Office. After the date of the licence and before the time expired the defendants brought into the district certain machines which they had purchased from persons who had bought them from the patentee outside the district. It was held that as there was no proof that the defendants had notice of the licence they were not liable in an action to restrain the use of the machines within the district. (Heap v. Hartley, 5 R. P. C. 603; S. C., on appeal, 6 R. P. C. 496.)

A licensee has, however, a right to have it ascertained what is the field covered by the specification as properly construed, and is entitled to say that he has not gone inside that field. He may seek to have the boundary of the patentee's invention defined with the view of showing that he had not rendered himself liable to make the payments stipulated in the licence. (Adie v. Clark, L. R. 4 App. Cas. 423; Couchman v. Greener, House of Lords, 1 R. P. C. 197; Useful Patents Co. v. Rylands, 2 R. P. C. 255; Crosthwaite v. Steele, 6 R. P. C. 190.) And after a licence has been determined, a licensee is at liberty to dispute the validity of a patent in a suit for an injunction to restrain an infringement. (Dangerfield v. Jones, 13 L. T. N. s. 142; Axmann v. Lund, L. R. 18 Ch. D. 330; and see Neilson v. Fothergill, 1 W. P. C. 290).

In an action for infringement the defendant, being the mortgagee of certain articles made under a licence which the plaintiff alleged had been revoked, disputed the fact of revocation, and at the same time contended that the patent was invalid. It was held that he must elect which of these lines of defence he would take. (Post Card Automatic Supply Co. v. Samuel, 6 R. P. C. 560).

A licence was granted during the period of provisional protection. The scope of the invention was afterwards considerably limited. The licensees contended that the licence was void, but it was held upon the particular words of the licence that the licensees were bound by the deed. (Otto v. Singer, 7 R. P. C. 7.)

An exclusive licensee has no right to bring an action

for an infringement in his own name without joining the patentee. (Heap v. Hartley, 5 R. P. C. 602; S. C. on appeal, 6 R. P. C. 496.) An ordinary licensee has no right to apply in the name of the owner for an injunction to restrain infringements (Newby v. Harrison, 1 J. & H. 393), nor has the agent of the patentee. (Adams v. North British Railway Company, W. N. 1873, p. 191.)

A patentee will not be allowed to publish advertisements and circulars calculated to deter the public from dealing with his licensee. (Clark v. Adie, 21 W. R. 764.)

The following cases relate to licences connected with. partnerships: Chambers v. Crichley (33 Bea. 374); Axmann v. Lund (L. R. 18 Eq. 330); Heugh v. Chamberlain (25 W. R. 742).

Formerly when the patent was silent as to the form of licence, a simple licence, without covenants, need not have been under seal (Chanter v. Dewhurst, 12 M. & W. 823; Reuss v. Lever, Ch. Div. April 9, 1879; V. C. Hall); nor, it seems, if it was not a deed, did it require a stamp. (Chanter v. Johnson, 14 M. & W. 408.) But now the form of patent set forth in the first schedule of the Act of 1883 requires licences to be in writing under the hand and seal of the patentee. A stamp of 10s. must be impressed in ordinary cases, and an ad valorem stamp on the consideration-money when a fixed sum is paid. When a licence contains a covenant for the payment of a minimum royalty, the Stamp Office insists upon payment of an ad valorem duty upon the gross minimum royalty reserved, and this although the licence contains power for licensor or licensee to determine the licence.

Compulsory Licences.-The twenty-second section of the Patents Act of 1883 introduced an entirely new regulation as to licences by empowering the Board of Trade to order a patentee to grant licences to persons petitioning the Board.

If on the petition of any person interested it is proved to the Board of Trade that, by reason of the default of a patentee to grant licences on reasonable terms, (a) the

patent is not being worked in the United Kingdom; or (b) the reasonable requirements of the public with respect to the invention cannot be supplied; or (c) any person is prevented from working or using to the best advantage an invention of which he is possessed, the Board may order the patentee to grant licences on such terms as to amount of royalties, security for payment, or otherwise, as the Board, having regard to the nature of the invention and the circumstances of the case, may deem just, and any such order may be enforced by mandamus,' which will require an application to the High Court of Justice.

Patents granted before the commencement of the Act, or on applications then pending, are excepted from the operation of this provision. (Sect. 45.)

As to the procedure on petitions for compulsory licences see Rules 60-66 of the Patents Rules 1890.

As to the persons representing the Board of Trade in all matters authorised to be done by the Board under the Patents Act of 1883, and as to the documents and certificates issued by the Board, see the 25th sect. of the Act of 1888, or sect. 102A of the Act of 1883.

The orders of the Board in relation to this difficult and delicate matter seem to be absolute and final, no appeal from their decision being given by the Act; nor is any power to award costs given to the Board. From the wording of the section it is clear that the three grounds for application are independent of each other, any one if properly proved being sufficient to authorise the Board to make an order on a defaulting patentee. To rebut the charge that a patent is not being worked in the United Kingdom the patentee, whether British or foreign, would probably be required to show that any manufacture established in this country was of a real and substantial nature carried on bonâ fide under the same conditions and to the same extent as a licensee, not exclusive, would carry it on under a reasonable royalty.

Up to the time of the publication of this book very few petitions have been presented to the Board of Trade for compulsory licences, and not a single order has been made

under the powers given to it. This section of the Act, though apparently a dead letter, may yet have had a certain indirect effect, by inducing patentees to come to terms privately with persons who desire to take licences, when otherwise they might have refused to do so. And in some cases foreigners who have obtained British patents for their inventions may possibly have been prompted to establish manufactories in this country instead of manufacturing the goods abroad and importing them.

In case a patentee should have made a bonâ-fide grant of an exclusive licence, it may be doubted whether he would be ordered by the Board to grant other licences, and still more whether such an order, if made, would be enforced by mandamus in a court of law.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE REGISTRATION OF PATENTS, ETC.

THE twenty-third section of the Patents Act of 1883 directs that there shall be kept at the Patent Office a book called the Register of Patents, wherein shall be entered the names and addresses of grantees of patents, notifications of assignments and of transmissions of patents, of licences under patents, and of amendments, extensions, and revocations of patents, and such other matters affecting the validity or proprietorship of patents as may from time to time be prescribed. The Register of Patents will be primâ-facie evidence of any matters by the Act directed or authorised to be inserted therein. Copies of deeds, licences, and any other documents affecting the proprietorship in any letters patent or in any licence thereunder must be supplied to the Comptroller in the prescribed manner for filing in the Patent Office.

By the eighty-seventh section of the Act, where a person becomes entitled by assignment, transmission, or other operation of law to a patent, the Comptroller shall on request, and on proof of title to his satisfaction, cause the name of such person to be entered, as proprietor of the patent, in the Register of Patents. The person for the time being entered in the Register of Patents as proprietor of a patent shall, subject to the provisions of the Act and to any rights appearing from such register to be vested in any other person, have power absolutely to assign, grant licences as to, or otherwise deal with, the same, and to give effectual receipts for any consideration for such assignment, licence, or dealing. Any equities in respect of such patent may be