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TENNESSEE.- Mortgages must be acknowledged or proved and registered in the county where the mortgagor resides, or, if he be a non-resident, where the property is situated. If the mortgage contain a power of sale, it may be foreclosed in accordance therewith; if not, it is foreclosed by bill in equity.

TEXAS. A chattel mortgage must be filed in the office of the clerk of the county where the mortgagor resides, or, if a non-resident, where the property is situated. It is foreclosed by suit, and the property is sold under decree of the court. If the property is removed from the county without the mortgagee's consent, the latter is entitled to immediate possession and sale, whether the debt is due or not.

UTAH. A chattel mortgage must be accompanied by an affidavit of the parties that it is made in good faith to secure the sum named, and not intended to hinder or delay creditors, and be witnessed, and filed with the recorder in the county where the mortgagor resides, or, if he be a non-resident, where the property is situated. Within thirty days before the expiration of each year an affidavit of the mortgagee, or his agent, showing his interest in the property and the amount due must be filed. No mortgage is valid for more than five years. If it contain a power of sale, it may be foreclosed by the sale of the property without legal proceedings, provided certain statutory provisions as to notice, etc., are complied with; otherwise the foreclosure will be by suit.

VERMONT.-Mortgages of personal property must be recorded in the office of the clerk of the town where the mortgagor resides, or, if he be a non-resident, where the property is situated, and must be accompanied by an affidavit, subscribed by the mortgagor and mortgagee, that the mortgage is made for the purpose of securing the debt specified in the condition thereof, and for no other purpose whatever, and that the same is a just debt, honestly due, and owing to the mortgagee. At any time after thirty days from the time of condition broken, the mortgagee may cause the property to be sold at public auction by a public officer in the town where the mortgagor resides, or where the property is situated, provided notice of the time, place, and purpose of the sale has been posted in two or more public places in such town ten days previously, and ten days' notice in writing given to the mortgagor. Any surplus is paid to the mortgagor, or applied on subsequent mortgages, if there be any such. The officer must make return of his doings to be filed and recorded when the mortgage is recorded.

VIRGINIA.-Chattel mortgages are executed, acknowledged, and recorded in the same manner as deeds of real estate (see Deeds). Chattel mortgages are usually given as deeds of trust, in which case they may be foreclosed by the trustee according to the terms of the mortgage, without the intervention of the courts.

WASHINGTON.- A mortgage of personal property must be accompanied by the affidavit of mortgagor that it is made in good faith, and without design to hinder, delay, or defraud creditors, and must be acknowledged and filed within ten days in the office of the county auditor of the county where the property is situated; if for three hundred dollars or more it may also be recorded in the same manner as a deed of real estate. It ceases to be notice unless within two years after it becomes due mortgagee files affidavit of amount due. The mortgagee may on default, or previously if he has reasonable ground to believe that the security is endangered, have the property

taken and sold by the sheriff. Notice of the time and place of sale and amount due must be served on the mortgagor, and like notice must be given of the sale as of sales on execution. If the right to foreclose or amount due is disputed, the proceedings may be transferred to the district court, or the foreclosure may be made by suit in court in the first instance.

WEST VIRGINIA.-Chattel mortgages require the same formalities as deeds of real estate, must be executed under seal or scroll, acknowledged, or else proved by two witnesses, and recorded in the county where the property is. Chattel mort. gages are seldom used, and are foreclosed in court of equity after decree. Deeds of trust usually take their place, and, after default, the trustee may sell the property, after due notice, without recourse to the courts.

WISCONSIN.-The mortgage, or a copy, is to be filed in the office of the clerk of the town, city, or village where the mortgagor resides, or if he is a non-resident, where the property is; and every two years, within thirty days before the expiration thereof, the mortgagee must file an affidavit showing his interest in the mortgaged property. After condition broken, the mortgagee may take possession of the property and at the expiration of five days sell the same, and any surplus over the debt and costs must be returned to the mortgagor. Mortgages of marked logs must be recorded in the office of the lumber inspector of the district where the marks are recorded. Mortgages of exempt property or household furniture must be signed by the mortgagor's wife in the presence of two witnesses.

WYOMING.—A chattel mortgage must be executed and acknowledged like conveyances of real estate, and filed in the clerk's office of the county where the property is situated. It is then valid for six months after the expiration of the term for which it was given, but may at or before the expiration of the six months be renewed for another year by filing an affidavit setting forth the mortgagee's interest in the mortgage, and may be further renewed annually in the same manner. It is foreclosed by sale at public auction, after three weeks' advertisement of the time and place of such sale. Chattel mortgages may be made to secure future advances.

