68 IfitcUigence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



than 125/.; and there is a small increase if the patent for England 

 includes the Colonies. Those sums include an average of ingross- 

 ing and stamps for the specifications. 



Does the charge vary with the length of the specification ? — 

 With the length and with the difficulty , but the charges that de- 

 pend most upon its difficulty are not included in the above sums, 

 because professional charges for advice and assistance in bringing 

 the invention to bear, and specifying it, vary in every degree. 



What time does it take to obtain a patent? — It is said to be si.\. 

 weeks ; but they are certainly now two months upon the average, 

 and that is frequently extended to a much longer |)eriod. 



During the time between making the application, and sealing the 

 patent, has the applicant any security for his invention? — No secu- 

 rity whatever ; there is even an increased necessity for secrecy be- 

 yond that which existed before his application; because his applica- 

 tion has called attention to his procedure, and declared what is the 

 object of his pursuit. It is a common practice with manufacturers, 

 who begin an invention solely for their own use, without any- 

 thought of a patent, when they have obtained such a prospect of 

 advantageous results as to see that a patent would be desirable, 

 they destroy all the models, and every vestige of them, and even 

 send away the workmen who made them on some distant embassy, 

 to avoid any chance of the secret being called forth by the compe- 

 tition that exists among rival traders as soon as one makes an appli- 

 cation for a patent. It frequently happens that patents are delayed 

 very long in their progress through the offices, so as to occasion a 

 very great grievance. 



What constitutes such a publication during the interval between 

 the application for the patent, and the sealing, as to vitiate the pa- 

 tent ? — That has never been decided with precision. It is supposed 

 that an invention being communicated by the patentee to any person 

 whose assistance is necessary to carrying on the invention towards 

 perfecting it, would not be considered as a jjublication. If those 

 persons were to connnunicate it at second hand, I apprehend that 

 such breaches of trust would be considered as publications; but it has 

 never come before a court in such a way as to give the positive opi- 

 nions of the court on the subject. Whenever an invention, or a new 

 article produced by an invention, has passed from one person to an- 

 other by sale, before the date of a patent, the patent cannot be 

 maintained. 



Then the objects of keeping an invention secret after it is deter- 

 mined to take a patent arc, lest the inventioiv should be pirated ; 

 and lest there should be such an act of publication as to vitiate the 

 patent? — And also the risk of calling up an opposition to the grant 

 of the patent; because the instant that a man, by any means, an- 

 nouncts to his competitors in trade that he is engaged upon a new 

 invention, thpy are all upon the watch to find out what it is. 



Do you not word the title obscurely, in order to avoid directing 

 public attention to the subject? — Yes, but there is a danger in 

 being too obscure, because then a court of justice may afterwards 



hold 



