ing from August 1, 1914, for the duration of hostilities and until dates that shall be fixed later by decree. The benefit of this suspension may be claimed only by subjects of the Union whose country has granted or shall grant the same favor to the French and to French protégés. ART. 8. Subjects of the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires may, either by reason of their origin or of their family ties, or by reason of services that they have rendered to France, be excepted from the application of the provisions of the present law. A decree shall determine the conditions of this exception, which shall be proclaimed by ordinance of the civil tribunal rendered on request of the Public Minister. ART. 9. The provisions of the present law shall be applicable to Algiers and to the colonies of Reunion, Guadaloupe, and Martinique. It shall become valid by special decree in whatever concerns the other colonies and the countries under protection. 1 FRANCE-UNITED STATES. PATENTS WORKING SUSPENSION OF TERMS RECIPROCITY-OFFICIAL INTERPRETATION.1 [Translation.] The International Bureau, for the enlightment of inquirers, made inquiry of the French Administration of Industrial Property (Query No. 139) as to whether, "the legislation of the United States, not recognizing the obligation to work patented inventions, it might be admitted that American citizens that possess patents in France could avail themselves, notwithstanding, of the suspension of working terms provided by decree of August 14, 1914." 2 The reply of the French Administration (La Propriété Industrielle, August, 1915), translated, is as follows: "The interpretation of laws and decrees pertains in France exclusively to the courts. However, for countries such as the United States, where legislation imposes no obligation to work patents of invention, it would not appear doubtful that the condition of reciprocity, required by the laws of May 27, 1915, is naturally found fulfilled without there being need of any special act, and consequently, citizens of the United States shall ipso facto continue to benefit in France by the suspension of working terms provided by the decree of August 14, 1914.” 1 See also 13 P. & T. M. Rev., 268. 2 For translation of this decree see 13 P. & T. M. Rev., 296. 3 For translation of this decree see 12 P. & T. M. Rev., 357. FRANCE. 66 ATENTS OF INTEREST TO NATIONAL DEFENSE- WAR MEASURES [Translation.] [Law relative to inventions of interest to the national defense.] The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies have adopted, The President of the Republic promulgates the law whereof the ext follows: ARTICLE 1. In modification of the provisions of the first article of the law of July 5, 1844, the Ministers of War and Navy may be authorized by decree, on condition of an adequate indemnity, to pay o inventors or to their assignees, grantees, or exclusive licencees; to expropriate or have exploited, either in the workshops of the State, (or) in private industrial shops, inventions of interest to the national defense, being the subject of patent applications or of patents granted. The Ministers of War and Navy, as well as the Minister of Public Instruction, of Fine Arts, and of Inventions of Interest to the National Defense, are, for this purpose, authorized to have inquiry made at the National Office of Industrial Property concerning all patent applications filed. The decree shall involve, according to the case, the absolute and final expropriation, or the partial or temporary dispossession of the exclusive right of exploitation of the invention reserved to the inventor. It shall be issued after due notice by a commission named by decree and composed of a Counsellor of State, President, a representative of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, a representative of the Ministry of War, a representative of the Ministry of Navy, and a representative of the Ministry of Public Instruction, of Fine Arts and of Inventions of Interest to the National Defense, the last three having but a single vote. If it is a matter of an invention for which the patent has not yet been delivered, the decree may determine that it shall be suspended on delivery and on publication thereof; The indemnity to be paid to the inventor shall be fixed by private agreement, or, if there be disagreement, by three arbiters, named, one by the Ministry or Ministers interested, another by the inventor, and the third by the two others, or, in default of agreement, by the First President of the Court of Appeals of Paris. The first two arbiters shall be named within the month that succeeds the notification of the decree to the inventor; on failure of agreement between the arbiters in the designation of the third arbiter, the First President shall be appealed to by the more diligent party for the purpose of making a nomination. The arbiters must render their decision within the term of two months counting from the constitution of the arbitral tribunal. The arbitral tribunal shall decide without appeal as to the amount of indemnity to be allowed to the inventor and upon the methods of payment; its decision shall not be susceptible of appeal except to