For Statutes of Hawaii, the Philippines and Porto Rico see Appendix.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE LAW OF PATENTS

WHAT MAY BE PATENTED.

Section 4,886 of the Revised Statutes of the United States provides that "any person who has invented or discovered any new and useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, not known or used by others in this country before his invention or discovery thereof, and not patented or described in any printed publication in this or any foreign country, before his invention or discovery thereof, or more than two years prior to his application, and not in public use or on sale in this country for more than two years prior to his application, unless the same is proved to have been abandoned, may, upon payment of the fees required by law, and other due proceeding had, obtain a patent therefor."

In case of the death of the inventor, his legal representa tives will be entitled to apply for and receive the patent.

Joint inventors are entitled to a joint patent, but neither can claim one separately.

An alien may obtain a patent on the same terms as a citizen. Merely conceiving the idea of a machine or improvement is not such an "invention" or "discovery" as will prevent subsequent inventor from obtaining a patent.

In order to have this effect, the alleged prior invention must have been reduced to a practical form, capable of actual use; and, in most cases, actual use itself is also held to be necessary.

Nor will the fact of prior use or invention abroad prevent the issue of the patent, unless the invention has been patented or described in some printed publication.

As between two rival inventors, however, the rule is that he who first conceives the idea of an invention, and uses reasonable diligence in reducing it to practice, is the prior inventor as against one whose conception of the idea was later, though he was the first to reduce it to practice. In such case, drawings, models, or even oral descriptions may be used for the purpose of proving the date of the conception of the invention.

Patents are now granted for the term of seventeen years, and confer on the patentee, his legal representatives and assigns, the exclusive right to make, use, and vend the invention throughout the United States during that time.

It is of the utmost importance that the description of the invention in every patent should be clear and accurate, and that the claim should cover neither more nor less than the actual invention. This is the more important, as the right to surrender and re-issue a patent on account of defects in these respects, has recently been greatly limited by the courts.

We therefore earnestly advise every inventor to employ some skillful and experienced solicitor to procure his patent for him whenever it is possible for him to do so.

As it sometime happens, however, that this cannot be done, we insert the following general instructions. Printed copies of Patent Laws, Rules of Practice and Forms may be obtained gratis by writing to the Commissioner of Patents.

Mode of Proceeding to Obtain a Patent.

APPLICATION.

'All applications must be completed for examination within one year after the filing of the petition; and, in default, all such will be regarded as abandoned, unless it be satisfactorily proved to the office that such delay was unavoidable. The application must be made by the actual inventor, if alive, even if the patent is to issue to an assignee; but, where the inventor is dead, the application and oath may be made by the executor or administrator. The application must be in writing, in the English language, signed by the applicant, and addressed to the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. The following is a suitable form, which may serve as a useful guide, but must be varied according to circumstances:

(244.)

Form of Petition

TO THE COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS:

Your petitioner, A. B., a citizen of the United States, residing at S., in the County of M. and State of N. [or a subject of, etc.], whose postoffice address is prays that letters patent be granted to him for the imA. B.

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, set forth in the annexed specification.

SPECIFICATION.

The specification is a written description of the invention or discovery and of the manner and process of making, constructing, or compounding, and using the same, and is required to be in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it appertains, or with which t is most nearly connected, to make, construct, or compound, and use the same. It must conclude with a specific and distinct claim or claims of the part, improvement, or combination which the applicant regards as his invention or discovery.

In all applications for mere improvements, the specification must distinguish between what is admitted to be old and what is described and claimed to be the improvement, so that the office and the public may understand exactly for what the patent is granted.

Two or more distinct and separate inventions may not be claimed in one application; but where several inventions have a necessary and dependent connection with each other, so that all coöperate in attaining the end which is sought, they may be so claimed. If more than one invention is claimed in a single application, and they are found to be such that a single patent may not be issued to cover the whole, the inventor must divide the application into separate applications, or confine the claim to whichever invention he may elect.

The specification must be signed by the inventor (or by his executor or administrator, if the inventor be dead), and attested by two witnesses. It should describe the sections of the drawings (where there are drawings), and refer by letters and figures to the different parts.

The rules of the Patent Office recommend that the following order of arrangement should be observed, when convenient, in traming the specification;

(1) Preamble giving the name and residence of the applicant, the title of the invention, and if the invention has been patented in any country, a statement of the country or countries in which it has been patented, and the dates and numbers of such patents.

(2) General statement of the object and nature of the invention;

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