THE Patent and Trade Mark Review A monthly journal for the publication of new laws and other related subject-matter. Volume 1, October, 1902, to September, 1903; Vol- ADVERTISING RATES. Personal Advertisements, 2 Cents per word. We do not solicit the advertisements of Patent Agents or Solicitors. WHILE THE UTMOST CARE IS TAKEN TO INSURE ACCURACY IN THE MATTER THAT APPEARS IN THE REVIEW, NO RESPONSIBILITY IS ASSUMED ON ACCOUNT OF ERRORS OR INACCURACIES WHICH MAY OCCUR THEREIN. Australian Commonwealth. Patents. Particular attention is drawn to the fact that carbon copies of specifications will not be received. The seven copies required should preferably be printed or lithographed. Canada. PATENTS.-Working.-Extension of Time to Manufacture. Attention is again drawn to the necessity for the commencement of manufacture within the statutory period of two years. It is necessary that this manufacture be bona fide. The obligation to manufacture may, in some cases, be avoided by applying for and obtaining an order placing the patent on the Compulsory License list, only certain classes of inventions are, however, placed on this list. (See REVIEW, pp. 819 and 911.) An extension of time within which to commence manufacture can sometimes be obtained, but such extensions are now seldom granted and only for exceedingly good reasons. Generally, it must be shown that honest effort has been made to commence manufacture, and that if extension is granted manufacture will in all probability be promptly commenced. Extensions of time for importation are also seldom granted under present practice and only for good reasons, circumstantially presented. Ceylon. Patents and Trade Marks. We learn from La Propriete Industrielle of May 31, 1905, that the Colony of Ceylon has acceded to the Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property of 1883, and the Additional Act of December 14, 1900, the same to take effect June 10, 1905. In response to a letter of inquiry, addressed to him, as to the "present position of registration of trade-marks," the Acting Deputy Commissioner of Customs advised, May 4, 1905, "that this sub-office, opened for the purpose of transmitting applications still continues to forward to the Shang Pu, Peking, all applications received. I have as yet had no advice as to the issue of registration papers, but will communicate with you directly any news reaches me." Cuba. Patents. Working. We are advised that some doubts exist in the minds of the officials of the Patent Office whether a patent granted upon the basis of an existing United States Patent carries with it the obligation, which is carried by a Cuban "Nacional" Patent, to bring the invention into operation within a year and a day. As such grants are in the nature of an extension to Cuba of the right granted in the United States, and as such United States grant carries no such obligation, it is difficult to see how such an obligation can be read into the Cuban grant after same has been made. Nevertheless, it may be the safer course to effect a working of such patents within the period named. As to "Nacional" patents, the requirement of the law is being very strictly construed by the officials, who hold that if the establishment of a new industry be not proven within a year and a day the patent lapses. The office has ruled that laboratory experiments are not sufficient, and that advertising will not suffice. An extension of time has in some cases been granted. Egypt. The English Language Decreed to Be Official in the Law Courts. By Khedivial Decree and with the consent of the fourteen Governments who, by the Treaty of 1876, guarantee the independence of the International Courts of Justice of Egypt (commonly called the "Mixed Tribunals"), the English language became official in those Courts as and from the 18th May, 1905. As one of the results of the great prosperity of Egypt and of its expansion as a mining and manufacturing country, the protection of patents and trade-marks there has taken large proportions, and our Cairo and Khartoum agents report themselves exceedingly busy. It would be well if American manufacturers would more generally register their marks there, the act in itself forming a good advertisement for their products and being calculated to lead to inquiries for their goods. Mexico. TRADE MARKS.-Law of August 25, 1903. Correction. A printer's error in our translation of this law, which appeared on p. 793 of the REVIEW, has just come to our notice. Article 15 should read as follows: ART. 15. The registration of a trade-mark shall be null whenever the same has been made in contravention of the dispositions of this law and the regulations thereof, or when the mark had been previously registered by another, if this registration has existed more than two years, or if registered less than two years if the same has been made with better right. New Zealand. The adhesion of this Colony, which has been an adherent of the International Union since 1891, to the Additional Act of Brussels, of December 14, 1900, was announced by a diplomatic note of April 12, 1905. Philippine Islands. Trade Marks. Some question has arisen whether it is possible to register trade-marks in the Philippines since the adoption of the United States law of February 20, 1905, and whether it is necessary so to do in order to enjoy protection. On the first point it may be said that the several acts providing for registration in the Philippines, namely: No. 666, March 6, 1903; No. 744, April 