If you take, for example, for a machine in which you have five elements, A, B, C, D and E, the novel one of which having an inherent novelty being A; if A is claimed per se and then in combination respectively with B, C, D and E, assuming, of course, there is relative co-action, you have practically covered the ground of possible useful effect and the mere multiplication of the variations of combination of these five elements does not from the English standpoint give any wider protection. There is just one other point and that is the claiming of elements generally and specifically; we do not see any objection to this but from the English standpoint the omnibus claim which usually reads, "The arrangement and construction, etc., etc., substantially as described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings," affords ample protection for the plurality of detail which is often made the subject of American claims. As we have before told you, we think that the functional form of claim is more acceptable to the English Office than the claim detailing a combination of elements and you will understand that such functional claim is much wider in scope than any claim which is limited by reference to specific means.

PATENTS, TRADE MARKS, UNFAIR COMPETITION.

We print below a translation of an article on these subjects from Szabadalmi Kozlony, the Hungarian Patent Gazette, of March 18, 1905, followed by a translation of the more important provisions of the trade-mark law:

ROUMANIA.

Protection of Industrial Property in the Balkan States.

Patents.-Roumania has no patent law. It is true that a bill providing for a patent law was presented in 1900 to the Chambers of Commerce, however, the majority of said Chambers declared that it would be neither practical nor fair to regulate industrial inventions by one general law and that for the protection of every important invention a special law should be enacted fixing 5 years as the maximum term of protection.

Trade-Marks.-The law of April, 15-27, 1879, for the protection of trade-marks, owes its origin to the fact that Roumania had agreed in its commercial treaty with Austria-Hungary of 1875 to create such a law.

These are the principal provisions of said law:

I. Trade-marks used for distinguishing articles of manufacture may consist of signatures, names, denominations of goods, pictures, stamps, seals, addresses, numerals, wrappers, etc. Registration cannot be obtained for letters or monograms, for any representation of the national arms or the coat of arms of any authority nor for the emblem of the "Red Cross." In the latter case, a fine up to 1,0co francs may be imposed.

2. There is no obligation to use trade-marks. However, the government can order that trade-marks or labels be used on pharmaceutical products or on articles which concern the health of the public.

The right of ownership to a trade-mark is in the one who uses the trade-mark for designating his goods. This right is enjoyed by the respective firm as long as the latter exists. The trade-mark can be transferred with the firm to a new owner.

In order to register a trade-mark, an application must be filed in the competent Tribunal of Commerce with two facsimiles.

3. Trade-mark registration extends for the term of 15 years and may be renewed after the expiration of this term.

4. The cost of registering is 20 francs per trade-mark.

5. All assignments relating to trade-marks should be registered within three months.

6. The infringement of a trade-mark and the use of an infringed trade-mark, or of a trade-mark registered by some other party, shall be punishable by a fine of from 50 to 2,500 francs, or by imprisonment for a term of from 5 months to 3 years.

The imitation of a trade-mark, with fraudulent intent, and the use of such a trade-mark shall be punishable by a fine of 50 to 1,500 francs and by imprisonment for a term of from 1 month to I year. In case of a repeated offense the fine can be doubled. The goods bearing illegal trade-marks may be confiscated.

7. Actions for infringements of the Trade-Mark Law fall within the jurisdiction of the Tribunals of Commerce. Before opening the proceedings, the respective Tribunal of Commerce shall be competent to order the confiscation of the goods bearing illegal trade-marks, provided that a request is made to this effect within 20 days.

8. Foreigners who own industrial and commercial establishments in Roumania enjoy the protection provided by this law. Other foreigners may take advantage of the same law only when a treaty has been made with the respective country on principles of reciprocity.

Unfair Competition.-The Trade-Mark Law contains special provisions prohibiting the use of false trade descriptions which cannot be considered as constituting honest competition. According to these provisions it is prohibited to affix to foreign goods Roumanian trade-marks or designations which might indicate Roumanian origin. Such goods will be seized by the Custom House authorities. This provision of the law includes wine, brandy, and other beverages, cattle, flour, fruit and agricultural products. According to paragraph 336 of the Penal Code, all persons who make misleading statements, with fraudulent intent, respecting the quality of articles of merchandise, shall be punished by a fine and by imprisonment for a term of 1 to 6 months.

ROUMANIAN TRADE-MARK LAW.

