manufacture or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement on any art, machine, manufacture or composition of matter not known or used by others before his or their invention or discovery thereof, and not at the time of his application for a patent in public use or on sale with his consent or allowance, shall desire to obtain an exclusive property therein, may make application to the commissioner of patents, expressing such desire, and the commissioner may grant a patent therefor. The applicant must deliver a written description of his invention or discovery, and the manner or process of making, constructing, using and compounding it, in such full, clear and exact terms, as to enable any person skilled in the art or science to which it appertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make, construct, compound or use the same; and in case of a machine, he must fully explain the principle and the modes in which he has contemplated the application of that principle or character by which it may be distinguished from other inventions, and particularly point out the part, improvement, or combination, which he claims as his own invention or discovery, and accompany the whole with drawings and written references, where the nature of the case admits of drawings, or with specimens of ingredients or of the composition of matter, sufficient for the purpose of experiment, where the invention or dis

covery is of a composition of matter, which descriptions and drawings must be signed by the inventor in presence of two witnesses; and he must furnish a model in all cases which admit of a representation by model, of a convenient size to exhibit advantageously its several parts. He must make oath that he verily believes that he is the original first inventor or discoverer of the art, machine, composition or improvement, and that he does not know or believe that it was ever before known or used; and of what country he is a citizen. s. 6. The commissioner, unless on examination it shall appear that a prior invention of the thing has been made, or that any part had been before invented or patented, or that a description of the invention had been printed in any publication in this or any foreign country, or that the description is defective, shall issue a patent; but if the claim appears to be subject to any of those objections, he shall give the applicant notice thereof; he may thereupon withdraw his application and receive back two thirds of the fee paid by him previously, relinquishing his model, if he has deposited one; or, if he persist in his claim, without making such alteration as to obviate the objections, may be submitted to a board of three examiners appointed by the secretary of state, one of them

it

24 Varied from former acts 1793. s. 3. 1800. s. 1.

skilled in the art or manufacture to which the invention appertains, on the applicant's advancing twentyfive dollars towards their fees, by whose award or that of a majority of them the commissioner is to be governed as to issuing a patent.25 s. 7. So an application which the commissioner supposes to interfere with another application, or an existing patent, may be referred to the examiners. An appli

cant is not precluded from taking out a patent by reason of his having taken out one abroad and its having been published within six months preceding his application. The patent may be dated from the time of the filing of the specification and application, if the applicant wishes, not exceeding six months before the issuing, and his specification and application may at his request, in the mean time, be filed secretly in the office, and notice be given him of any interfering applications.26 s. 8. The applicant, if a citizen, or an alien having resided in the United States for a year preceding his application and made oath of his intention to become a citizen, must, on applying for a patent, pay into the treasury of the United States or one of its banks of deposite, thirty dollars; if a subject of Great Britain, five hundred dollars; if of any other country three

25 This provision is new.

26 New.

hundred dollars. s. 9. In case of the death of the inventor his personal representatives may take out a patent. s. 10. The whole patent, or any share, or the exclusive right for any district," may be assigned by writing to be recorded in the patent office within three months from the time of its execution. s. 11. Any citizen or such resident alien who has made an invention which he desires further time to mature, may file a caveat in the patent office entitling him for one year to notice of any interfering application; but if notice of such application be given him he must specify and file drawings and a model within three months. The specifications and drawings of the subsequent applicant are in such case filed secretly in the office. If on filing the specification the applications appear to the commissioner of patents to interfere with each other, proceedings may be had before a board of examiners as above, but no decision of said board in any case precludes any person from contesting the validity of any patent in any action. s. 12.28 A patent that is invalid by reason of the specification being defective through inadvertency, mistake or accident, and without any fraudulent or deceptive intention, may be surrendered and a

27 New.

28 Whole section new.

6

new one taken out in its stead. The patentee may add to his patent any new improvement, by filing a specification of it and having such specification annexed to his patent. s. 13.29 If the plaintiff recover a verdict in action for an infringement, the court may, at its discretion, increase, not more than treble, it. s. 14.30 In a suit for an infringement the defendant may plead the general issue and give in evidence any special matter of defence of which notice in writing may have been given to the plaintiff or his attorney thirty days before trial, tending to show that the specification does not contain the whole truth respecting the invention, or that it contains more than is necessary to produce the effect described, which concealment or addition must appear to have been made for the purpose of deceiving the public, or that the patentee was not the original inventor, or that the invention had been described in some public work, anterior to the supposed invention by the patentee; or had been in public use; or that it had been on sale with the consent and allowance of the patentee, before his application for a patent; or that he had unjustly or surreptitiously obtained a patent for the discovery of another person, who was using due diligence in perfecting the same; or that the patentee, if an alien had neglect

29 Last part new.

30 Formerly trebled of course, act of 1800. c. 25. s. 3.