xl REPORT—1850. 
—the mariner’s compass; to extend the industry, increase the power, and fill 
the coffers of the state—the steam-engine; to civilise our species, to raise 
it from the depths of ignorance and crime to knowledge and to virtue—the 
printing-press. But, whatever it may be, a grateful country has granted 
to the inventor the sole benefit of its use for fourteen years. That which 
the statute freely gives, however, law and custom as freely take away, or 
render void. Fees, varying from £200 to £500, are demanded from the 
inventor ; and the gift, thus so highly estimated by the giver, bears the great 
seal of England. The inventor must now describe his invention with legal 
precision. If he errs in the slightest point—if his description is not sufficiently 
intelligible—if the smallest portion of his invention has been used before—or 
if he has incautiously allowed his secret to be made known to two, or even 
to one individual—his patent will be invaded by remorseless pirates, who 
are ever on the watch for insecure inventions, and he will be driven into a 
court of law, where an adverse decision will be the ruin of his family and 
his fortunes. Jmpoverished by official exactions, or ruined by legal costs, 
the hapless inventor, if he escapes the asylum or the workhouse, is obliged 
to seek, in some foreign land, the just reward of his industry and genius. 
Should a patent escape unscathed from the fiery ordeal through which it has 
to pass, it often happens that the patentee has not been remunerated during 
the fourteen years of his term. In this case, the state is willing to extend 
his right for five or seven years more; but he can obtain this extension only 
by the expensive and uncertain process of an act of Parliament—a boon 
which is seldom asked, and which, through rival influence, has often been 
-withheld. 
Such was the patent law twenty years ago; but since that time it has re- 
ceived some important ameliorations; and though the British Association 
did not interfere as a body, yet some of its members applied energetically 
on the subject to some of the more influential individuals in Lord Grey’s 
Government, and the result of this was, two acts of Parliament, passed in 
1835 and 1839, entitled ‘“‘ Acts for Amending the Lay touching Letters 
Patent for Inventions.” Without referring to another important act for re- 
gistering designs, which had the effect of withdrawing from the grasp of 
the patent laws a great number of useful inventions, depending principally 
on form, I shall notice only the valuable provisions of the two acts above 
mentioned—acts which we owe solely to the wisdom of Lord Brougham. 
By the first of these acts, the patentee is permitted to disclaim any part 
either of the title of his invention or of the specification of it, or to make 
any alteration on the title or specification. The same act gives the Privy 
Council the power of confirming any patent, or of granting a new one, when 
a patent had been taken out for an invention which the patentee believed to 
be new, but which was found to have been known before, though not pub- 
licly and generally used. By the same act, too, the power of extending 
letters patent was taken from Parliament and given to the Privy Council, 
who have, on different occasions, exercised it with judgement and discrimi- 
nation. By the second act, of 1839, this last privilege was made more 
attainable by the patentee. These are doubtless valuable improvements 
which inventors will gratefully remember ; but till the enormous fees, which 
are still exacted, are either partly or wholly abolished, and a real privilege 
given under the great seal, the genius of this country will never be able to 
compete with that of foreign lands, where patents are cheaply obtained and 
better protected. In proof of the justness of these views, it is gratifying 
to notice, that, within these few days, it has been announced in Parliament 
