94 BRITISH GUIANA, ETC.-BULGARIA-CANADA.

that the Assigns of inventors can apply for patents, that the fees are much heavier, and the annual taxes are changed to a single tax at the end of the seventh year.

Cost of patent, provisionally 9 months, £7; completing, £14; or complete at start £17; tax before end of seventh year, £23.

The law, taxes, practice and costs are the same as the British, in every important respect.

BULGARIA.

(Population, 1,000,000.)

No Patents granted.

Trade mark registration usually costs £10 1OS.

DOMINION OF CANADA.

(Population, 5,500,000.)

Kinds of Protection and Duration.-There are two kinds of protection, patents and caveats (or provisional protections). Patents are granted for 18 years, but expire with the earliest foreign patent for the same invention.

In cases where an inventor, wishing to perfect his invention by experiment before applying for a patent, fears that others may forestall him, he may file a caveat, that is, a description of his invention, to be kept secret in the Patent Offices at Ottawa, until such time as he patents the invention.

This caveat remains in force one year, and can be renewed as often as desired.

During the existence of the caveat, should another party apply for a patent for an invention infringing on that forming the subject of the caveat, the Government is bound to give the caveator three months during which to file his application for a patent, when, if the claims to the two specifications be found to interfere with each other, a court, consisting of three sworn arbitrators, is appointed to decide who is best entitled to the invention. The arbitrators, skilled persons, one chosen by each party and the third by the Commissioner of Patents, have power to compel the attendance of witnesses, to take sworn evidence, oral or written, and from their decision there is no appeal. A similar court decides all cases of interfering applications for patents; that is, cases where two independent applicants lay claim to the same invention.

There is another form of caveat (provisional protection) which can be used when a patent has been applied for abroad. If this caveat be applied for within three months of the grant of the first foreign (or British) patent for the same invention and a patent be applied for in Canada within a year of the grant of the said first patent abroad, the Canadian patent holds good against infringers who began infringing during the period between the dates of the respective applications for the foreign and home. patent.

What can be Patented.-Any invention capable of being patented in Great Britain, is also patentable in Canada.

Patents for inventions previously protected abroad must be applied for in Canada within one year of the date of issue of the earliest British or foreign patent for the same invention, and within one year, also, of their first introduction into Canada. The Canadian officials are very liberal on this point, and have, in urgent cases, accepted a telegraphed guaranteed application,

by a responsible party, so that it might be officially entered within the required period. Any one commencing to work the invention in the Dominion, prior to the date of the patent, or of provisional protection when that is applied for, can continue to use or sell the specific article so worked, in defiance of the inventor. But provided that working, etc., took place only within one year prior to the application, it will not invalidate the patent.

Who can Patent.-Any person being the true and first inventor, his executor, or administrator, or his assignee of such invention, can become a patentee.

Taxes. Patents are subject to taxes and other formalities, before the end of the sixth and twelfth years respectively, in default of which they become void. These payments can, however, be paid at the commencement, in which case no formalities are required.

The applicant for a patent is sometimes required, before the patent issues to him, to supply, if the case admits of it, a neat working model, on a convenient scale, but not more than twelve inches in any dimension; or, if the patent be for a composition of matter, a set of samples may be required, including a specimen of the composition, and of each of the ingredients used, except such as are disagreeable or dangerous to keep. These specimens must be neatly and separately packed in bottles, and labelled. These are, however, seldom now required.

Working. The invention must be "worked" in Canada within two years of date of the grant, or such extension as may be officially authorised, and must be continued in "operation" to such an extent that any one can purchase the products thereof at a reasonable price, or the patent can be annulled at the suit of any party. But if before six months after the grant, the patentee applies to have his

patent placed under the compulsory license clause, then this is inoperative.

Compulsory License Clause. If a patent granted under this clause be not worked sufficiently for the reasonable requirements of the public to be fulfilled, the Commissioner shall have power on the application of a third party and after hearing the patentee, to grant a license to such party to work the invention on such royalties and terms and with such restrictions as the Commissioner of Patents shall deem just./ The patent will also be forfeited if it be proved that goods made on the principle of the invention were imported into Canada with the knowledge or connivance of the owner of the patent, or any of his assigns, licensees, or agents, after the expiration of twelve months from the date of the patent, or such extension of the period, not exceeding one year at most, as may have been officially granted, on special application. This clause, too, has been very liberally interpreted; the importation of a specimen machine to solicit orders with, and to act as a model to make others by, having been decided to be not a sufficient amount of importation to destroy the validity of the patent, even though sold and publicly worked in Canada.

Further, the importation of all the separate parts of a lot of machines which were put together in Canada was held not to be an importation of the patented article.

The Commissioner has power to extend the time for working to four years, and the time for allowing importation to two years, on good reason being shown.

Amendments.-If from any cause an inventor find that his patent is invalid by reason of its claiming parts that were old at the date of the patent, or that were the invention of others, or that he has inadvertently not claimed a part of the subject-matter

of his specification that he might have done, and would like to do, he can either file a disclaimer of the old portion or surrender his patent, and obtain a new one for the unexpired term of the eighteen years, or any part thereof, with fresh claims. The new or re-issued patent must, however, not contain any subject-matter other than set forth in either the drawings on the body of the original specification, or clearly shown by the model supplied with the application.

Government Use.--The Government of Canada may always use any patented invention, paying such royalty as the Commissioner of Patents may decide to be proper.

Assignments to be valid against third parties must be registered at Ottawa; and if an inventor fraudulently, or by error, assign his patent to two different parties, the assignment that is registered first is the only valid one.

Infringers may be prosecuted for damages in the court of record of the district in which the infringement occurred. Such court can grant injunctions, damages, and costs.

Deceit. If anything be added to, or omitted from, a specification, with evident intent to deceive or mislead, the patent is void.

Marking Patented Articles.-All patented articles must be stamped "Patented," with the year of grant of patent, thus "Patented 1895." Any patentee offering for sale any patented article not so marked, is liable to a fine not exceeding £20, or imprisonment not exceeding two months.

Any one fraudulently marking any article with the word "Patented," or any word or words of similar meaning, is liable to a fine not exceeding £40, or imprisonment not exceeding three months, or both at the discretion of the court.