JUNE, 1883.

SINCE this edition was printed, a Government Patent Bill has, as usual, been brought before the British Parliament. It is, however, very doubtful whether it will be passed. The Brazillian Government have passed their new Patent Law. The following should

therefore be substituted for the article on Brazil.

BRAZIL.

(Population, 10,200,000.)

Any new industrial product, or new process, or new application of old process for obtaining an industrial product or result, or improvement on an existing patented invention, can be patented.

By new is meant unpublished in any country, and not in commercial use before application for a patent. Patents of Invention are granted for fifteen years. Patents for improvements on existing patents are granted to expire with existing patent.

The government can at any time purchase the patent at a valuation.

An invention patented abroad can be protected in Brazil by the inventor within seven months of date of original foreign patent, notwithstanding any publication during the interim between the date of the foreign patent and date of patent in Brazil; and such. patent takes priority over an application by another inventor for the same invention during said interim, but expires with the original foreign patent.

Provisional protection is granted, if desired, before patenting, but this is of little or no value except to residents.

Two or more inventions cannot be protected under one patent.

There is an examination before grant, stricter in the case of Chemical, Alimentary, or Pharmaceutical Patents than with others, but only with a view of ascertaining if the documents are in order, whether they are dangerous to public health, security, law, or morality, and whether they are for patentable inventions.

The invention must be worked in a bonâ fide manner in the empire within three years of the date of the patent, and to such an extent as to supply the wants of the country at reasonable rates, and such working must not be suspended except by cause of force majeur (a state of siege, for instance, preventing the working), on pain of forfeiture of the patent rights over that portion of the territory that, in the opinion of the authorities, was not properly supplied.

It is an infringement of the patent to make, sell, conceal, receive for the purposes of sale, or import the patented article, or use the patented process, and the penalty for such infringement is a fine of from $500 to $5,000 and 10 to 50 per cent. of the real and constructive damages (and the forfeiture to the patentee, in aggravated cases, of the counterfeit articles and plant for their manufacture).

Co-patentees have equal and independent rights to use the invention.

There is a fine of from $100 to $500 for the use of the word "Patent," or its equivalent, for any unpatented article, or article for which the patent has expired.

All Patents of Invention become void unless the annual tax be paid fully. This, with agency charges, comes to £4 ($20) at end of first year; £5 ($25) at end of second year, and so on increasing £1 ($5) each

year.

Average cost of patent of invention £45.
Average cost of patent of addition £40.

W. P. THOMPSON,

CIVIL ENGINEER AND CHEMIST.

A. J. BOULT, MECHANICAL ENGINEER.

W. P. THOMPSON & Co.,

Solicitors of British and Foreign Patents and of Designs and Trade-Marks Registration,

6, LORD STREET, LIVERPOOL,

AND

323, HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON. BRANCH OFFICES OR SPECIAL AGENTS IN NEARLY EVERY CAPITAL IN THE WORLD.

PATENTS secured on the most moderate terms compatible with thorough painstaking execution. Chemical Patents a speciality at the Liverpool Office.

The inventor's attendance in Liverpool or London is unnecessary, as the business can generally be done by corre spondence. W. P. T. & Co. are, however, always glad to have personal interviews with their clients.

Inventors wishing to patent an idea, should send us an accurate description of it, stating whether they have made a search themselves, or whether they require it made for them. They will receive an answer by return of post as to whether it be a patentable idea, and if so, what will be the exact cost of completely protecting it (including search, drawings, &c.) No charge made for such report; and all communications kept inviolably secret. Carriage of Models, &c., must, however, be prepaid, or they will be returned unopened.

Abridgments of all English Patent Specifications, and of all existing American ones, with plates, are kept on file at 6, Lord Street, Liverpool. (The only Office it is believed in England, except the Commissioners of Patents Library, where these latter can be seen.)

An exact copy of all Trade-marks registered in Great Britain, under the new law, is also kept on file at the above office.

NOTE.-WM. P. THOMPSON & Co. have, they believe, at the present time, altogether the largest provincial Patent and Trade-marks practice in England.