Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub

BELGIUM.

[Law of the 24th of May, 1854, omitting transitory provisions.]

ARTICLE 1. Exclusive and temporary rights shall be granted, under the name of patents of invention, of improvement, or of importation, for every discovery or every improvement capable of being worked as an article of industry or of commerce.

ART. 2. Patents will be granted without previous examination at the risk and peril of the applicants, without guarantee either of the reality, or of the novelty, or of the merit of the invention, or of the correctness of the description, and without prejudice to the rights of third parties.

ART. 3. The duration of patents is fixed at twenty years, except in the case provided for in Article 14. It shall commence from the day on which the memorandum mentioned in Article 18 shall have been

drawn up.

There shall be paid for every patent an annual and progressive tax as follows:

First year
Second year_

Third year-

Francs.

10

20

30

and so on until the twentieth year, for which the tax shall be 200 francs. The tax shall be paid in advance, and in no case shall it be returned.

No tax shall be required for patents of improvement when they are granted to the owner of the principal patent.

ART. 4. Patents confer on their owners, or persons entitled through them (leur ayant droits), the exclusive right:

(a) Of working the patented article for their profit, or causing it to be worked by those whom they may authorize.

(b) Of prosecuting before the tribunals those persons who may attack their rights either by the manufacture of the products or the use of means included in the patent, or holding, selling, exposing for sale, or importing into Belgian territory one or several infringing articles.

ART. 5. If the persons prosecuted by virtue of Article 4 (b) have acted knowingly, the tribunals shall pronounce for the benefit of the patentee, or of persons entitled through him, the confiscation of articles manufactured in contravention of the patent, and the instruments and utensils specially destined for their manufacture, or allow a sum equal to the price of the articles which may have been already sold.

If the persons prosecuted have acted in good faith, the tribunals shall prohibit them under the above-mentioned penalties from using with a commercial object the machines and apparatus of production found to be infringements, and from making use for the same purpose of the instruments and utensils for manufacturing the articles patented.

In the one case and the other damages may be granted to the patentee or to persons entitled through him.

ART. 6. The owners of patents, or persons entitled through them, may, with the authorization of the president of the tribunal of first instance obtained on petition, cause the inventory of the apparatus, machines, and articles said to be infringements, to be made by one or several experts.

The president may by the same order prohibit the holders of the said articles from parting with them, and allow the patentee to appoint a guardian, or even place the articles under seal.

The order shall be served by an officer appointed for that purpose. ART. 7. The patent shall be annexed to the petition, which shall contain election of domicile in the commune where the inventory has to be made. The experts appointed by the president shall be sworn by him, or by the justice of the peace specially authorized by him for the purpose, before commencing their operations.

[NOTE.-The words in italics were introduced by the law of Mar. 27, 1857.] ART. 8. The president may impose on the patentee the obligation of depositing security. In that event the order of the president will only be delivered on proof of the deposit having been made. [NOTE. The latter part of the original article was repealed by the law of July 5, 1884.]

*

*

*

ART. 9. The patentee may be present at the inventory if he is specially authorized by the president of the tribunal.

ART. 10. If the doors are closed, or should their opening be refused, the procedure shall be in conformity with Article 587 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

ART. 11. A copy of the official report of the inventory shall be left with the holder of the articles inventoried.

ART. 12. If within a week the inventory is not followed up by a summons before the tribunal in the jurisdiction of which the inventory was made, the order issued in conformity with Article 6 shall cease to have effect, and the holder of the articles inventoried may claim the surrender of the original official report, with prohibition to the patentee of making use of or publishing its contents, all without prejudice to any damages.

ART. 13. The tribunals shall take cognizance of matters relating to patents as of summary and urgent business.

ART. 14. The author of a discovery already patented abroad may obtain by himself or by his assigns a patent of importation in Belgium. The duration of this patent shall not exceed that of the patent previously granted abroad for the longest term, and in no case the limit fixed by Article 3.

ART. 15. In the event of modifications in the object of the discovery, a patent of improvement may be obtained which shall terminate at the same time as the original patent.

However, if the owner of the new patent is not the original patentee, he can not, without the consent of the latter, make use of the original discovery, and reciprocally the original patentee can not work the improvement without the consent of the owner of the new patent.

ART. 16. Patents of importation and of improvement confer the same rights as patents of invention.

ART. 17. Every person who wishes to take out a patent shall be bound to deposit under seal in duplicate at the registry of one of the provincial governments of the kingdom, or at the office of a district commissary, complying with the formalities which will be settled by a royal decree, a clear and complete description in one of the languages used in Belgium, and an exact drawing to a metrical scale of the object of the invention.

No deposit shall be received without the production of a receipt proving the payment of the first annuity of the tax on the patent.

