212 STAIE BOARD OF AGKICULTURE. 



a function or iiiodc of operation expressed in tlie form of mechanism and 

 designed to accomplish a certain effect. If the mechanism is new, the effect 

 maybe new or old; if the mechanism is old, the effect must be new. Tiie 

 invention may embrace the entire machine, or parts of it, or it may embrace a 

 new combination of old parts, in which case the combination as a whole must 

 produce a new effect. 



In all cases the inventor must state, in his application for a patent, the 

 nature or principle of his invention in such a manner that a person acquainted 

 ■with the terms used could reduce the information given in the letters patent to 

 practice. He must also distinguish between what he believes to be new or old 

 in his invention. This information is technically known as "the claims." 

 The application is then referred, under our system of classification, to an 

 examiner having this class of matter particularly in charge, and who is sup- 

 posed to know what is new in this especial class. As a matter of fact, the 

 examiner usually undertakes to ascertain only whctiier what is claimed as new 

 obviously infringes on any patent previously granted in his class. If the appli- 

 cant is not satisfied with the decision of the examiner, there is a method of 

 appeal to other officers of the patent office, and finally to the Supreme Court 

 of the District of Columbia. If he is successful in this the patent finally issues. 



INFRINGEMENT. 



In order that the patent may be of any value, there must be remedies to 

 prevent infringements, and measures to redress injuries done by infringers. 

 The patent law provides that the United States courts shall have jurisdiction 

 over all such cases, and power to grant injunctions and to assess damages. The 

 United States court is also made the final judge as to the legality of any patent 

 that may bo called in question, whether as to its infringement on some previous 

 patent, or as to its having been granted for an invention not original with the 

 patentee. 



The question of infringement is frequently a very complicated and difficult 

 one to decide, and it is not unfrequently true that the decisions of one court 

 are reversed by a higher court. Most of the cases brought before the courts 

 are those in which one patent is claimed to infringe on another. Any person 

 using, manufacturing, or selling, without permission from the owner of the 

 patent, any patented contrivance, is liable to be prosecuted in the United 

 States courts for damages, which may be made to cover not only all the profits 

 made by the infringing party, but all damages the complainant has sustained 

 thereby. All suits for damages, however, must be brought during the term 

 for which the patent was granted, or within six years from the expiration of 

 the patent. 



SPUKIOUS INVENTIONS. 



The object of the patent laws is to secure to the inventor the value of his 

 own invention, and consequently the law provides that if at any time it can 

 be shown that the patentee was not the original inventor, and that the inven- 

 tion had been in use more than two years previous to the application for the 

 patent, or had been patented in some foreign country or described in some 

 printed publication, the United States court may declare the patent void. 

 Thus in the cases decided last year against farmers for infringing on the Teel 

 patents on the slide gate, the value of the patent was destroyed by showing 

 that it was not an original invention with Teel. 



