man, a councilor of the Ministry of Commerce, two court councilors of the Supreme Court and Court of Cassation, or their deputies, and of three technical members as assessors.

The members of the Patent Court and their deputies shall be appointed by the Emperor for a period of five years, upon the proposal of the Minister of Commerce in agreement with the ministries concerned. They may be reappointed.

During their term of office the provisions of Article 6 of the statute law concerning judicial authority, and the law of the 21st of May, 1868, for carrying out the same, shall apply to the members of the Patent Court.

The members of the Patent Court shall enjoy functional pay.

The three technical members shall be chosen for each case from the list of the technical members nominated from time to time by the president of the Patent Court.

The assistants and persons attached to the court shall be furnished by the Minister of Commerce.

GROUNDS OF EXCLUSION.

SEC. 42. Members of the Patent Office and the Patent Court shall be debarred from cooperation:

1. In patent matters in which they themselves are parties, or as to which they stand to one of the parties in the relation of a partner, co-obligator, or person liable to redress.

2. In patent matters of their wives, or such persons to whom they are related in a direct line, or related by marriage, or to whom they are related in collateral lineage to the fourth degree, or related by marriage to the second degree.

3. In patent matters of their adoptive or foster parents, adoptive or foster children, or their wards.

4. In patent matters in which they represent or have represented one of the parties, or respecting which they experience or have in view a material loss or gain.

Members of the Patent Court shall further be excluded in patent matters in which they took part at the formulating of the decisions of the Patent Office.

PATENT AGENTS.

SEC. 43. Advocates, officially authorized private technical persons, patent agents, and persons finding the capital, shall alone be authorized to professionally represent parties before the authorities in patent matters.

The officially authorized private technical persons, as also the patent agents, shall, however, be prohibited from professionally representing parties in litigation, concerning the withdrawal, annulment, or forfeiture of a patent, or privilege, and also in all nontechnical matters.

Patent agents shall be appointed by the Patent Office, in proportion to requirements, with the concurrence of the trade authorities.

The practice of patent agency shall be dependent on the entry of the agents in the register of patent agents, conducted by the Patent Office. This entry shall be published in the patent journal.

Every such entry shall be subjected to a tax of 100 florins. Patent agents shall only be appointed from amongst those persons who:

1. Are of age.

2. Are Austrian subjects and reside in the country.

3. Have not been sentenced for an offense or crime committed for gain, or such like transgression.

4. Are able to show adequate technical qualification, by production of a diploma, or the proof of a successful prescribed State examination in a native technical high school, in a high school for agriculture, in a mining college, or in a faculty of philosophy of a native university, or a successful examination of equal importance in an analogous foreign high school of the same standing.

5. Have had at least two years' practice with a native patent" agent; and

6. Prove by a successful examination, before the Patent Office, after completion of their practice, their familiarity with the provisions of native and foreign patent laws.

The tax for the examination in patent laws shall be 20 florins. Patent agents shall be subjected to the disciplinary authority of the Patent Office.

In the case of the temporary or permanent incapacity of a patent agent to conduct the business carried on by him, the Patent Office shall be empowered if necessary to appoint a substitute for carrying on, or winding up, his business.

An appeal to the Ministry of Commerce against the refusal to enter on the register of patent agents shall be open to the person concerned within thirty days after delivery of the decision.

The issue of detailed provisions concerning the organization of the Institution of Patent Agents, and concerning disciplinary proceedings against patent agents, shall be determined by the regulating powers of the Minister of Commerce, in agreement with the Minister. of the Interior. The decision whether a successful examination in a foreign high school be equal in importance to the successful State examination in an analogous native high school (clause 4 of this sec

tion) shall concern the Minister of Commerce in agreement with the Minister for Culture and Education and the Minister for Agriculture.

PATENT JOURNAL.

SEC. 44. A patent journal shall be published periodically by the Patent Office, in which shall appear the publications provided for in this law.

The establishment and publication of this journal shall be determined by the regulating powers of the Minister of Commerce.

REGISTER OF PATENTS.

SEC. 45. A register of patents shall be kept by the Patent Office, which shall contain the successive numbers, the subject and the term of the patents granted, and also the names, occupation, and residence of the patentees and their representatives. The commencement, expiration, lapsing, opposition, withdrawal, declaration of nullity, and forfeiture of the patent, the expropriation thereof, the declaration of independence of a patent of addition, also the declaration of dependency of a patent, and also the transfer of a patent, license grants, mortgage rights, any other right accruing on a patent, the inefficacy of a patent with regard to a prior user (sec. 9), the decisions concerning requests for decision as to infringement (sec. 111), and litigation caveats, shall appear in the register.

