patent cannot be obtained if applied for after the issue of the American patent, or the printing or publication of the English final specification.

A patent gives the owner the right to restrain others from manufacturing, trading in, or importing the article or using the process patented.

Anyone who has already used the invention in Germany before the date of the application for the patent, can continue to use it, even though such prior use has been kept secret.

Two separate inventions cannot be secured under one patent. This rule is rigorously enforced.

The Imperial and State Governments have a right to use the invention patented for Imperial or State purposes, but the patentee can claim compensation for such use. Such compensation, if not mutually arranged, can be obtained by applying to the courts of law.

A patent lasts for fifteen years from its date, subject, however, to an annual tax of 50 marks at the end of the first year, 100 at the end of the second, and so on increasing 50 marks each year. This, with agency charges, will come to £3 10s. ($17-50c.), £6 5s. ($31-25c.), £9 ($45), and so on, increasing £2 15s. ($13.75c.) each year.

An inventor can at any time obtain a patent for further improvements on his (existing) patent, for the same price as an original patent, to expire with the original patent. In this case the two patents are considered one in the eye of the law, and only a single set of annual taxes is required for the two.

A patentee is bound to arrange for the working of his patent in Germany, within three years of the date of grant thereof, on pain of forfeiture, and should licences be required, for the public interest the patentee is bound to grant them at a reasonable royalty. This rule is liberally interpreted; the being prepared to supply the demand is sufficient, and, if there be no

demand, the patent need not be worked till a demand springs up.

Persons not residing in Germany can make their application through a duly qualified agent or proxy residing in Germany, whose name is entered on the Patent Office records as representative of the patentee in all actions at law relative to the patent. (This is usually the correspondent of their patent-agent at home.)

The Patent Office is situated in Berlin, and its staff is composed of examiners appointed by the Imperial Chancellor and Federal Council. These examiners have power to call in experts.

The inventor must thoroughly explain the invention by specification, and such drawings, types, models, and patterns as may be required to make it clear. These are examined by the examiners, and if objected to, the applicant or his agent can alter them to suit before being published. Models are only occasionally required except in the case of guns, when they are invariably demanded. If the examiners disapprove of the application from any cause, their objections are put in writing and forwarded to the applicant; the applicant has then the option of rearranging his case to meet the objection or of appealing to the board of examiners.

In practice but one revision or one appeal is allowed; if returned unsatisfactory to the examiners, or rejected on appeal, there is practically no resource for saving the patent but the very expensive one of an appeal to the Supreme Imperial Tribunal of Commerce, or, if still unpublished, applying afresh for a patent. Many very valuable inventions are thus thrown open to the public, while others utterly puerile and worthless pass with ease.

Any one, during the eight weeks immediately following the date of publication, can oppose the grant of the invention on the grounds of fraud or want of novelty.

In case of opposition, all interested parties have the right of hearing at the Patent Office.

Should no opposition take place, the patent is officially granted.

The decisions of the Patent Office may be appealed against at the Supreme Imperial Tribunal of Commerce, provided the appeal be made within six weeks of the giving of the decision.

Deliberately and wilfully infringing a patent is a criminal offence, and the infringer is liable to a fine of not exceeding £250 ($1,250), or imprisonment for one year at most, besides damages to the injured party.

In criminal cases the injured party is entitled to publish the sentence at the cost of the condemned party, and in all cases may, beside the penalty, demand an amercement of £500 ($2,500) at most from the condemned party in lieu of damages.

No action can be brought for any infringement that took place more than three years before the date of the action.

A fine of £7 10s. ($37.50c.), or imprisonment, is incurred by any one falsely representing a thing to be patented, or by marking articles or casks, advertizing, or otherwise doing anything to induce people to believe that an unpatented article is patented.

All German state patents existing prior to July, 1877, are subject only to the laws of their respective states, and continue in force as heretofore.

During the existence, however, of any patent granted in any German state prior to July, 1877, the owner has the option of getting an Imperial patent for the invention operative over the whole of Germany, provided the invention be one that, at the date of application for the separate state patent, could have been pronounced patentable under the present Imperial law.*

* Subject also to the right of those already using it to continue such use.

In such cases the Imperial patent is dated and held in every respect as if applied for at the date of the earliest dated individual state patent for the same invention, and an Imperial tax must be paid before the grant of the German patent equal to the estimated next annual tax of an Imperial patent bearing the date of the original patent.

It will be seen at once that as German patents are published almost immediately after application, and are granted irrespective of the duration of foreign patents, it is best in all cases to apply for English, French, Austrian and other patents before or simultaneously with the German one. Printed copies of his own patent specification, and drawings, can be obtained by a patentee immediately after grant at almost cost price.

In December, 1880, the number of patents issued since the opening of the Patent Office at Berlin, July, 1877, had reached 14,000, and probably quite as many more had been applied for and refused.

The usual cost of a German patent is £15 to £20 ($75 to $100).

GUATEMALA.

(Population, 1,200,000.)

This republic grants patents for new inventions for a term of years, differing with each patent.

There is

a preliminary examination, but the patent is usually allowed, and kept secret. Cost, about £52.

GUIANA (BRITISH).

(Population 200,000.)

The original inventor can obtain a patent for any invention not yet at work in British Guiana, to last

fourteen years, subject to a stamp duty of £20 ($100), before the end of the seventh year; but liable to be declared null and void on the expiration of any prior foreign (or British) patent. Very few patents are taken out, and these chiefly agricultural.

Cost provisionally one year, £25 ($125). Completing same £80 ($150).

GREECE.

(Population, 1,700,000.)

A special act of Legislature is required to obtain a patent. Very few are applied for, but the cost varies from £40 to £50 ($200 to $250).

HOLLAND.

(Population, 4,000,000.)

No patents of any kind are allowed, but there are strong efforts now being made to introduce a patent law again.

INDIA (BRITISH).

(Population, 191,000,000, or, with native states, 238,000,000.)

Duration of patent fourteen years, with renewal on petition for another term of fourteen years, at the option of the Governor-General in Council. None but the actual inventor, his assignee, or legal representative, can obtain a patent. The invention must be new, by which is meant, neither published nor used in the United Kingdom or India previous to application. If, however, it should appear that it had become known or