The previous user may demand that his privilege shall be acknowledged by the owner of the patent by the drawing up of a document. Should this acknowledgment be refused, the Patent Office shall upon request decide concerning the demand raised, in the manner provided for the opposition process. The granted privilege shall be entered on the patent register at the request of the owner.

SEC. 10. The War Office shall have the right, in agreement with the Minister of Commerce, to, for their needs, make use of, or through their trade agents allow use to be made of, inventions which relate to weapons of war, explosives or munitions, fortifications or ships of war, necessary for the improvement of military craft, without it. being possible to enforce as against the War Office any rights arising from the patent granted.

In so far as an agreement is not come to concerning a fair compensation between the owner of the patent and the War Office with the consent of the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Finance shall decide thereon in agreement with the Minister of Commerce and the War Office.

The exercise of the right of use appertaining to the War Office shall not be dependent upon the course of this negotiation.

SEC. 11. If it shall appear, even after the grant of a patent for an invention, that its subject in a certain method of its application is reserved for a State monopoly, the patent shall, with regard to this method of application, have no effect against the Government or War Office.

SEC. 12. A patent shall have no effect against vessels or vehicles, and against fittings on vessels or vehicles, which only temporarily come into the country upon occasion of their use in trade.

RELATION OF SEVERAL PATENTEES TO EACH OTHER.

SEC. 13. A patent applied for by several persons as joint owners of the same invention shall be granted to the same without defining their interests.

The legal relations of the joint owners to a patent amongst themselves shall be decided by common law.

The right to grant third persons the use of the invention shall, in case of doubt, belong only to the united joint owners; each for himself shall, however, have the right legally to proceed against infringement of the patent.

TERM OF THE PATENT.

SEC. 14. The term of the patent shall be fifteen years; the currency of this term commences with the date of the notice of the invention in the patent journal (sec. 57.)

Patents of addition shall expire with the mother patent. A patent of addition may, however, expressly be upheld as an independent patent if the mother patent be withdrawn, declared void, or renounced. Its term shall then be determined by the date of commencement of the mother patent. With regard to the date on which the yearly taxes fall due, and the amount thereof, the patent of addition which has become independent shall take the place of the mother patent.

EXPROPRIATION.

SEC. 15. If the interest of the armed forces, or the public welfare, or other cogent interest of State require that an invention for which. a patent has been applied for or already granted shall be wholly or partially used by the Government or War Office, or given up to the public use, the Government or War Office shall be authorized wholly or partially to expropriate this patent or the right to the use of the invention, against suitable indemnity determined by the judgment of the political district court in Vienna, and to use or to give up to general use the invention upon the ground of the judgment of expropriation.

If there be danger in delay, the Government or War Office may, on preliminary permission of the said political district court, and on the ground of a presented request for expropriation, at once use or give up to public use the invention, upon condition, however, that this be ratified by a subsequent judgment of expropriation.

Besides the patentee, those persons also who are already legally entitled to the use of the invention shall, in case they are now deprived of the same, be paid a suitable compensation out of the State treasury.

With respect to the amount of compensation, it shall be the aim to come to an understanding between the applicant for the patent or the patentee and the possible licensees to use; should such not be brought about, the decision concerning the claim for compensation shall be for the court, with the concurrence, if necessary, of experts. The patentee shall have the right to choose one of the experts. In determining the amount of compensation, in all cases, regard shall only be had to the effect which the expropriation of the patent will have relatively to this country.

The negotiation concerning the amount of compensation shall have no restrictive action on the enjoyment of the right to the use of the invention to which the Government or War Office lay claim, for itself or for the people.

Interested parties entered in the register of patents shall be immediately informed by the Patent Office of such a claim to a patent.

DEPENDENCE OF THE PATENT ON EXISTING LAWS.

SEC. 16. The grant of a patent shall in no way absolve the owner from the observance of legal provisions which exist, or may be made, for considerations of public health, safety, or morality, or in the general interests of the State.

SEC. 17. The author of an invention, or his legal successor, in so far as he limits himself to the use of the patented invention, shall, without prejudice to the provisions of section 16, not be bound by the prescriptions in force relating to the entry into trades.

TRANSFERS.

SEC. 18. Rights arising from the application for a patent and patent rights shall pass to the heirs; this right shall not be escheated. Both rights may be transferred to another, wholly or in any proportions, by legal deed, judicial decision, or testamentary disposition. Registration of the transfer (sec. 23) necessary for the acquisition of the patent right shall be effected by the Patent Office, upon judicial requisition, or upon a written request for transfer by one of the parties concerned. The transfer document shall be produced, together with the request for transfer; the signature of the assignor upon the former shall, if it do not possess the character of a public document, be authenticated.

