Handbook of Patent Law of All Countries

commenced to be manufactured in the realm within the year, but the patterns for casting from may be made elsewhere. The construction of the machine, however, if only partially completed before the year closes, and completed and worked afterwards, is sufficient to satisfy the law. If, however, it is for a method or process of manufacture, the entire method or process must be worked. Till the year 1880 this rule was most absurdly enforced. In the case of an invention for a method of destroying ironclads, the inventor was obliged to destroy an ironclad within the year, and go through at least a material part of the process biennially afterwards, in Austrian waters, on pain of losing his patent! As, however, patents contrary to law and order, or the interests of the state, are not allowable, patents for warlike inventions are usually either not granted at all, or, like General Uchatius' gun, are appropriated by government and the patentees rewarded; or, if thought of no value, are refused altogether. There is no law prohibiting the importation of the patented article by the inventor; he can do so to any extent.

A synopsis of the invention is forwarded to each provincial registry office, and chamber of trade and commerce, and is published in a monthly and annual government book or journal.

The day and hour of application settles the priority of the announced discovery or invention; and except in the case of imported inventions, the first applicant is the true and lawful owner of the invention, whether he be the inventor or not.

Patents are granted without question as to novelty or utility, provided the application papers are in order and fully describe the invention.

The Ministry of Trades and Commerce are the sole judges of the validity of a patent.

The following constitute infringements :-The manu

facture, importation, exhibition or storage for sale of articles made in accordance with the specification, or using the process described therein. Infringements must be prosecuted in the district court in whose jurisdiction the infringement took place; an appeal lies to the provincial courts, but should the judgment of a lower court be confirmed by a higher, no further appeal is allowed.

The penalty for a first infringement of a published patent, or a second infringement of a secret one, is a fine of from £2 10s. ($12.50c.) to £100 ($500), or imprisonment of from five days to two hundred days. Also the confiscation or destruction of all tools or plant used specially for carrying on the infringement, and damages according to assessment. All fines go to the poor-box of the district.

For a first infringement of a secret patent, the only penalty is an injunction from further infringement, and the obligation to give the patentee such security as the court sees fit, against further infringement. Breach of trust or confidence is always held as aggravation of the offence.

Obtaining a knowledge of an invention by fraud, and patenting the same, constitutes a criminal offence. Petitions for prolongation must be made during the continuance of the patent, or cannot be allowed. About 1,200 patents are secured yearly.

ence in price between the two periods, plus £4 ($20); thus to change a five years' patent to an eleven years', would be £61 +4-28 = £37 ($305 + 20 — 140 · 185). Cost of proving working, applicant paying cost of actual manufacture, about £6 ($30).

BELGIUM.

(Population 5,500,000.)

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All inventors, Belgian or alien, except citizens of countries not granting reciprocity to Belgians, and practically others beside the true and first inventor, can obtain valid patents for inventions, provided they be new. If a man employs another to invent, the employer is legally the inventor. Heirs or executors of a dead inventor can patent the invention imparted to them by the deceased.

All patents applied for, if the documents are in proper form and the fees paid, are granted without examination as to novelty, and without guarantee of th government as to sufficiency, novelty, validity, or merit.

Any invention, discovery, or improvement, susceptible of being worked as an object of industry or commerce, can be patented; mere changes in form, quantity, material, or colour, cannot be patented unless productive of a new result.

In a combination producing a new result, the combination can be patented, but not the new result, and any one finding a new way of effecting that new result, can obtain a valid independent patent for the new combination.

A discovery to be validly patentable must exist through human intervention-thus the discovery of a new mineral cannot be patented; the discovery that gas can be purified by passing it over a certain chemical can be validly protected.

Medical appliances, medicines and inventions for a

curative or health-preserving object, cannot be patented in Belgium, but bottles, capsules, and cases of surgical instruments, can be validly protected.

So can veterinary medicines as such, but the patented article can be made and used for human beings without infringing on the patent.

Artistic and literary productions cannot be patented, but are perfectly protected under the decree 19 to 24 July, 1793.

The prior existence of a much inferior process, but substantially the same in many respects, though not in all, will not invalidate the patent.

If a part be proved old, and another part of the invention be new, and the combination new, even if all three be claimed separately, the entire patent is not nullified, but only that portion claiming the old part taken separately; the new part and the combination being still validly patented.

Patents are of three kinds : Patents of Invention, Patents of Addition, and Patents of Importation. Except in the case of Patents of Importation, a patent is null and void, 1st, if the invention has been accurately described in any printed book, circular, printed picture, or photograph, in any country before the date of the patent. 2nd.--If it has been worked in the kingdom by other than the inventor or those holding rights under him, before the date of the patent. 3rd.--If there be in existence in Belgium or abroad a valid patent of prior date for the same invention.

A valid patent of importation granted only for the duration of an existing prior foreign patent, for the same invention, can, however, be obtained by the patentee of the said prior foreign patent, or his assigns, so long as it has not been worked commercially in Belgium by parties not holding rights under the said patentee, or his agents or assigns, more than a year previous to date of application for the Belgian

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ence in price between the two periods, plus £4 ($20); thus to change a five years' patent to an eleven years', would be £61 +4-28 = £37 ($305 +20 140 185). Cost of proving working, applicant paying cost of actual manufacture, about £6 ($30).