ventor and attested by two witnesses, and must be accompanied by a drawing or model.

Just what constitutes an invention, depends upon the state of the art. Anything which is frivolous, mischievous, dangerous or immoral cannot be called useful. The question of priority is decided in the patent office by what is known as an interference, and in the courts by suits for infringement. The time intervening between the conception of an idea and its perfection is immaterial, but due diligence should be used.1

522. Transfer of patent.-Patents may be conveyed by an assignment, grant or mortgage. An assignment must be in writing, and may convey either the whole or an undivided interest in the patent. The patentee may also grant a license which should be in writing and filed in the patent office.

Caveats, which were notices filed by an inventor in the secret archives of the patent office and which set forth the object and distinguishing features of proposed inventions, and prevented the grant of a patent to another person for a similar invention for a period of one year unless notice was first given to the caveator, have been abolished by a recent enactment of Congress.

523. Copyrights. A copyright is the exclusive right granted by Congress to authors, artists, dramatists, designers and composers to publish their work orally, or in writing, printing, etc., provided the provisions of the copyright law are carefully carried out. The present copyright law went into effect July 1, 1909.2 It is unnecessary to dwell at length on the provisions of this

1 Inventors may obtain a copy of the patent laws of the United States with the rules of practice from the commissioner of patents, Washington, D. C. Great care should be exercised in describing patents, and a reputable patent attorney should always be consulted.

2 Copies can be obtained from the copyright office.

law or the procedure to be followed in carrying out its provisions.

524. Government classification. The law and other rules and directions supplied by the copyright office are self-explanatory and should be procured and carefully studied by any person desiring to obtain or extend a copyright. In writing, designate which of the following classes of articles it is desired to copyright, and the correct blank form (which must be used) will be forwarded.

1. Books, including composite and cyclopædic works, directories, gazeteers, and other compilations;

2. Periodicals, including newspapers;

3. Lectures, sermons, addresses prepared for oral delivery;

4. Dramatic and dramatico-musical compositions; 5. Musical compositions;

6. Maps;

7. Works of art, models or designs for works of art; 8. Reproductions of works of art;

9. Drawings or plastic works of a scientific or technical character;

10. Photographs;

11. Prints and pictorial illustrations.

A work that is not to be published may be copyrighted. The term of copyright under the present law is twenty-eight years, with a renewal period of twentyeight years.

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525. Estates in personal property. The law recognizes various kinds and quantities of estates in personal property, just as it does in real property. It may be owned by several persons as joint tenants, as tenants in

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The copyright act and rules of Canada can be obtained by writing to the Department of Agriculture, Dominion of Canada.

common, as partners, as tenants by the entireties or in community. One person may own a life interest or estate in personal property with a remainder or reversion in another. Corporeal personal property may be used by the life tenant, but money or securities are usually invested and the income only paid to the tenant for life. Law regards the remainderman as being entitled only to what is left at the death of the life tenant, if in the ordinary use of personal property it is partly consumed.

526. Loss of property.—The finder of lost property may appropriate it, in which event he will have a title good against all but the true owner. Mislaid prop

erty should not be confounded with lost property.

EXAMPLES

403. A visits an art gallery and leaves a muff on a settee. B takes the muff to the superintendent and says she will keep it until the owner applies for it. The superintendent claims the right of custody. A's property has been mislaid but not lost, and the superintendent, therefore, acting for the museum has the right to act as bailee for the true owner.

404. If in the above example B had found the muff on the street, she could not be compelled by any person, but A or her authorized representatives, to give up the property.

527. Advertisement by finder.-The rights of finders of lost property are often regulated by statutes, which sometimes require the finder to advertise the fact of finding. If the true owner cannot be found, the finder's title will become perfect, but in some states statutes direct that the property or its proceeds shall go in part or in whole to some public fund. The finder of a lost article may not claim a reward for returning it to the owner, if none has been promised, and he may not hold

it for the value of his services in keeping it. In most states the rights of finders of lost cattle are regulated by statute.

The following section (1300) of the Penal Law of New York is representative of the law in most states:

A person who finds lost property under circumstances which give him knowledge or means of inquiring as to the true owner, and who appropriates such property to his own use, or to the use of another person who is not entitled thereto, without having first made every reasonable effort to find the owner and restore the property to him, is guilty of larceny.

528. Treasure-trove.-Treasure-trove is a term used to indicate money, coin, or bullion that has been hidden or concealed. In most states treasure-trove is looked upon as lost property, and belongs to the finder. Until recently, the finder of treasure-trove or other lost articles had a better right to the property than did the owner of the lands where the property was discovered, but it is now held in England that where a person has possession of property the presumption is that the possession or right to possession of something found there, is in the owner, and not in an employé of the owner, or in a stranger who may happen to find it.1

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EXAMPLES

405. X employs A to dig a cellar on X's property. A finds a box containing money in the ground. By the weight of authority the property belongs to A instead of to X. This case assumes, of course, that nobody knows who placed the box in the ground.

406. A, who is employed by X to rake cinders over X's property, the cinders having been purchased by X, finds a 1 South Staffordshire Water Works v. Sharman, 1896, 2 Q. B. 44.

gold spoon amongst the cinders. A is entitled to the spoon as against X.

529. Acquisition by occupancy.-If one appropriates personal property that belonged previously to no one, or that had been abandoned by a previous owner, he obtains title to it by occupancy. The former method of acquiring property is illustrated by the capture of wild animals and by the drawing of fish from the ocean. The recovery of treasure lost at sea, and abandoned by the owner illustrates the second method of acquiring property.

530. Property in animals.—Animals are regarded as either wild or domestic.

be

The right to hunt, capture and kill wild animals belongs to the owner of the land on which they may be found. A wild animal that is captured and kept in captivity is the property of the possessor. It may permitted to wander, but if it returns, it will still be regarded by the law as the property of the person to whom it thus returns. But an animal which regains its natural liberty may be hunted, captured or killed by a stranger. Hence, property in wild animals is said to be qualified, for title may be divested by an act of the animal.

The owners of animals are bound to take notice of dangerous or mischievous propensities. It is often said that "a dog is entitled to his first bite"; by this is meant that until a dog has bitten a person, or in some other way shown a vicious disposition, the owner cannot be said to have notice of the danger he runs in permitting the animal to be at large. Wild animals and domestic animals, naturally vicious and known to be such are kept by the owner at his peril.

531. Title to personal property; accession and con