The request for transfer and the transfer document shall undergo examination at the Patent Office as to form and contents.

If the right arising out of an application for a patent be transferred, the patent shall, if granted, and if both the request for transfer and the transfer document be in accordance with the aforesaid requirements, be issued to the legal successor of the applicant.

MORTGAGE.

SEC. 19. The patent right may form the subject of a mortgage.

VOLUNTARY LICENSES.

SEC. 20. The patentee shall be entitled to make over the use of the invention to third parties for the entire province of the patent, or for a portion of the same, with or without the exclusion of other licenses to use (license).

COMPULSORY LICENSES.

SEC. 21. The owner of a patent for an invention which, without using an invention previously patented, can not be turned to account,

shall be entitled to demand from the owner of the latter the grant of a license to use the same, if from the date of the publication of the grant of the earlier patent in the patent journal three years have elapsed, and the later invention be of considerable commercial importance.

A license granted shall entitle the owner of the earlier patent also on his side to demand a license from the subsequent patentee, which shall empower him to use the later invention, under the condition, however, that this latter stands in positive connection with the earlier invention.

If it shall appear that the grant to another of the permission to use an invention be in the public interest, any one, even if the assumptions of paragraphs 1 and 2 do not apply, and if his personal trustworthiness be shown, shall be entitled, after the expiration of three years from the date of the publication of the grant of the patent in the patent journal, to demand from the patentee permission to use the invention for his business.

If in these cases the license be refused by the patentee the Patent Office shall decide concerning the demand made, and shall determine, in case of the grant of the license, the compensation to be given, the guarantee, and also any further conditions of use, regard being had to the nature of the invention and the circumstances of the case.

If the decision be concerning the grant of a license in the public interest, the Patent Office shall obtain the views of the Ministries concerned upon the question of the existence of the public interest, and make these views the basis of its own decision.

The foregoing provisions shall not apply to patents of the Government or War Office.

TRANSFER OF LICENSES.

SEC. 22. A license granted by the patentee or Patent Office ́shall without the permission of the patentee only be assignable by the licensee to living persons, together with the business for which the license is granted, and shall only then pass by death to the legal successor of the licensee if the undertaking for which the license was granted be carried on by such successor.

EFFECT OF ENTRY IN THE REGISTER OF PATENTS.

SEC. 23. The patent right (sec. 18), the mortgage right, and other rights accruing on patent rights shall be acquired and become effective against third parties on their entry in the register of patents.

The provisions of the civil code shall apply respecting the date of the acquisition of the license rights. As against third parties, the

license rights shall only operate on their entry in the register of patents.

The priority of the aforesaid rights shall be decided by the sequence of the arrival at the Patent Office of the requests for registration, on the assumption that the request leads to registration.

Requests arriving at the same time shall enjoy equal priority.

DUTIES.

SEC. 24. Any person acquiring a patent shall take over the obligations attaching to it which at the date of the lodging of the request for registration at the Patent Office are apparent from the register of patents, or have been duly ordered to be registered.

LITIGATION CAVEATS.

SEC. 25. Suits pending at the courts which concern the ownership of a patent, a mortgage right, as well as any other right accruing on a patent, and also the request for the grant of licenses (sec. 21), the withdrawal, annulment, forfeiture, dependency or decision concerning the relative inefficacy of a patent, may upon request form the subject of a litigation caveat in the register of patents.

The litigation caveat shall have the effect that the decision shall also be fully effective against those persons who only after the date of the arrival at the Patent Office of the request for a litigation caveat have obtained registration in the register of patents.

EXPIRATION.

SEC. 26. A patent shall be void:

1. Provided the payment of the yearly taxes have been properly made, at the latest at the end of the fifteenth year.

2. If the yearly taxes have not been properly paid into the cash office of the Patent Office, or at a Post Office of the country for conveyance to the same.

3. If the patentee renounce the same.

If the renunciation concern only certain portions of the patent, the patent shall be valid in respect of the remaining portions, provided these can still form the subject of an independent patent.

In the cases of expiration caused by effluxion of time (1 and 2) the same shall operate from the day following the expiration of the last year of validity, in the case of renunciation (3) from the day following the giving notice of the renunciation at the Patent Office.

WITHDRAWAL.

SEC. 27. A patent may be wholly or partially withdrawn if the patentee or his legal successor neglect to work, or allow to be worked,