INFRINGEMENT OF A PATENTED PROCESS.

SEC. 110. If in an action for infringement brought before a civil judge an infringement of an invention, which has for its object a process for the production of a new material, be in question, every material of like properties shall, until proof to the contrary be given, be regarded as produced according to the patented process.

APPLICATION FOR DECISION AS TO INFRINGEMENT.

SEC. 111. It shall be open to any person to have established by decision whether products which he wishes to manufacture, bring into the market, or use, or whether a process which he intends to employ, does or does not come either wholly or partially under a given patent mentioned by him.

This application for a decision as to infringement shall be made in writing, in duplicate, at the Patent Office, the annulment department of which shall decide thereon. An exact and clear description and drawing in triplicate of the article in question or process shall be annexed.

Such application for decision as to infringement shall only be made with reference to one patent, together with its patents of addition, and the proceedings instituted shall only then be prosecuted if the owner of the patent be not able to show that an action for infringement relating to the same matter in dispute, brought by him against the applicant before the bringing of his application, is still pending.

The procedure concerning an application for decision as to infringement shall be regulated according to the regulations made for nullity procedure, except that the costs of the suit of the application as to infringement before the Patent Office shall in all cases be borne by the applicant.

A copy of the description and drawing of the article or process in question, furnished by the applicant, shall be annexed to the decision as to infringement.

A legally valid decision that a given product or process does not fall within a given patent shall exclude any legal step for infringement with reference to the product or process mentioned in the decision on the part of the owner of the patent against the person who obtained the decision.

COMPENSATION FOR UNJUSTIFIABLE PROCEEDINGS FOR OBTAINING

SECURITY.

SEC. 112. The obtaining of legal precautionary measures for security, subsequently acknowledged as not justified, imposes upon the

applicant the duty of compensating all third parties for damage caused through no fault of theirs by such precautionary measures. The civil judge shall, simultaneously with his decision on the main question, pronounce concerning these claims for compensation, provided they are made good before the termination of the procedure for infringement. In estimating the amount of compensation, the provisions of section 273 of the law of the 1st of August, 1895, shall be taken into consideration.

USURPATION OF A PATENT.

SEC. 113. Usurpation of a patent is committed:

1. By the person, who provides, and brings into the market, articles or their packages having such a designation as is calculated to cause the erroneous belief that the articles or the method of production are protected under this law by a patent.

2. By the person who in public announcements, shop bills, trade cards, or in similar publications, makes use of a designation which is calculated to cause the erroneous belief that the articles, or the method of production, mentioned therein are protected under this law by a patent.

The usurpation of a patent shall constitute an offense, which shall be punished according to the provisions of the trade regulations, and the publications in question and the packages provided with the illegal designation shall be adjudged confiscated, but the articles themselves shall only be forfeited when the removal of the usurped designation, which shall invariably take place, can not be carried out without destroying the value of the article, or without an amount of trouble nearly corresponding to this value. If in these cases the offender were the owner of a patent, which has expired, for the article which he gives out as still protected by patent, the liability to punishment for his offense shall only commence after the expiration of one year from the expiration of the protection by patent.

V. TAXES.

APPLICATION TAX AND ANNUAL FEES.

SEC. 114. An application tax of 10 florins shall be paid on every patent, as also on every patent of addition, immediately on application.

In addition an annual fee shall be paid on every patent, the amount being dependent upon the term of patent protection demanded.

On a patent of addition the annual fee shall only be paid once for its whole term, and this to the amount of 25 florins, in addition to the application fee, unless it be declared an independent patent (sec. 14).

The annual fees shall be payable from year to year in advance, reckoned from the date of the notice of the application in the patent journal (sec. 57), and may be paid for a patent in advance, either annually or for several or the whole fifteen years together, into the treasury of the Patent Office.

The annual fee for the first year shall be paid at latest within three months after the date of the publication of the application in the Patent Journal (sec. 57). If the payment be not made within this period, the application shall be regarded as withdrawn.

The yearly fees for the second to the fifteenth year shall be paid within three months after falling due. An additional fee of 5 florins on a granted patent shall be paid, besides the annual fee, for every payment made after the date of the falling due of these annual fees. The annual fees may be paid by any person interested in the patent.

