by parties wishing to use an invention patented more than three years previously -if in the opinion of the Government such compulsory licenses are desirable. It is generally useful to protect an invention in Luxembourg when patents are obtained in the surrounding States of Belgium, France, and Germany, as, there being no custom houses on the German frontier, and it being very difficult to prevent importation into France and Belgium, an infringer in Luxembourg can be a veritable thorn in the side to the owners of the German, French, and Belgian patents, unless he can be brought to account in Luxembourg itself through a grand ducal patent. The law is very severe against wilful infringers, and is easily put into execution. Usual costs: Patent, £8 10S. in Belgium. Registering a trade mark, £5 10s. MADAGASCAR. Annual taxes as (Population, 4,000,000.) The French patent and trade mark laws extend to this country, but for a patent to be effective in the country registration of the same must be effected in the country. Cost of such registration, £15. Trade mark, £6 10s. MALTA. (Population, 200,000.) The patent law is substantially identical with the British, but with a few slight improvements patents of addition are granted to the patentee or his representatives for improvements on the original invention to expire with the original patent and form a part of it. Malta has joined the Union for the Protection of Industrial Property. Designs can be registered for five years. Usual costs: Patents and Designs and annual taxes the same as in Great Britain. Registering a trade mark, £8. MAURITIUS AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. (Population, 378,000.) Patents are granted to the original inventor or his assigns for fourteen years. This period can be prolonged by the Governor on showing a good case nine months before its expiration. There is no examination as to novelty, but publication is made before grant, after which it is open to opposition for a limited period; but oppositions are very rare. The invention must not have been published (except in Government publications), or be in use in the colony or the United Kingdom, or be patented more than a year in Great Britain, prior to an application for a patent in the colony. The public use, however, for not exceeding one year by the patentee or his assigns, licensees, or representatives, prior to patenting, is, by a special clause in the Act, held not to invalidate the patent. There are no annual taxes or compulsory working clauses. Average costs: Patent, £39. MEXICO. (Population, 14,000,000.) Who can Patent.—The actual inventor, his agent, or legal representative can obtain a patent. Duration, twenty years. What can be Patented.-Almost any new invention that can be validly patented in Great Britain or the United States can be secured by patent in Mexico with the exception of new chemical products; but new processes or plant for making such products and new industrial applications thereof can be protected. Novelty. By new is understood not published in print or worked industrially in any country before the date of the application for the patent, or protection under the convention or special protection in an international exhibition as hereafter mentioned. Mexico has joined the Union for the Protection of Industrial Property. Exhibition in an officially recognised exhibition is not fatal to a subsequent application for a patent, if before exhibiting the applicant files the necessary notice at the Patent Office of his intending so to exhibit, and provided the patent be formally applied for within three months of the final closure of such exhibition. Rights Conferred by Patent are similar to those in Great Britain and the United States, except that actual manufacture of infringing products is a criminal offence, so is importing, dealing in, using for commercial purpose, or being possessed of the patented invention after due warning; with these exceptions, a man may import, make or use, any invention for experiment or research, and if before the date of first protection an independent party has worked or made the necessary arrangements for working the invention, he can go on working in defiance of the patent. Examination. There is no examination as to novelty, but all applications are granted without guarantee for novelty or validity, if in order, and for a proper object matter. Any decision of the examiners, refusing an application as not in order, can be appealed against to the courts. Extension. A patent may be further extended at the option of the Government on such terms as the Government may decide, but proof must be produced that it has been for at least two years immediately preceding in industrial use in the realm. Working and Compulsory Licenses. If after three years from the date of first protection the invention be not industrially at work in the country, or if, after that period, industrial working be suspended for three months, the Patent Office can grant other parties a license to work the invention, they paying half the profits to the patentee. Incorrect returns to the patentee are punishable by a heavy fine, imprisonment of from one to twelve months, and the licensee is also liable to the patentee for damage and loss. The patentee has the right of getting a license granted by the Patent Office annulled any time two years or more after the grant on proving that he has himself established industrial working of the invention -or any time on proving that for two consecutive months the licensee has not worked the invention. Both the owner of the patent and one who has obtained a license through the Patent Office must, within fifteen days of first starting industrial working, prove such working to the Patent Office. Official Examination as to Novelty.-Any interested party can at reasonable cost get the Government to officially examine into and report on the novelty of a patent, but the Government does not in any way guarantee this report. Government Expropriation.-The Government can on payment of reasonable indemnity (ascertained, if an agreement cannot be come to, in accordance with the rules in force for the expropriation of real estate) take a patent or a patented invention for Government or public use. This refers mainly to patents for munitions of war. Nullification.-A patent can be annulled by the courts if it be proved that (1) it has been granted wrongly; (2) that the claim or the description or the drawing is not sufficiently clear or precise or the whole insufficient to enable the invention to be worked therefrom; (3) that the object patented is not in accordance with the title, or (4) that the invention has previously been patented at home or abroad. Infringements of patents by actual manufacture are both civil and criminal offences, punishable by a fine of from 500 to 2,000 pesos and imprisonment of from one to three years. The mere unauthorised use, the sale or circulation or importation of the patented article, or hindering the patentee in the exercise of his rights are also criminal offences and heavily punished, while in case of a second or third offence, even with a different patent, the punishment is increased. The infringer in all cases is liable to pay costs and damages to the patentee, and to the confiscation of the infringing articles. Marking Goods "Patent."-Any one marking an article as "patent" when it is not, is liable to a fine of from 50 to 1,000 pesos or imprisonment of from one to eleven months or both. Industrial Designs can be registered for five or ten years at the applicant's option, but neither term can afterwards be extended. Average costs: Patents of invention, £30. |