the Court of Cassation on the ground of deficient formalities. The expenses of arbitration shall be borne by the State. ART. 2. By reason of the state of war, when the publication of an invention wherefor a patent application has been filed is susceptible of presenting dangers or inconveniences for the national defense, a decision of the Minister of Commerce and Industry, made on the recommendation of the Commission provided for in the foregoing article, may prohibit any disclosure or exploitation of the said invention. This decision is notified to the inventor or to his attorney within the term of two months counting from the filing of the patent application, and, for all applications under consideration, within a term of three months counting from the promulgation of the present law. The delivery, as well as the official publication of the patent and of the specification of the invention, shall remain, the matter being completed, provisionally suspended. No official copy of the documents filed accompanying the patent application shall be delivered in the future, unless validly accepted reasons be furnished concerning the destination of the copy applied for. ART. 3. Every Frenchman or foreigner admitted to domicile is prohibited from filing abroad, either directly or through attorney, any patent application being the subject of the provisions of Articles 1 and 2. The same persons are likewise prohibited from depositing abroad any patent application for any invention pertaining to the navy or to navigation, aerostation or aviation, armament, artillery, or military engineering, telegraphy or telephony, powders or explosives, asphyxiating and inflammable materials, and generally to any object susceptible of interesting the army or navy, as well as disclosing or exploiting abroad any invention relative to an object of this character. However, a French or foreign inventor may, through special decision of the Minister of Commerce, on the recommendation of the Commission provided in the preceding articles, be authorized to file in an allied or neutral country a patent application concerning an invention contemplated in the present law, and, the case allowed, to there exploit the said invention. The decision shall be made within a term that shall not exceed three months counting from the application to this effect presented at the National Office of Industrial Property. ART. 4. Every breach of the provisions of the present law shall be punishable by the penalties provided in Article 2 of the law of April 18, 1886, concerning espionage, whether it has been committed in France or abroad. ART. 5. The present law shall remain applicable for the duration of the war and until a date that shall be fixed by decree on the cessation of hostilities. The present law, deliberated and adopted by the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, shall be executed as a law of the State. Done at Paris, April 12, 1916. (Signatures of Ministers.) (Signed) R. POINCARÉ. (From Journal Officiel de la République Française, Apr. 14, 1916.) GERMANY. [Law of the 7th of April, 1891.] We, William, by the Grace of God, German Emperor, King of Prussia, etc., ordain, in the name of the Empire, and with the consent of the Federal Council and Imperial Parliament, as follows: ARTICLE I. In place of sections 1 to 40 of the Patent Law of the 25th of May, 1877 (Imperial Gazette, p. 501), the following enactments are substituted: FIRST SECTION.-PATENT LAW. SECTION 1. Patents are granted for new inventions which allow of industrial application. Excepted are: (1) Inventions the application of which is contrary to the laws or public morals. (2) Inventions relating to articles of food, whether for nourishment or for enjoyment, and medicines, as also substances prepared by chemical processes in so far as the inventions do not relate to a definite process for the preparation thereof. SEC. 2. An invention is not considered new if at the time of applying for a patent under this law it have already been described in printed publications of the last hundred years in such manner or have been so publicly used within the realm, that its use by other experts appears possible. The foreign official publication of the specifications shall only be considered as printed publications after the end of three months from the date of issue, if the patent be applied for by the person who has applied for the patent abroad, or by his legal representative. This concession, however, only extends to the patent specifications of those States in which, according to a publication in the Imperial Gazette, reciprocity is guaranteed. SEC. 3. The person who first applies for a patent in accordance with this law is entitled to the grant of the patent. A later application shall not give a right to a patent if the invention form the subject of the patent of the prior applicant. If this supposition be partially a fact, the later applicant has the right only to a patent of corresponding limitation. An applicant has no right to the grant of the patent if the essential parts of his application have been taken from the descriptions, drawings, models, apparatus, or arrangements of another, or from |