the invention in the country to a suitable extent, or to do everything necessary to insure such working. The withdrawal may in this case take place not earlier than after the expiration of three years from the date of the publication of grant of the patent in the patent journal. This time limit shall not hold good if the patentee or his legal successor, notwithstanding the invention is being worked abroad and the public interest requires working also in the country, continue to satisfy the native demand exclusively, or to the greatest extent, by importation instead of by production to a proper extent in the country.

If a patent ought to be withdrawn before the expiration of three years from the date of the publication of the grant in the Patent Journal, the withdrawal shall be preceded by a threat, stating the grounds and fixing a suitable term for the adequate working of the invention. This term should not end before the expiration of three years from the date of the application for the patent.

The withdrawal shall become operative on the day on which the decision of withdrawal becomes legally valid. If, however, the withdrawal have been preceded by a threat, the withdrawal shall become operative on the last day of the term for legal working as fixed in the threat, such day being set out in the decision of withdrawal.

[NOTE. These two paragraphs were substituted by the act of the 29th of December, 1908, and came into force six months after that date.]

These provisions shall not apply to Government or War Office patents.

ANNULMENT.

SEC. 28. A patent shall be declared void when it appears:

1. That the subject was not patentable according to sections 1, 2, or 3.

2. That the invention is the subject of a patent or privilege of an earlier applicant.

If one of these assumptions (1 and 2) only partially obtain, the declaration of nullity shall consist of a corresponding restriction of the patent.

The legally operative declaration of nullity of a patent shall date back to the date of the application for the patent. In the case of paragraph 2, the license rights legally given by the later applicant, and in good faith acquired and entered one year previously on the register of patents by third persons, which are affected by no legally grounded litigation caveat (sec. 25), shall, however, remain unaffected by this retrospective action, without prejudice to the compensation claim arising therefrom, against the later applicant.

FORFEITURE.

SEC. 29. The patent shall be forfeited by a patentee if it be shown: 1. That the patentee is not the author of the invention, or his legal successor, or is not to be regarded as such (sec. 5); or

2. That the essential contents of the application have been taken from the description, drawings, models, tools, or apparatus of another, or from a process used by him, without his consent.

If one of these assumptions (1 and 2) only partially obtain, the patent shall only be partially forfeited by the patentee.

The claim for the forfeiture of a patent shall, in the first case, be made only by the author, his legal successors, and those who in the sense of section 5 are to be regarded as the author, in the second case only by the injured party, and is limited against the patentee in good faith to within three years from the date of his entry in the register of patents.

The reciprocal claims for compensation and reclamation, arising out of the forfeiture, shall be decided according to the civil code, and be enforced by a civil suit.

If the author or the injured party be successful, it shall be open to him, within thirty days after delivery of the legally valid decision of forfeiture, to demand the transfer of the patent to himself.

The omission of such a demand of transfer in time shall be held equivalent to renunciation of the patent.

License rights legally given by the former patentee, in good faith acquired by third persons, and entered in the register of patents one year previously, shall, in so far as they are not affected by any legally grounded litigation caveat (sec. 25), and without prejudice to the compensation claim arising therefrom against the original patentee, remain valid in the case of such a patent transfer also against the new owner of the patent.

DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCY.

SEC. 30. The owner of a patent may apply at the Patent Office for a decision that the industrial application of a patented invention involves the whole or partial use of his invention. The Patent Office shall decide concerning such a request under the proceedings provided for in the opposition process.

RIGHT OF RETALIATION.

SEC. 31. A right of retaliation may be brought into action by order of the whole Ministry against subjects of a foreign State which grant incomplete or no protection to the inventions of Austrian subjects.

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA.

SEC. 32. With regard to the validity of the patents granted under this law in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the regulations issued upon the basis of the law of the 20th of December, 1879, shall apply.

II. PATENT AUTHORITIES, JOURNALS, AND INSTITUTIONS.

FUNCTIONS OF THE PATENT OFFICE.

SEC. 33. The grant, withdrawal, declaration of nullity, forfeiture, and the declaration of dependency, the decision concerning the relative inefficacy of a patent (sec. 9), the decision concerning infringement (sec. 111) and the granting of licenses (sec. 21), and also all entries in the register of patents, shall rest with the Patent Office.

The Patent Office shall further, upon request of the court, be under the obligation of giving written opinions upon questions concerning patents, if in legal proceedings differing opinions from experts have been submitted.

