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(a.) "Correct any clerical error in, or in
connection with, an application for a
patent; or

(b.) "Correct any clerical error in the name,
style, or address of the registered
proprietor of a patent."

This section renders the decision in re Johnson, L.R. 5 Ch.D. 503, that the Master of the Rolls, as Keeper of the Records, has jurisdiction to direct an amendment of a clerical error in a specification inoperative.

S. 93.

entries in

"If
any person makes, or causes to be made, Falsification of
a false entry in any Register kept under Registers.
this Act, or a writing falsely purporting to
be a copy of an entry in any such Register,
or produces or tenders, or causes to be
produced or tendered in evidence any such
writing, knowing the entry or writing to
be false, he shall be guilty of a misde-

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S. 96. "A certificate purporting to be under the hand of the Comptroller as to any entry, matter, or thing which he is authorized by this Act, or any general Rules made thereunder, to make or do, shall be primá facie evidence of the entry having been made, and of the contents thereof, and of the matter or thing, having been done or left undone."

S. 114 (1.) "The Registers of Patents and of Proprietors kept under any enactment repealed by this Act shall respectively be deemed parts of the same book as the Register of Patents kept under this Act."

CHAPTER XIII.

REVOCATION.

S. 26 (1.) "THE proceeding by scire facias to repeal a patent is hereby abolished.

(2.) "Revocation of a patent may be obtained on petition to the Court.

(3.) "Every ground on which a patent might, at the commencement of this Act, be repealed by scire facias shall be available by way of defence to an action of infringement, and shall also be a ground of revocation.

(4.) "A petition for revocation of a patent
may be presented by-

(a.) The Attorney-General in England or Ire-
land, or the Lord-Advocate in Scotland:
(b.) Any person authorized by the Attor-
ney-General in England or Ireland, or
the Lord-Advocate in Scotland.

(c.) Any person alleging that the patent
was obtained in fraud of his rights,
or of the rights of any person under or
through whom he claims:

(d.) Any person alleging that he, or any
person under or through whom he claims,
was the true inventor of any invention
included in the claim of the patentee:
(e.) Any person alleging that he, or any
person under or through whom he claims
an interest in any trade, business or
manufacture, had publicly manufactured,
used, or sold, within this realm, before
the date of the patent, anything claimed
by the patentee as his invention.

(5.) "The plaintiff must deliver with his
petition particulars of the objections on
which he means to rely, and no evidence
shall, except by leave of the Court or a
Judge, be admitted in proof of any ob-
jection of which particulars are not so
delivered.

(6.) "Particulars delivered may be from
time to time amended by leave of the
Court or a Judge.

(7.) "The defendant shall be entitled to begin
and give evidence in support of the patent,
and if the plaintiff gives evidence im-
peaching the validity of the patent the
defendant shall be entitled to reply.
(8.) "Where a patent has been revoked on
the ground of fraud, the Comptroller may,
on application of the true inventor made
in accordance with the provisions of this
Act, grant to him a patent in lieu of and
bearing the same date as the date of re-
vocation of the patent so revoked, but the
patent so granted shall cease on the ex-
piration of the term for which the revoked
patent was granted."

But by section 44 (9), no proceeding by petition or otherwise shall lie for revocation of a patent granted for an invention in any improvement in instruments or munitions for war, which has been assigned to the Secretary of State for War, and been certified by him should be kept secret under that section.

It is open to the patentee to disclaim at any time in a Disclaimer. proceeding for revocation by leave of the Court or Judge, under section 19 (see p. 76).

As to interrogatories and inspection of documents see chap. xvi. pt. 2.

The old grounds referred to in section 26 (3), on which a scire facias would lie, are laid down in Coke's 4th Institute, p. 87, as three-viz.: I. Where a second patent had been granted for the same thing as a prior patent. 2. Where a patent has been obtained in fraud. 3. Where a patent is not legally valid.

Petition.

Caveat.

Hearing.

CHAPTER XIV.

EXTENSION OF TERM OF PATENT.

SECTION 25 enacts—

(1.) "A patentee may, after advertising
in manner directed by any Rules made
under this section his intention to do
so', present a petition to Her Majesty
in Council, praying that his patent may
be extended for a further term; but such
petition must be presented at least six
months before the time limited for the ex-
piration of the patent.
(2.) Any person may enter a caveat, ad-
dressed to the Registrar of the Council at
the Council Office, against the extension.
(3.) If Her Majesty shall be pleased to refer
any such petition to the Judicial Com-
mittee of the Privy Council, the said
committee shall proceed to consider the
same, and the petitioner and any person
who has entered a caveat shall be entitled

2

1 The advertisement required under section 4 of 5 & 6 Will. IV. c. 83 (which is repealed by the Patents Act, 1883, and substantially re-enacted by section 25, sub-section (1) of that Act set out above), was in the London Gazette three times; and in three London papers; and three times in some county paper published in the town where, or near to which, the patentee carried on any manufacture, or published in the county where he carried on such manufacture, or where he lives, in the case there shall not be any paper published in such town. It is concluded the advertisement alluded to in section 25, sub-section (1), above will be of like nature.

66

2 "Caveat" is defined as meaning anything in the nature of an opposition at any stage (per Lord Cairns, in re Somerset's Patent, L.R. 13 Ch.D. 399 n. (1879)).

to be heard by himself or by counsel on the
petition."

And by section 25 (6)—

"It shall be lawful for Her Majesty in Council Rules and

ceedings.

to make, from time to time, Rules of practice for pro-
procedure and practice for regulating
proceedings on such petitions, and subject
thereto such proceedings shall be regu-
lated according to the existing procedure
and practice in patent matters of the
Judicial Committee."

The existing Rules, unless otherwise altered by Her Majesty in Council, under section 25, sub-section (6), are the following, so far as they refer to the present law for the extension of a patent, the confirmation of a patent having been done away with.

PRIVY COUNCIL.

Rules in Patent Cases before the Judicial Committee, made under the Act 5 & 6 Will. IV. c. 83.

Rule II.-A party intending to apply by petition, under section 4 of the said Act (now by section 25 of the Patents Act of 1883), shall, in the advertisements directed to be published by the said section, give notice of the day on which he intends to apply for a time to be fixed for hearing the matter of his petition (which day shall not be less than four weeks from the date of the publication of the last of the advertisements to be inserted in the London Gazette), and that on or before such day caveats must be entered; and any person intending to enter a caveat shall enter the same at the Council Office, on or before such day so named in the said advertisements; and having entered such caveat, shall be entitled to have from the petitioner four weeks' notice of the time appointed for the hearing.

Rule III.-Petitions under section 4 of the said Act (now section 25 of the Patents Act of 1883) must be presented within one week from the insertion of the last of the advertisements required to be published in the London Gazette.

Rule IV-All petitions must be accompanied by affidavits of advertisements having been inserted according to the provisions of section 4 of the said Act (now section 25, subsection (1), of the Patents Act, 1883), and Rule II. of these

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