ed by a title or patent. 8. Patents are given for five, ten, or fifteen years. 9. A patent for an imported invention is not to extend beyond the period for which it may be patented in a foreign country. 10. Patents are to be enrolled in a public office. 11. A catalogue of inventions kept in the public office, and also the specifications, shall be open to be consulted by all the citizens; unless the legislature, on application of the inventor, should decree that the specifications may be kept secret, after an examination of them by commissioners appointed by the government, who are to judge and finally determine on their exactness and sufficiency. 12. The patentee may, on giving sufficient security for indemnity, require the seizure of articles made in contravention of his patent, and the party infringing his patent, being convicted, on judgment being given against him, shall, besides the confiscation of the article, pay damages to the patentee according to the importance of the infringement, and also shall forfeit to the benefit of the poor of the district, a sum equal to one fourth part of the damages, not exceeding, however, 3000 livres for the first infringement, and double that sum for a subsequent one. 13. In case the patentee fails in his suit he shall pay costs and damages to the defendant, and also forfeit a fourth part of their amount to the use of the poor, not exceeding 3000 livres. 14. The patentee may use his patent himself, or authorize others to do so, and the patent right shall be considered as personal

property. 15. At the expiration of the privilege the specification shall be published, (unless the legislature otherwise orders,) and the invention become free to all. 16. The specification shall also be published and the invention become free to all others in case of the forfeiture of the patent, which may be incurred, 1st. in case of the patentee's concealing the true method of working; 2d. or having used processes not described in his specification; or, 3d. in case of the invention having been described in a printed and published work; or, 4th. unless the patentee shall, within two years from the granting of the patent, have put his discovery into use; or, 5th. if the patentee, having obtained a patent in France, shall obtain one in a foreign country; and 6th. every assignee of the patent shall be subject to similar obligations and conditions. 17. Existing patents are not annulled, but made subject to this law. 18. The tax on patent rights shall be subsequently determined on.

Such is an outline of the French law on this sub

3

› Propriété mobiliaire, an expression not precisely equivalent to our expression personal property, but in this connexion this English phrase substantially expresses the meaning.

M. Renouard, p. 283, decidedly objects to this provision, and with good reason, since a monopoly of the same thing in other countries would certainly leave the French manufacturers and artists a fairer chance of competition in the markets of third countries, than if the manufacture were free in all foreign countries, and it would in such case be immaterial as to the effect upon the industry of France whether the foreign monopolies were held by the French patentee or any other monopolist.

ject. This law was passed in January; in the months of March, April, and May, following,' decrees were passed, designating the officers to whom the granting of patents should be committed, directing the mode of application, the specifications, models, and drawings; that different inventions shall not be joined in the same application, the manner of proceeding when the invention should be ordered by the legislature, to be kept secret; providing for the prolongation of expired patents, for a period not exceeding that for which the legislature is elected; for the payment of the tax, from the proceeds of which, all the expenses attendant on the granting of patents are to be defrayed, and no part of them from the public treasury, that is, if the second instalment of the tax, being due six months after the grant of the patent, shall not be punctually paid, the patent shall be forfeited; the mode of proceeding when the patentee wishes to make some modification of his specification after his patent is granted; that in case of a patent for an improvement on a patented invention, the original inventor shall have no right to use the improvement, nor the inventor of the improvement, any right to use the original invention. A mere change of form or proportions shall not, any more than ornaments, of whatever kind they may be, be ranked as an improvement for which a patent can be claimed.". Pa

8

9 Law of March 29th, 1791. t. 2. s. 8. Renouard, p. 441.

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tents for objects contrary to the laws of the realm, the public safety, or the police regulations, shall be void. 10 The judgment of the court, or of a justice of the peace, on a patent case, shall be executed, notwithstanding an appeal." In case of clashing patents the prior shall prevail. The inventor may form such copartnerships as he may think proper, for putting his invention into operation, but shall not put it into operation by putting it into shares of joint-stock, 15 under penalty of the forfeiture of the patent." Assignments of the whole or a part of the patent right shall be registered. The law also provided a form of patents, of the registry, and prescribed the rate of tax.

13

The

In 1798 another project of a law on this subject was presented to the council of Five Hundred, which, however, was not enacted as a law.15 subject was at that time much investigated. The commissioners to whom the subject was referred, in February 1798, reported a project of a law, differing materially from that of 1791, an outline of which has been given above. But having considered the subject more maturely, the same commissioners, in August following, reported another project of a law,

10 Law of March 29th, 1791. a. 2. s. 9. Renouard, p. 441.

" Id. Renouard, p. 441.

12 Renouard, p. 443.

13 Actions.

14 Law of March 29, 1791. a. 2. s. 14. Renouard, p. 443.

15 Renouard, 458.

substantially conformable to that of 1791, and merely supplementary to it. Though this project was not adopted as a law, yet, as it was the fruit of much examination and reflection, the most material suggestions contained in it are worth being noticed, especially as some of them may be adopted as constructions of the French law of 1791, correspond to our act of Congress of 1793. It proposed that the applicant for a patent should add to the specification required by the law of 1791, an planation of what characterized his invention, and designate what he considered a new part in his invention, or as a new arrangement of parts already known, or as a new application producing a result not before known, and which authorized him to assume the character of an inventor.16 The project also proposed, that the whole proceeds of the tax on patents should be appropriated to the encouragement of the national industry. It also proposed to alter the law, as to the effect of a prior publication of the invention, by limiting it to a prior publication in France, instead of a publication generally, as it stood in the law of 1791, without defining whether a publication in France only, or either in that country or any other, was meant. According to this project, the inventor was not to forfeit his in

16 This is substantially the provision of the act of Congress of 1793. s. 3. Vid. infra p. 39. and Appendix.