SEAT AND COMPOSITION OF THE PATENT OFFICE.

SEC. 34. The Patent Office shall have its seat at Vienna.

It shall consist of a president, his deputies, and of the necessary number of legal and technical members as councillors.

The members shall be partly permanent, partly non-permanent. The president, as also the chairman of the appeal and annulment departments (sec. 36), shall be versed in the law.

The president, his deputy, and the permanent members shall be salaried Government officials.

The non-permanent members shall enjoy functional pay.

The organization of the Patent Office shall be determined by regulation.

SEC. 35. The president, his deputy, and the members of the Patent Office shall, upon the proposal of the Minister of Commerce, be nominated by the Emperor.

The appointment of the non-permanent members shall be for a term of five years; after its expiration they may be reappointed.

The Patent Office shall form, with reference to its outward business relations, an independent office. With reference to its supreme direction, it shall stand directly under the Minister of Commerce, who shall also appoint its staff.

DEPARTMENTS.

SEC. 36. In the Patent Office there shall be formed:

1. Application departments for patent applications, assignments, mortgages, voluntarily granted licenses, declarations of dependency (sec. 4), and litigation caveats.

2. Appeal departments for appeals, and

3. An annulment department for requests for withdrawal, nullity, forfeiture, and declarations of dependency (sec. 30) of patents, for decisions concerning the relative inefficacy of a patent, for applications for decisions as to infringement, and for requests for the grant of compulsory licenses.

DECISIONS IN THE DEPARTMENTS.

SEC. 37. The application departments shall form their decisions at sittings of three permanent members, including the chairman, amongst whom there shall be (if it do not concern decisions in the sense of sec. 40) two technical members present.

The final decisions of the appeal departments and the annulment department shall be given by a quorum of two members versed in the law, inclusive of the chairman, and of three technical members. The presence of three members, of whom two shall be technical members, shall suffice in the intermediate decisions in both these departments. Experts who are not members may be called in to advise; these shall not take part in the voting.

The orders prepared for a preliminary decision or a decision shall in all departments be given in the name of the same by the referee intrusted with the matter, if necessary with the concurrence of a technical member.

The preliminary decisions and the decisions shall result from an absolute majority of votes. With an equality of votes the vote of the chairman shall be decisive.

The preliminary decisions and the decisions shall be given in the name of the Patent Office, shall be accompanied by reasons, be given in writing, and shall be officially sent to all parties concerned.

ORDER OF PROCEDURE OF THE PATENT OFFICE.

SEC. 38. The order of procedure of the Patent Office shall, so far as this law does not otherwise provide, be regulated by means of ordinances by the Minister of Commerce, and, if other departmental Ministers appear to be concerned, in agreement with them.

APPEALS AGAINST THE PRELIMINARY DECISIONS AND DECISIONS OF THE

DEPARTMENTS.

SEC. 39. Appeals against the decisions of the application departments shall be to the appeal department. The same shall, unless other provisions in the law be provided for special cases, be handed in at the Patent Office within thirty days after delivery of the decision.

No member shall take part in the deliberation concerning the appeal who has taken part in the decision appealed against.

No further legal action, such as an appeal to the administration courts, shall lie against the decisions (intermediate and final) of the appeal departments.

An appeal shall lie to the Patent Court against the final decisions of the annulment department.

A separate appeal or complaint against the orders of the referee, prepared for a decision of an application department, or a decision of the appeal department or annulment department, shall not be permitted.

A separate appeal also against the intermediate decisions of the annulment department shall not be allowed; nevertheless an alteration of the orders prepared by the referee in all three departments, as also in the intermediate decision of the appeal department and annulment department, may be proposed by the department in question itself.

DECISIONS AND APPEALS RELATING TO ENTRIES ON THE REGISTER.

SEC. 40. The decisions of the Patent Office concerning entries in the register of patents in accordance with sections 9, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, and 25, and also in the register of patent agents in accordance with section 43, shall be given by an application department to be composed of three members versed in the law. All interested parties shall be informed of the decisions.

An appeal may be raised against the decision within thirty days after delivery.

The appeal shall be, excepting in the case reserved to the Ministry of Commerce in section 43, to the appeal department of the Patent Office.

PATENT COURT.

SEC. 41. A Patent Court shall be appointed in Vienna as an appeal court against the decisions of the annulment department of the Patent Office.

The same shall consist of a president or a president of the senate of the Supreme Court and Court of Cassation as president and chair