factory reasons for his default. Costs can be awarded by the Committee, and its rulings can be enforced by the High Court of Justice.

RIGHTS OF THE CROWN.

The Crown has also the right of using the invention, on terms agreed upon between the inventor and Government officials, ratified by the Treasury; or (if no satisfactory agreement can be come to) on such terms as the Treasury shall decide to be just. The Treasury hitherto has proved remarkably liberal to inventors whose patents it has taken up.

INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION.

An International Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property exists between the following coun tries, viz. -Great Britain, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Curacoa and Surinam, Denmark, France, Gambia, Germany, Italy, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Domingo, Spain, Southern Nigeria, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunis and the United States. A simllar treatise exists between Great Britain on the one side, and each of the following States on the other, viz. -Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay, as regards patent trademarks and designs, and Ecuador, Greece and Roumania, as regards designs and trademarks only.

An application for a patent in the United Kingdom or any other state of the Union, provided no previous patent has been applied for in another country, procures to residents or to persons having industrial commercial establishments here, or in any other State of the Union, protection for twelve months in the rest of the Union. This period of protection begins

with the date on which the applicant lodged his application for the patent, and not from the date of the acceptance, and foreign patents should be applied for before the lapse of this protection.

The complete application here must be made in the case of patents (with a special form), within twelve months of the application abroad, and in the case of designs and trademarks within four months of the application abroad, if right of priority is required.

NOVELTY.

An invention to be patentable must be unknown to the public in the United Kingdom at the date of application. It may, however, have been publicly known and used in foreign countries or colonies at the date of application. The word application here means application for provisional or complete protection in the United Kingdom, or the application for a patent in any of the countries of the Union for the Protection of Industrial Property previously described (see page 29), if followed by a British application, in a specified form, within twelve months. The sale or public exhibition of the invention in any portion of the British Isles, or a complete and accurate description of it in a journal or book, printed or circulating in the kingdom before the "date of application,' would invalidate a patent. Copies of the specifications and drawings of American and of some continental patents are now forwarded to the British Patent Office Library, where they are open to free inspection. This constitutes a legal publication, though they may not have been examined by the public. If, however, the invention be not so sufficiently described as to enable a man, skilled in the line of business to which it relates, to work it successfully without experiments or inven

tion on his part, such a partial or defective publication will not invalidate a patent afterwards applied for.

The possessor of an invention, specimens of which he had sold or used publicly, or exposed for sale before being protected by an application for a patent at home (or abroad under the circumstances above set forth on page 29), cannot validly patent it ; nor can any one obtain a sound patent for a process which he has already used secretly for a period of years, and sold the produce thereof in the realm.

Experimenting on the invention before patenting, if every reasonable precaution has been taken to keep it secret, and the working has not been for profit, does not invalidate a patent afterwards obtained. Thus it was decided that where a machine for laying cables had been used for laying a single cable to America, and, proving a great success, was patented on the return of the ship, there had been only an experimental use insufficient to entail the invalidity of the patent, it being impossible to ascertain whether it could usefully perform its work without a trial. On the other hand, the use of a newly invented crane for five months in the owner's yard, which was open to the railway and to the view of customers calling on business, was held to be a publication; as five months was far more than sufficient time to test it, and the continued use was to profit, and not for the purposes of experiment.

The prior existence of an invention, which, if it had been made subsequent to the date of the patent, would be considered a clumsy colourable imitation for the purpose of effecting the same result, does not invalidate the patent by anticipation.

Similarly a prior unsuccessful and abandoned experiment by a third party, even though it embrace all the principles of the invention, is not sufficient.

to invalidate the patent afterwards obtained. The imperfect publication of an invention in an abandoned specification of a third party has been held not to invalidate a subsequent patent for the same invention; and in order to prevent abandoned provisional specifications from interfering any more with subsequent applications, and for other reasons, a short Act was passed in 1885 requiring the Comptroller to keep such specifications secret from that date. This Act practically cuts off from the public all abandoned. provisional specifications entered under the Act of 1883, as very few of these were published at the time of the passing of the said Act.

An invention that has been registered as a design, or a specimen of which has been sold in the realm, cannot be validly patented.

UTILITY.

In order that a patent may be sustained, it is essential that it should be useful; but this point, though usually all-important as regards its value to the inventor, is never investigated by the officials when examining an application with a view to granting a patent.

EXHIBITIONS.

The exhibition of an unpatented invention at an industrial or international exhibition, certified as such by the Board of Trade, or the publication of the invention during the period of the holding of the exhibition, or use of the invention by others elsewhere without the knowledge or consent of the inventor during the period of exhibition, will not invalidate the subsequent patent, provided the inventor, previous to exhibiting, gives due notice at the Patent Office of his intention to so exhibit, and provided he applies

for a patent within six months of the date of opening the exhibition. As, however, Provisional Protection is now so very cheap, and expensive litigation might result before the inventor obtained his rights, if another applied for a patent during the period of exhibition and prior to patenting by the original inventor, this clause in the law is of very doubtful advantage.

PENALTIES.

Where any person claiming to be the patentee of an invention, by circulars, advertisements, or otherwise, threatens another person with legal proceedings in respect of any alleged infringement of the patent, any person or persons aggrieved thereby may bring an action against him, and may obtain an injunction against the continuance of such threats, and may recover such damage (if any) as may have been sustained thereby, if the alleged infringement to which the threats related was not in fact an infringement of any legal rights of the person making such threats. This section does not apply if the person making such threats commences and prosecutes, with due diligence, an action for infringement of his patent.

Any person who represents that any article sold by him is a patented article, when no patent has been granted for the same, or describes any design or trademark applied to any article sold by him as registered which is not so, is liable for every offence on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding five pounds. This enactment has been held to apply even in cases where the article was at the time provisionally protected.

In such latter case, however, the article can be marked "Provisionally Protected," "Protected under the Patent Act," or "Patent Applied For."

If too a person marks articles as patented for