ART. 1. The various signs used for establishing a distinction between the products of some industry constitute trade-marks. Trade-marks may consist of specially conceived names, of denominations, pictures, stamps, seals, reliefs, engravings, numerals, wrappers, and the like.

ART. 2. Letters and monograms, the national arms or such coats of arms of some community as are usually placed on the same products, are not proper subjectmatter for trade-mark registration.

ART. 3. The trade-mark is optional; however, if there be in question pharmaceutical products and goods which are very closely connected with hygiene and with public health, then the government can order the obligatory use of a trade-mark by a decree given in the form of a regulation prescribed by the administration of public affairs.

ART. 4. A trade-mark which has been adopted by some manufacturer or dealer cannot be used by any other manufacturer or dealer for distinguishing products of the same kind.

ART. 5. The right which a manufacturer or dealer has to a trade-mark ceases as soon as the respective industrial or commercial business for which said trade-mark has been adopted, is discontinued. However, trade-marks are transferable.

In case of a transfer, the assignee or successor shall apply for the registration of the trade-mark in his name within three months. After the expiration of this term the right to the trade-mark ceases, if the transfer has not been registered.

ART. 6. No person has the right to appropriate a trade-mark adopted by some other manufacturer or dealer for designating his products; neither can any other person appropriate a sign or a name adopted for distinguishing some establishment.

ART. 7. The manufacturers or dealers who desire to claim the exclusive right of ownership to a trade-mark shall file two fac-similes of such trade-mark in the record office of that Tribunal of Commerce where they have their domicile. One fac-simile shall be filed in the record of trade-marks belonging to the respective Tribunal of Commerce, the other one shall be returned to the manufacturer or dealer with the legalization of said Tribunal.

ART. 8. Trade-mark registration extends for the term of 15 years. The right of ownership to a trade-mark may be prolonged for a further term of 15 years, provided that the registration is renewed after the expiration of the first term.

ART. 9. The application for the registration of each trade-mark shall be filed in the Tribunal on a 20-franc sheet of stamped paper.

Provisions Relating to Foreigners.

ART. 10. Foreigners who own in Roumania industrial and commercial establishments shall enjoy for the articles produced in their establishments all rights granted by the present law, provided that they fulfill the formalities prescribed by said law.

ART. II. Roumanian citizens, as well as all foreigners, the industrial or commercial establishments of whom are without the territory of Roumania, shall enjoy the rights granted by this law if the countries where such establishments are located have concluded treaties which admit of reciprocity in favor of Roumanian trademarks. In this case the foreign trade-marks shall be filed in the record office of the Tribunal of Commerce belonging to the "Ilfov" department.

Here follow the penalties.

Natural Selection,

Or the Law of the Survival of the Fittest. Viewed as Applied to the Development of the Industrial Arts.

BY EGERTON R. CASE.

It occurs to me that it would be of considerable interest to draw a parallel (as far as possible) between Darwin's Law of Natural Selection, or the Law of the Survival of the Fittest, and the best rule for an inventor to follow in inventing, so as to prove that the procedure I (and perhaps others) advocate embodies a law that is constantly at work in organic beings.

Darwin defines Natural Selection as implying the preservation of individual differences and variations that arise and are beneficial to the being under its conditions of life, and the destruction of those which are injurious.

There are gradations in the state of perfection in the development of an invention, as truly as there are gradations in the state of perfection in the development of organic beings; and it is only through a thorough knowledge of such "states of perfection" that an inventor can reach the highest success.

As is well known, all the modified descendants from a widely diffused species, belonging to a large genus, will tend to partake of the same advantages which made their parents a success in life; the same way with inventions belonging to the same class;

THEREFORE,

The Law of Industrial-Arts' Development implies the preservation of those elements and process-steps that are beneficial to the invention; the discarding of those elements and process-steps that are injurious thereto, and the combining with the beneficial elements or process-steps new elements or process-steps that will make the invention a MODERN success.

According to the spirit of this article, the inventor would naturally take up the art he is most familiar with, and pick out therefrom some invention (and there are many of them) that has failed for want of some improvement, to be most valuable. By studying carefully the state of the art relating to this invention, the inventor will have before him the elements that have made each succeeding invention a success over the immediately preceding ones, and will then have the foundation for the development of further steps. In other words, he will possess the genealogical succession, so to speak, of the beneficial elements. If he is careful, he will combine with the elements chosen from the prior state of the art, new elements that will make the invention a modern success, and thus follow after an industrial manner, the law at work in nature whereby organic beings are developed and equipped so that they can best exist under the then existing conditions of life. By following further this law, it is apparent that new genera and species of inventions will of necessity be developed from time to time, as are new genera and species developed in organic beings.

