If he lodges the complete instrument at the time of application, he deprives himself of the opportunity of improving the invention, and of adding, perhaps greatly, to its value. Moreover, inventors who wish to obtain patents in other countries should bear in mind that the previous publication of an invention by a complete specification in this country may be a bar to a valid patent unless the case is one that falls within the operation of the fourth Article of the International Convention as to Patents.

The complete specification, whether left on application or subsequently, must, in the words of the Act, 'particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the invention, and in what manner it is to be performed, and must be accompanied by drawings if required.'1 It must commence with the title, and must end with a distinct statement of the invention claimed. The form of the instrument is given in the second schedule of the Patents Rules 1883.2 If left with the application (sect. 6), the papers are referred by the Comptroller to an examiner, whose duty it is to ascertain and report to the Comptroller whether the nature of the invention has been fairly described, and whether the application, specification, and drawings (if any) have been prepared in the prescribed manner, and the title sufficiently indicates the subject-matter of the invention. If the examiner reports in the negative, the Comptroller may require the application, specification, or drawings, to be amended before he proceeds with the application,

The drawings accompanying the specification must comply with the regulations prescribed by Rules 28, 29, and 30 of the Patents Rules 1883. Rule 31 imposes on the applicant the duty of furnishing a drawing illustrating the novel features of the invention and an explanatory statement for insertion in the Journal issued by the Patent Office, but it is now understood that the explanatory statement will not be insisted upon.

2 A fee of 47. is payable on filing a complete specification with the application: if filed afterwards the fee is 31.

subject to appeal to the law officer, who, after hearing the applicant and the Comptroller, may make an order determining whether and subject to what condition, if any, the application shall be accepted. When an application has been accepted, the Comptroller will give notice thereof to the applicant.

If the applicant (sect. 8) does not leave a complete specification with his application, he may leave it at any subsequent time within nine months from the date of application,' and unless it is left within that time the application will be deemed to be abandoned. The nine months will expire on that day of the ninth month which corresponds to the day of the application. Where a complete specification is left after a provisional specification the comptroller will refer both to an examiner, for the purpose of ascertaining whether the complete specification has been prepared in the prescribed manner, and whether the invention particularly described in the complete specification is substantially the same as that described in the provisional. If the examiner reports that these conditions have not been complied with, the Comptroller may refuse to accept the complete specification unless and until the same shall have been amended to his satisfaction; but such refusal is subject to appeal to the law officer, who, if required, will hear the applicant and the Comptroller, and may make an order determining whether and subject to what conditions the complete specification shall be accepted (subsect. 3).

It has been previously stated that the applicant is allowed nine months from the date of his application

Whenever the last day for leaving a document at the Patent Office shall happen to fall on Christmas day, Good Friday, or on a Saturday or Sunday or on a day, observed as a holiday at the Bank of England, or on any day observed as a public fast or thanksgiving, the document may be left on the day next following any of these days (sect. 98)

for lodging his complete specification, but as a patentee cannot recover damages in respect of infringements committed before the publication of that instrument (sect. 13 of the new Act) it is desirable in most cases to file it with as little delay as possible.

Unless a complete specification is accepted within twelve months from the date of application, then (save in the case of an appeal having been lodged against the refusal to accept) the application will become void at the expiration of that time (subsect. 4).

In the event of the applicant's death before leaving a complete specification, no power is expressly given by the Act to his legal representatives to leave a specification at the Patent Office, or to the Comptroller to accept it if left. But perhaps it may be held that such powers are impliedly given by sub-section (3 b) of the twelfth section of the new Act.

On the acceptance of the complete specification the Comptroller will give notice thereof to the applicant and will advertise the acceptance in the official journal, and the application and specification or specifications, with the drawings, if any, will then be open to public inspection (sect. 10, and Rules 25 and 26).

After the acceptance of a complete specification and until the date of sealing a patent in respect thereof, or the expiration of the time for sealing, the applicant shall have the like privileges and rights as if a patent for the invention had been sealed on the date of the acceptance of the complete specification: Provided that an applicant shall not be entitled to institute any proceeding for infringement unless and until a patent for the invention has been granted to him (sect. 15).

It was decided in Ex parte Henry (L. R. S. Ch. 167) that a secord applicant who had filed a complete specification along with his petition under the ninth section of the Patent Act of 1852, and had thereby

become entitled for six months to 'the like powers rights, and privileges, as might have been conferred on him by letters patent duly sealed, as of the date of the application,' did not acquire the rights of a patentee so as to prevent a person who had previously applied for a patent for a similar invention from obtaining a patent. It is directed by section 9, subsection 5, that the reports of examiners shall not in any case be published or be open to public inspection, and shall not be liable to production or inspection in any legal proceeding, other than an appeal to the law officer under this Act, unless the court or officer having power to order discovery in such legal proceeding shail certify that such production or inspection is desirable in the interests of justice, and ought to be allowed.

In case of clerical errors in a specification they could only be amended formerly by order of the Master of the Rolls. (Johnson's Patent, L. R. 5 Ch. D. 503, and the cases there cited.) This jurisdiction still subsists (Re Gare's Patent, April 5, 1884). In Dixon's Patent (January 15, 1881) the M.R. required from the applicant an undertaking not to take proceedings for infringements committed before the date of the amending order. But now, by Sect. 18 of the Act of 1883, such errors may be amended, after the patent has been granted, by the Comptroller on such terms as he may think fit. Before the issue of the patent, clerical errors in or in connection with the application may be corrected by him under the 91st section of the new Act.

Any person has the right of opposing the grant of a patent on certain prescribed grounds, and the reader is referred for information on this subject to Chapter VIII.

DRAWINGS.

The Patent Act of 1883 (sect. 5, subsect. 4) directs that a complete specification must be accompanied by drawings if required. Those who are called upon to interpret the instrument will look both at the words and the drawings, with the view of making them explain each other, and of arriving at the patentee's meaning (Abbott, C.J., in Bloxam v. Elsee, 1 C. & P. 564). Many inventions can be explained perfectly well without any drawings; but wherever machines are the subject of or connected with the invention, drawings should always accompany the specification, for in such a case the relation of the parts will be clear at once through a visual representation, when a verbal description might be utterly unintelligible. Care must be taken that the patentee does not bind himself to the particular form given in the drawing, when he does not so intend. It may be that only a particular form is required to be secured, because no other form will effect the proposed result. In such a case, if the form is not copied, the invention is not made use of. But in most cases it is more than one form which is sought to be protected by patent, and the form given in the drawing is only to be taken as an illustration. This fact ought to be distinctly shown in the specification.

In Arnold v. Bradbury (L. R. 6 Ch. 706) it was contended by the defendants in a suit for restraining the infringement of a patent for an improved ruffle, and the machinery for making the same, that the

Rules 28-30 of the Patents Rules, 1883, contain regulations as to the sizes and methods of preparing the drawings accompanying the provisional or complete specifications. Rule 31 directs the applicant to furnish an additional drawing illustrative of the features of novelty constituting the invention, for insertion in the Illustrated Journal of the Patent Office.