inventions, and which lapse with the original patent, and after grant form a part of the original patent. Patents of invention and their certificates give the sole right of making, using, and importing. Patents of Importation do not give any right to stop importations of the patented article. Medicines cannot be patented, but modes of producing them can, and their names can be registered. Working. Proof of reasonable working in the realm must be furnished to the Government within three years of date of payment, on pain of forfeiture of the patent. Taxes. Patents are subject to an annual progressive tax on pain of forfeiture. This, including agency, is £3 at the end of the first year, £3 85. at end of second year, and so on, increasing each year 8s. Accidental non-payment can be rectified by payment of an additional tax of 9s. during the first month, 18s. during the second month, or 275. during the third month. All the taxes can be paid at once if desirable, in which case a discount of 5 per cent. on five-year patents and 20 per cent. on twenty-year patents is allowed. There is no examination as to novelty, but all applications are granted if in order. The holder of the patent can at any time after grant during its existence obtain a certificate of addition, alteration, or disclaimer for any improvement, alteration, or deletion he wishes to make in the specification, and the patent from thenceforth is modified by that certificate, but without prejudice to the rights of other parties existing at the time. There are no annual taxes on these certificates, but they fall with the original patent. Assignments must be registered to be valid against third parties. A patent can be expropriated by a special Act of Congress, in which case the indemnity for such expropriation is also decreed, and who is to pay it. A patent must be worked in Spanish territory, and that working proved within three years "in reasonable proportion to its employment or consumption"; but if there be no market, the existence at the disposal of the public of machinery or materials sufficient for the manufacture will be considered a working. Any rival manufacturer or any person who has been refused a license can challenge in a Court of Arbitration at his own expense the sufficiency of such proved working. It is sufficient to upset the patent to show that working has been suspended for a year and a day without very strong reason. Infringement of a patent is punishable by fine or imprisonment and confiscation to the patentee of the infringing articles. Licenses and Assignments must he registered at the Conservatory of Arts (Madrid) before they become valid against third parties. This register is always open to public inspection. Nullification.-As in most other countries, if it be found that the specification does not fully and correctly describe the invention and its objects, so that any one could work it who is conversant with the branch of art to which it is nearest related, or if there be clear evidence of deceit or of reservation of valuable information on the part of the patentee in drawing up his specification, the patent will be declared void. Working. All patented inventions must be worked somewhere in the Spanish dominions within three years of the date of the patent, or the patent becomes void; and this applies also to patents of addition, the working of which does not require to be proved in most other countries. This working must be proved at the expense of the patentee to the satisfaction of an official appointed by the Director of the Conservatory of Arts, or, in other words, the Commissioner of Patents. The article must be actually manufactured in the Spanish dominions, and the expenses of proving, when done by our agency exclusive of cost of manufacture, is usually about 12. The patent can be annulled after this working if at any time it be shown that the working of the invention has been entirely interrupted for a period of one year and a day, unless the owner can show a good cause for such interruption. Infringers of Patents are liable to a fine of from £8 to £80 for the first offence; if, after being fined, the infringer again infringes within a period of five years, he is liable to a fine of from £80 to £800. Persons knowingly assisting in such infringement lay themselves open to a fine of from £2 to £8 for the first offence, and of from £8 to £80 for the second. All counterfeit products seized become the property of the patentee, and all damages must be made good; and if the fines and damages be not promptly paid, imprisonment for an equivalent period is the only alternative. In infringement trials, the infringer can plead invalidity of the patent, and get his conviction suspended till the validity of the patent has been. tested by the public prosecutor before a jury of experts. A patent can be expropriated by Government at a fair valuation. What Inventions Pay.-The spirit of enterprise is rapidly rising again in Spain; and at the present time there is a great demand for manufactures requiring small capital to work them. Patents for small domestic articles, stationery, simple articles of husbandry, or connected with the wine trade, mining, and guns and pistols, are especially sought after. 182 SPAIN STRAITS SETTLEMENTS-SWEDEN. Average costs: Patents of invention or importation Patent of addition . Taxes, including agency, £3 before the end of the first year; £3 8s. second year; and so on, increasing 8s. each year. Cost of proving working, from. ,, registration of trade marks, all £ s. d. 16 O IO IO O STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. (Population, 572,000.) These include Singapore, Penang, Province Wellesley, and Malacca. The patent law is very similar to the British, except that there are no compulsory licenses. Any inventor possessed of a British patent can have the same registered in the colony at any time during its existence so as to be operative over the settlements. The first importer of an invention can obtain a valid patent therefor. Usual costs: Registration, £28; or of an original patent, £35. SWEDEN. (Population, 5,200,000.) Kinds and Duration of Patents.-Patents of invention are granted for fifteen years, subject to an annual tax. Patents of addition, for improvements on existing patented inventions, are granted to the original inventor of said existing patent, free of annual tax, to expire with the original patent. And at the option of the King, Provisional protections for one year to subjects of countries granting reciprocity in this respect. Who can Patent.-Patents are granted only to the true and first inventor, or his legally qualified representative. What is Patentable. All new industrial inventions and new modes of manufacture, except foods and medicines, are patentable; the modes of compounding foods and medicines are, however, patentable if new. Novelty. An invention is new if it have not been already described in any country in an ordinary accessible printed publication, or so openly practised that any one skilled in the art to which it relates could manufacture it from such information. The publication of the invention, however, by exhibition at an International exhibition, is no objection to the grant of a patent, provided that the applicant applies for a patent within three months after such publication or opening of such exhibition. Publication of the invention by a foreign patent authority is, however, sufficient to invalidate a subsequent application in Sweden, unless such. application be made under the provisions of the International Convention, and such publication be after the date of priority secured under the Convention. In the case of an application for a patent for an invention first patented abroad, in a country under the convention or having a corresponding regulation, a Swedish patent is granted without being prejudiced by interim publication, to date the same date as the said foreign patent, provided the application be made within twelve months of the date of the foreign patent. Requirements as regards a full and complete specification are as strict as in England or America, and |