The charge may be laid against this plan that it would tend to make inyentors less original, that is, cause them to copy too closely the existing inventions in the prior art. But careful thought will dispel this belief, as above noted. Even if an inventor determines to work upon original lines, he must acquaint himself with the prior state of the art, in order that he may successfully keep away from the beaten paths of prior inventors.

It is well known that for every generic invention, there are many secondary inventions. So it is perhaps in connection with secondary inventions that a knowledge of the law set forth in this article will be most useful.

When an inventor goes blindly to work, that is, without any knowledge of the prior state of the art, he spends much time and money in travelling well-beaten paths made by the patient toil of previous inventors, whereas, if he followed out the plan herein set forth, he would soon acquaint himself with the successful and unsuccessful steps made by his predecessors, and act accordingly; this is an indisputable fact.

Because an inventor finds that all through an art certain elements therein have been retained, it does not follow that he need combine these elements in the same manner; the requirements of the case will, of course, determine this, coupled, of course, with the inventor's mental capacity.

I do not say that, between my statement of the law to be observed in developing inventions, and Darwin's Law above cited, there is a complete parallel. The inventor, of course, has more immediate freedom in his choice of combination of ele

ments than if he were working through a process so slow as that of Natural Selection. But it would seem that he is bound to recognize and adopt those elements in prior inventions that have contributed to, or that have been the sole cause of, the success of same.

It is well known that inventors oftentimes find great difficulty in making improvements or fully developing their inventions in order to make them commercial. When these periods or states of non-development are taken into account, it appears to me that there is quite a parallel between the development of an invention (particularly a complicated one), and the Law of Natural Selection. When the inventor cannot at once make the step or improvement he wishes, it naturally follows that he cannot draw upon his past experience, and his knowledge of the prior state of the art, in order to supply that defect: consequently a mental process (which I might term Mental Natural Selection-Inventing) must be gone through before the inventor can arrive at the result he is aiming at. The more fertile the brain in which the idea has lodgment, the quicker will the mental powers absorb, so to speak, that idea, and give birth to it in concrete form. So likewise in the development of the organic being; the more suitable the conditions, the quicker will a genus or species be developed that can best exist under the then existing conditions of that period of life.

Darwin states, it is notorious that specific characters are more variable than generic. In machines, the main or essential elements we will consider as being the basis for the generic claim. Although they may be modified, these main elements are not subject to the same amount of modification or variation as are the minor elements that are made use of in combination therewith. As is well known, these minor elements are often claimed as means or mechanism for the very reason that they are subject to great variation; that they may be constructed in many different ways and yet be capable of use in combination with the essential elements.

As Natural Selection will never produce in an organic being any structure more injurious than beneficial to that being, it follows that when an inventor proceeds along the right lines of development, he will naturally use elements that will always contribute to the success of the invention. Natural Selection tends only to make each organic being as perfect as, or slightly more perfect than, the other inhabitants of the same country with which it comes into competition. Consequently the properly-directed efforts of an inventor must essentially produce as good or better an invention than those prior thereto, and with which it must inevitably come into competition. The chances are greatly in favor of a better invention being produced, as all inventive effort is exercised for that very end.

I do not pretend to any great knowledge of Darwin's above-mentioned law, and any errors I may have committed must not be too strongly dealt with. If I have touched upon a method of development well known of organic beings so as to try and prove to inventors that there is an easier or more natural method of reaching their goals than is now generally practiced, and succeed never so little, I shall be content. When we look around us and consider what humanity at large owes to the inventor of all nations, we must acknowledge our great indebtedness to him. His success is many times purchased by the practice of great personal privations, and often without reaping the rewards his heroic and unselfish efforts have merited.

Many inventors will ask how they are to get knowledge of what inventions have been already made in a particular art. The best way to procure this information is to get copies of all the patents granted in that art.

As certain as day follows night, if an inventor proceeds in his investigations after the manner I have endeavored to prove to be the correct one, he will obtain the maximum success with the minimum expenditure of time and money.