A person who is able to demonstrate his poverty, and also a workman who is proved to be limited to his work wage, may, if he apply for the patent for himself as author of the invention, be respited as regards the application tax and the annual fee for the first patent year, or it may be only the first annual fee, until the expiration of three months after the falling due of the second annual fee, and if the patent lapse with the commencement of the second year he shall be excused payment altogether.

An application tax paid shall never be refunded, the first annual fee only if the application be withdrawn before the date of its publication in the Patent Journal (sec. 57) or if the patent applied for be refused; all further payments of annual fees not yet due shall be refunded if the patent be renounced or if the same be withdrawn or declared null.

The Minister of Commerce may, after three years from the coming into force of this law, with the concurrence of the Minister of

Finance, order a decrease or increase of the application and annual fees to the extent of 50 per cent of their present amount.

ALTERATION OF THE SPECIFICATION.

SEC. 115. Every subsequent alteration of the specification made at the request of the applicant or his legal successor under section 52 shall be subject to a tax of 5 florins.

PROCEDURE TAXES.

SEC. 116. Simultaneously with the lodging of the following applications there shall be paid a tax:

1. For an appeal (sec. 63).

2. For a demand for withdrawal, declaration of nullity, or forfeiture (sec. 67)

Florins.

10

25

3. For an appeal (sec. 87)

25

4. For an application for decision as to infringement (sec. 111)_.

20

5. For a request for the registration of an assignment in the register of patents

10

6. For a request for the registration

(a) of a license granted voluntarily (secs. 20 and 21) in the register
of patents

10

(b) Of a compulsory license granted by the Patent Office (sec. 21) in
the register of patents.-

For a request for a litigaton caveat (sec 25).

If payment be omitted, the demand shall be regarded as not having been made.

The appeal fee (1) shall be wholly remitted if the appeal be found to be justified; 15 florins shall be remitted from the fees mentioned under 2, 3, and 4 if the matter be referred back or if the proceedings instituted do not come to a verbal hearing.

STAMP DUTIES.

SEC. 117. Letters Patent issued under this law shall be free of stamp duty. Otherwise all other documents and copies shall remain subject to the existing provisions of the stamp and tax law.

EXEMPTIONS FROM STAMPS.

SEC. 118. Those who are able to prove poverty, and also workmen who are proved to be limited to their work wage, may be exempted from the payment of the fees payable under sections 115 and 116, Nos. 1, 2, and 3.

The president of the Patent Office shall be the final judge hereon, and also concerning the delay and exemption allowed, under section 114, of the application tax and the first annual fee.

VI.

TRANSITORY PROVISIONS.

SEC. 119. The provisions of the Imperial decree of the 15th of August, 1852, and, the case occurring, of the law of the 27th of December, 1893, shall further remain in force for patents already granted or pending on the date of the entry into force of this law.

SEC. 120. Applications for patents which, on the date of the entry into force of this law, were applied for but not granted under the Imperial decree of the 15th of August, 1852, may, on the applicant applying in due time, be proceeded with after (if necessary) paying the increase under the provisions of this law. In this case the said application shall, in so far as the specification of the same meets the demands of section 12 of the above named Imperial decree, enjoy priority from the date of the original lodging of the request.

In the examination into novelty in the sense of section 3 of this law, the novelty shall be judged by this date of priority. The amount of the patent tax paid on such patent requests shall, for patents granted upon such requests, be increased to the amount fixed in section 114 for the application tax and the corresponding annual fee, and shall be paid within three months from the date of the publication of the specification in the Patent Journal, in default of which the request shall be regarded as withdrawn. In this case the patent tax paid shall, after deduction of the application tax of 10 florins, be repaid to the applicant.

SEC. 121. The owner of a patent granted under the Imperial decree of the 15th of August, 1852, shall be free to apply to convert the privilege into a patent under the provisions of this law.

In this case the invention shall undergo the proceedings for examination into novelty and opposition, in which the date of priority shall commence from the date of application for the patent.

An application tax for such converted patent shall not be paid, if the conversion be applied for within one year from the date of the entry into force of this law.

The term of the patent which has already run shall be taken into consideration in fixing the term of the transformed patent.

The original date of grant of the patent shall determine the date when the annual fees are due and the amount thereof.

The annual fees, payable, in advance, on the transformed patent, and not yet due, shall, on the neglect of the owner of the transformed patent to pay the corresponding annual fee when due, be increased to the amount of the yearly fee actually due. Should such patent have been originally granted in Hungary the registration taxes, payable in advance but not yet due, shall be augmented to the amount of