8, 1903, and No. 803, July 23, 1903, are still in full force and effect, unchanged by the adoption of the United States Act, precisely as the trade-mark laws of the several States remain unaffected by the adoption of the Federal Act. The second question involves the further question whether the Federal Act extends to the Philippines. While there is no express statement in the Act that it docs, a careful reading undoubtedly leads to this conclusion. Reference is made to the following quotations: SEC. 1. That the owner of a trade-mark used in commerce with foreign nations, or among the several States, or with Indian tribes, provided such owner shall be domiciled within the territory of the United States * * * may obtain registration. * * * SEC. 29. That in construing this Act the following rules must be observed, except where the contrary intent is plainly apparent from the context thereof. The United States includes and embraces all territory which is under the jurisdiction and control of the United States. The word "States" includes and embraces the District of Columbia, the Territories of the United States, and such other territory as shall be under the jurisdiction and control of the United States. * * * While it appears, then, that registration in the United States affords protection in the Philippines, we think it well to call attention to the fact that the protection of the Philippine law is somewhat broader than that of the United States Act, extending, as it does, to trade names as well as trade-marks. For the text of Act No. 666, see PATENT AND TRADE-MARK REVIEW, p. 431; for No. 744, see p. 552. The text of No. 803 we give below: [No. 803.] AN ACT AMENDING ACT NUMBERED SIX HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SIX BY PROVIDING THAT CERTIFICATES OF REGISTRY OF TRADE-MARKS AND TRADE NAMES SHALL BE ISSUED UNDER THE SEAL, OF THE BUREAU OF PATENTS, COPYRIGHTS AND TRADEMARKS. By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that: SECTION I. Section fifteen of Act Numbered Six hundred and sixty-six, entitled “An Act defining property in trade-marks and in trade names and providing for the protection of the same, defining unfair competition and providing remedies against the same, providing registration for trade-marks and trade names, and defining the effect to be given to registration under the Spanish royal decree of eighteen hundred and eighty-eight relating to the registration of trade-marks and the effect to be given to registration under this Act," is hereby amended by striking out of the first sentence of said section the words "under the seal of the Department of the Interior, and shall be signed by the Chief of the Bureau of Patents, Copyrights and Trade-Marks," and by inserting in lieu thereof the words "under the seal of the Bureau of Patents, Copyrights and Trade-Marks, and shall be signed by the Chief of said Bureau," so that said section fifteen shall read as follows: "SEC. 15. Certificates of registry of trade-marks and trade names shall be issued in the name of the Insular Government of the Philippine Archipelago, under the seal of the Bureau of Patents, Copyrights and Trade-Marks, and shall be signed by the Chief of said Bureau; and a record thereof, together with printed copies of the specific trade-marks or trade names, shall be kept by him in books for that purpose. Certified copies of trade-marks or trade names and of statements and declarations filed therewith, and original certificates of registry, shall be evidence in any suit in which such trade-marks or trade names shall be brought into controversy. But registration of trade-marks and trade names under this Act shall only be prima facie evidence of the exclusive right by the person securing the registration to use the same." SEC. 2. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred. SEC. 3. This Act shall take effect on its passage. Prizes for Inventors. From Daily Consular Reports, May 27, 1905. Under date of April 20, 1905, United States Consul-General Richard Guenther, of Frankfort, Germany, states that the Associazione degli Industriali d'Italia, No. 61 Foro Bonaparte, Milan, Italy, invites inventors to compete for two prizes offered by it, as follows: First prize, $1,600 and a gold medal, for a new method to prevent danger which may arise from the contact of high tension with low tension wrapping at electric rotary-current transformers; second prize, $100 and a gold medal for a simple, strong, and reliable safety device for stopping cars running on an inclined plane in case of the breaking of the wire cable. The device must be capable of adjustment to ordinary cable roads now in use. Great Britain. PATENTS.-" Succinct" Claims. Letter of Messrs. Fell & James. LONDON, E. C., 6th May, 1905. Messrs. RICHARDS & Co., New York. DEAR SIRS: RE BRITISH PRACTICE. We promised a day or two back to write you fully on this matter. We have had one or two interesting discussions with the officials of the Patent Office as to their definition of the word "succinct" as applied to the claims, and as far as we understand them at the present time their objection mainly lies to the manner in which a simple improvement in a well-known mechanism is claimed many times over in combination with known elements in the machine. They say, and with some amount of reason, that if a novel mechanism is claimed per se that no wider scope is given to a patent should such mechanism be claimed in a variety of combinations with known elements. |