The descriptions, drawings, models, and samples belonging to existing patents, also the requests and documents forming the basis of entries in the register, shall be preserved by the Patent Office in special archives.

Inspection of the register of patents, and of the descriptions, drawings, models, and samples, upon the basis of which the patent was granted, also inspection of the requests and documents, and also the taking of abstracts and copies, shall, in so far as it does not concern an unpublished patent belonging to the Government or War Office (sec. 65), be free to everybody. The Patent Office shall arrange for the publication of all alterations which concern the duration and ownership of a patent.

The Patent Office shall publish the descriptions and drawings of granted patents, in so far as their inspection is free to everybody, in separate printed specifications (patent specifications).

The Patent Office shall, upon request, give certified documents concerning entries in the register.

FINES.

SEC. 46. Fines and penalties imposed by the Patent Office shall go to the State treasury.

DELIVERY.

SEC. 47. The delivery of documents from the Patent Office shall take place officially, by servants of the Patent Office, or through the post.

In the case of a patentee who for a time possesses no representative in the country, or whose residence in the country is unknown, the Patent Office may, if necessary, appoint a trustee to represent him, delivery to whom shall be as valid as to the patentee himself.

III. PROCEDURE—(A) IN THE GRANTING OF PATENTS.

PATENT APPLICATIONS.

SEC. 48. Application for the purpose of obtaining a patent for an invention shall be made at the Patent Office in the written form prescribed, either by personal delivery or through the post.

The date of the delivery of the application at the Patent Office shall be deemed to be the date of application.

EXTENT OF THE APPLICATION.

SEC. 49. The combination of two or more inventions in a single application shall only be permitted if these inventions be related as component parts of, or as means of carrying out, the same object.

APPLICATION PETITION.

SEC. 50. The application shall contain:

1. The Christian and surnames, the occupation and residence of the applicant for the patent, and, if the request be lodged through a representative resident in the country, the same particulars also respecting such agent.

2. The request for the grant of the patent.

3. A short appropriate designation of the invention to be patented (title).

4. The number of years for which the applicant intends to pay the yearly fee before the grant of the patent.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS TO THE APPLICATION.

SEC. 51. The application shall be accompanied by:

1. The application tax of 10 florins (sec. 114), or the receipt for the payment of this tax at a post office for remittance to the treasury of the Patent Office.

2. A power appointing a representative, in the case of the applicant for a patent lodging his application through the latter.

3. The specification of the invention, prepared according to the provisions of this law (sec. 52), in duplicate, signed by the applicant for the patent or his representative.

PATENT SPECIFICATION.

SEC. 52. The patent specification shall:

1. Describe the invention in such a clear, lucid, and complete manner that the use of the invention is thereby rendered possible to persons versed in the art.

2. Exactly and distinctly indicate, by one or several claims at the end of the description, that which is novel and consequently forms the subject of the patent.

3. Comprise such drawings, prepared in a durable manner, as may be necessary for the understanding of the description, and, if necessary, also be accompanied by models and samples.

Alterations in the statements contained in the description may be made until the Patent Office have decided to publish the application. With reference to alterations in the essence of the invention, the Patent Office (application department), after hearing the persons interested, may decide that the application shall date only from the time of making these alterations (sec. 54).

FURTHER REQUIREMENTS IN THE APPLICATION.

SEC. 53. The creation of further requirements in the application and patent specification shall be determined by the regulating powers of the Minister of Commerce, with the concurrence if necessary of the departmental minister concerned.

PRIORITY.

SEC. 54. The applicant shall acquire right to priority for his invention from the date of the regular application for a patent (secs. 48-53).

He shall, commencing with this date, enjoy priority as against any other similar invention applied for later.

If the application be defective, it may, after removal of the defects in proper time (sec. 55), be regarded as having been regularly made at the date of its first delivery, in so far as the removal of the defects leaves unaltered the essence of the invention.

If the removal of the defects in proper time cause an alteration by way of addition in the essence of the invention, the invention shall only be deemed to have been regularly lodged at the date of the removal of the defects, and shall enjoy the right to priority from this date only.