also, if he be living, in case of an application for reissue. (Act of July 8, 1870, § 33.)

The patentee is not necessarily the inventor; for, whether an invention is or is not assignable at common law before any patent for it has been obtained, it has been deemed expedient to make it so assignable by statute. Accordingly, provision has been made for the issuing of a patent to an assignee of the inventor, provided the application is made and the specification duly sworn to by the inventor himself, and the assignment is duly recorded. When so granted, the exclusive interest is vested as a legal estate in the assignee, who thus becomes the patentee of the invention, and the inventor himself is divested of the legal title; but the assignee of the inventor, who has become such before the patent has issued, does not become the holder of the legal title to the patent until it has issued, although he becomes the holder of a right to obtain the patent. (Curtis on Patents, §§ 168, 169; Herbert v. Adams, 4 Mason, 15.)

68. ASSIGNMENT AFTER REJECTION OF APPLICATION VALID.-An assignment of an invention before patent issued is valid, although it is made after the rejection of the assignor's application by the Commissioner, and after his appeal to the chief justice of the circuit court of the District of Columbia from such decision. (Gay v. Cornell, 1 Blatchf., 509.)

The thing to be assigned is not the mere parchment, but the monopoly conferred-the right of property which it creates; and when the party has acquired an inchoate right, an assignment of it is legal. (Gayler v. Wilder, 10 How., 493.)

69. ASSIGNMENT OF AN INCOMPLETE INVENTION ONLY

VALID AS A CONTRACT.-But the statute which authorizes the assignment of an invention before patent embraces only the cases of perfected or completed inventions. There can, properly speaking, be no assignment of an inchoate or incomplete invention, although a contract to convey a future invention may be valid, and may be enforced by a bill for specific performance. The legal title can pass to another only by a conveyance, which operates upon the thing invented after it has become capable of being made the subject of an application for a patent; and a contract to convey a future invention cannot alone authorize a patent to be taken by the party in whose favor such contract was intended to operate. (Curtis on Patents, § 170; Nesmith v. Calvert, 1 Wood. & Min., 34.)

70. PARTIAL ASSIGNMENT.-The assignee has no legal claim to the patent if the assignment be only partial, though the part excepted is small. In such case it must be issued in the name of the inventor, and be held by him in trust for the use of the assignee, to the extent of the equities he has by virtue of his contract. (9 Opinions of Attorneys General, 403.)

Nor can patents issue jointly to the inventor as such and to the assignee of a partial interest; but they may issue to the assignee or assignees of the whole interest. (4 Opinions of Attorneys General, 401.)

71. PATENT MAY ISSUE TO INVENTOR UNLESS THE OFFICE IS REQUESTED TO ISSUE IT TO ASSIGNEE.-A patent will, upon request, issue directly to the assignee or assignees of the entire interest in any invention, or to the inventor and the assignee jointly, when an undivided part only of the entire interest has been conveyed. (Patent Office Rules, July, 1870.)

The language of the law (ut supra, p. 9, § 33) is "may be granted and issued," not "shall be," and it has been the constant practice of the office to issue patents to the inventor, unless otherwise specially requested by him. The mere facts of assignment and record do not impose upon the Commissioner the duty of issuing the letters patent to the assignee without further request, and the omission to do so is not therefore a mistake on his part. The rights of the assignee in the patent are precisely the same, whether the patent be issued to him or to the inventor, and whether it issue to the one or the other is a matter of form rather than of substance. (Havemeyer ex parte, Commissioners' Decisions, February 10, 1870.)

72. No APPEAL LIES FROM THE REFUSAL OF THE COMMISSIONER TO ISSUE A PATENT TO AN ASSIGNEE, and a mandate from the appellate judge requiring it will not be regarded. The jurisdiction of the supreme court of the District of Columbia does not extend to the ministerial acts of the Commissioner. (Whitely ex parte, Commissioners' Decisions, 1869, p. 79; but see 6 Wall., 522.)

73. CORRESPONDENCE IN THE NAME OF ASSIGNEE.The assignee of an entire interest in an invention is entitled to hold correspondence with the office to the exclusion of the inventor, and when the patent is to issue in the name of the assignee, the entire correspondence should be in his name. (Patent Office Rules, July, 1870.)

74. ASSIGNMENT MUST BE RECORDED FIVE DAYS BEFORE ISSUE OF THE PATENT.-In every case where a patent issues or reissues to an assignee, the assignment must be recorded in the Patent Office at least five days before the issue of the patent, and the specification must be sworn, to by the inventor. (Ib.)

The receipt of assignments is not generally acknowledged by the office. They will be recorded in their turn within a few days after their reception, and then transmitted to the persons entitled to them. (Ib.)

75. STAMP REQUIRED.-A five-cent revenue stamp is required for each sheet or piece of paper on which an assignment, grant, or license may be written. (Ib.)

76. LEGAL FORMALITIES.-No particular form of words is necessary to constitute a valid assignment, nor need the instrument be sealed, witnessed, or acknowledged. (Ib.)

The statute prescribes no particular form of instrument. Any instrument in writing which evinces an intention to vest the whole interest in the assignee, and to authorize him to take the patent in his own name, is a sufficient conveyance. (Curtis on Patents, § 171.)

An assignee, by an assignment executed before patent issued, has the legal title, even though the patent issued to the inventor. (Gayler v. Wilder, 10 How., 494.)

77. DEFINITION OF THE TERMS ASSIGNEE, GRANTEE, AND LICENSEE. An assignce is one who has transferred to him, in writing, the whole interest of the patent, or any undivided part of such whole interest, in every portion of the United States.

A grantee is one who has transferred to him, in writing, the exclusive right, under the patent, to make and use, and grant to others to make and use, the thing patented, within and throughout some specified portion or part of the United States; and such right must be an exclusive sectional right, excluding the patentee therefrom.

A licensee is one who, in writing or orally, has transferred to him a less interest than either the interest in

the whole patent or an undivided part thereof, or an exclusive sectional interest.

The terms assignee and grantee have separate and distinct meanings, and are not synonymous. (Potter v. Holland, 1 Fish., 327.)

78. FORM OF PETITION BY AN INVENTOR FOR AN ASSIGNEE.

To the Commissioner of Patents:

Your petitioner prays that letters patent may be granted to Joel Thomas, as his assignee, for the invention set forth in the annexed specification. JAMES GREENFIELD.

79. LEGAL REPRESENTATIVES MAY MAKE APPLICATION.— When any person, having made any new invention or discovery for which a patent might have been granted, dies before a patent is granted, the right of applying for and obtaining the patent shall devolve on his executor or administrator, in trust for the heirs at law of the deceased, in case he shall have died intestate; or if he shall have left a will, disposing of the same, then in trust for his devisees, in as full manner and on the same terms and conditions as the same might have been claimed or enjoyed by him in his lifetime; and when the application shall be made by such legal representatives, the oath or affirmation required to be made shall be so varied in form that it can be made by them. (Act of July 8, 1870, § 34.)

The statute contemplates a perfected invention or discovery, for which the inventor, if living, could have taken out a patent under the other provisions of the act. (Curtis on Patents, 177.)

If the inventor die before he has obtained a patent for his invention, no person other than his executor or administrator can apply for a patent for such invention, and the patent must be issued to such person in trust for the