A memorandum setting out the day and the hour of the delivery of the papers, drawn up without charge by the provincial registrar or by the district commissary in a register kept for this purpose, and signed by the applicant, shall prove each deposit.

ART. 18. The legal date of the invention is proved by the memʊrandum drawn up at the time of the deposit of the application for the patent.

A duplicate of this memorandum will be given without charge to the depositor.

ART. 19. A decree of the Minister of the Interior, verifying the fulfillment of the prescribed formalities, will be delivered without delay to the depositor, and shall constitute his patent. Extracts from this decree will be inserted in the Moniteur.

ART. 20. The specifications of patents granted shall be published verbatim or in substance by the administration in a special collection three months after the grant of the patent. When the patentee shall require a complete publication or that of an extract supplied by him, the publication shall be made at his cost.

After the same term the public shall likewise be allowed to see the specifications, and copies of them may be obtained on paying the

cost.

ART. 21. Every transfer of patent by act inter vivos or testamentary shall be registered, the fixed tax being 10 francs.

ART. 22. When the tax fixed by Article 3 shall not have been paid within a month of coming due, the owner, after previous notice, shall, under penalty of being deprived of the rights which his title confers upon him, pay, before the expiration of six months from the date at which the tax was due, the sum of 10 francs, in addition to the annuity payable. Forfeiture of patents shall be published in the Moniteur.

[NOTE. The original article was repealed, and the words in italics substituted by the law of Mar. 27, 1857.]

ART. 23. The owner of a patent must work the patented article or cause it to be worked in Belgium within one year from the commencement of working abroad.

Nevertheless the Government may, by a royal decree stating reasons, inserted in the Moniteur before the expiration of that term, grant a prolongation of one year at most.

At the expiration of the first year, or of the extension which may have been granted, the patent shall be annulled by a royal decree. The annulment shall likewise be pronounced when the patented article, worked abroad, shall have ceased to be worked in Belgium during the year, unless the owner of the patent justifies the causes of his inaction.

[ocr errors]

ART. 24. A patent shall be declared void by the tribunals for the following reasons:

(a) When it shall be proved that the patented article has been employed, put into use or worked, by a third party within the kingdom for a commercial purpose, before the legal date of the invention, importation or improvement.

(b) When the patentee in the description annexed to his application shall intentionally have omitted to make mention of a part of his secret, or shall have indicated it in an incorrect manner.

(c) When it shall be proved that the complete description and exact drawings of the patented article were, prior to the date of the deposit, brought out in a work or printed and published collection, unless as regards patents of importation that publication may be exclusively the result of a legal requirement.

ART. 25. A patent of invention shall be declared void by the tribunals in the event of the article for which it was granted having been previously patented in Belgium or abroad.

However, should the applicant possess the qualification required by Article 14, his patent can be maintained as a patent of importation according to the terms of the said article.

These provisions shall, the case arising, be applied to patents of improvement.

ART. 26. When the nullity or forfeiture of a patent shall have been pronounced according to the terms of Articles 24 and 25, by judg ment or final decree, the cancellation of the patent shall be proclaimed by a royal decree.

The following are approved:

I. The additional act modifying the Convention of the 20th of March, 1883, and the annexed protocol, and concluded at Brussels on the 14th of December, 1900, between Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Spain, the United States of America, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal, Servia, Sweden, Switzerland and Tunis.

[blocks in formation]

PATENTS WORKING " WAR MEASURES ". OFFICIAL STATEMENT.

[Translation.]

[Principles applied in matters concerning the avoidance of Belgian patents that have not been worked within the prescribed term.]

According to a communication from the Chief of Administration attached to the Governor General of Belgium, the following principles are applied in matters concerning Belgian patents that have not been worked within the prescribed term:

(1) There are no judicial or administrative tribunals qualified to pronounce the avoidance of patents, other than the Government, and, for the moment, the Governor General.

(2) According to the revised Convention of Paris of June 2, 1911, to which Belgium has adhered, a patent may be stricken with avoidance for reason of non-working only after a term of three years counted from the deposit of the application, and only in case the patentee shall not justify the reasons of his inaction.

(3) If the non-working of the patent is due to a case of force majeure, there shall be no reason for pronouncing its avoidance. The war shall be considered as a case of force majeure.

(4) In administrative practice, the proof that patents have been worked is not required in general. If, in exceptional cases, this proof is looked upon as necessary, it is the Administration that shall initiate the procedure. This latter shall then render its decision by keeping in view all the circumstances.

(Translated from 33 La Propriété Industrielle, June, 1917, p. 70, which credits Blatt für Patent-, Muster- und Zeichenwesen, 1916, p. 128.)

[Law of the 9th of December, 1901, so far as it relates to patents.]

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »