134 Instructions issued for oltaining a Patent in France. 



servance of the established forms. Articles 12 and 13 of the 

 law of the 7th of January, and' 10, 12, and 13, of Title II. of 

 the law of the 25th of May, regulate the method of proceeding. 

 According to these articles, the infringers of a patent must be 

 brought before the Juge de Paix, who, after hearing parties and 

 their witnesses, pronounces his decision ; which, if there be no 

 appeal, is forthwith executed. 



ArrangemerJs made since the Promu/gation of the Laws of the 

 7ih of January and 25 tk of May 1791. 

 The laws of the 7th of January and 25th of May are not the 

 only ones which liave been issued upon brevets. There exists 

 another law, dated the 20th of September 1792, which prohibits 

 all granting of brevets for any other objects than those connected 

 with the arts. Petitions for patents for financial and commercial 

 operations gave rise to this prohibition. Subsequently a decree 

 was published, which merely concerns the mode of delivering 

 brevets. Previously they were granted by the supreme authority, 

 but thenceforth by the minister for manufactures and commerce. 

 The certificate of the petition which he gives is only a provisional 

 title : but it becomes definitive by the transmission to the pa- 

 tentee of the article in the royal decree which applies to his in- 

 vention, when the brevets delivered in the course of every four 

 months are published. Difficulties having arisen, whether, upon 

 receiving the certificate of the application, the infringers of a 

 patent might be prosecuted, or if it was necessary to wait until 

 the patent had received the publicity procured to it by His Ma- 

 jesty's proclamation, — a decree of the 25th of January 1807 

 puts an end to these doubts, by enacting " that the duration of 

 a patent begins to reckon from the date of the certificate which 

 establishes provisionally this privilege." The same decree has 

 decided that the priority of invention, in case of contestation be- 

 tween two patentees for the same pbject, is acquired by him 

 who has been the first that has deposited at the secretariat of 

 the department the documents which ought to accompany tlie 

 claim for a patent. An arrangement in article 14 of Title II. 

 of the law of the 25th of May had prohibited the obtaining of 

 brevets by what is termed actions. This was abrogated by a 

 decree of the 25th of November 1806, on the representations of 

 some individuals that it would prejudice the interests of inventers, 

 inasmuch as it would deprive them of an easy method of taking 

 advantage of their discoveries. 



It sometimes happens that patentees address themselves to 

 Government, in order to obtain recompenses as the authors of 

 important discoveries. It is impossible to listen to all their de- 

 mands in this respect. Article 1 1 of the law of September 1 2, 



1791, 



