THE UNITED STATES PATENT LAWS 385 



covery thereof, and not patented or described in any printed 

 publication in this or any foreign country, before his invention 

 or discovery thereof, or more than two years prior to his ap- 

 pHcation, and not in pubhc use or on sale in this country 

 more than two j^ears prior to his application, unless the same 

 is proved to have been abandoned, may, upon payment 

 of the fees required by law and other due proceedings had, 

 obtain a patent therefor. 



It may be remarked here that the word ''discovered" in 

 this section of the statute means "invention." 



It w411 be noted that foreigners have the same rights 

 under this law as citizens of the United States. 



The first requisite to the securing of a patent is the 

 making of an invention. Just what invention is or what it 

 takes to constitute an act of invention is a question that 

 has been discussed by the courts and by text book writers 

 many, many times, and it is a question w^hich cannot be 

 answered by definition. I say this, notwithstanding that 

 definitions of the term "invention" will be found in many 

 text books, and in many decisions of the courts. Suffice 

 it to say that invention comprehends a new idea of means and 

 it must be something beyond the scope of merely mechanical 

 effort. 



Having made an invention, the next step in the process 

 of securing a patent consists in the preparation of an appli- 

 cation and the filing of the same in the patent office. This 

 application comprises a petition to the commissioner of 

 patents, requesting the grant of the patent for the invention 

 disclosed in the application, an oath answering to the re- 

 quirements of the statutes, a specification descriptive of 

 the invention, and such specification must be concluded with 

 a claim or claims specifically pointing out the improvement 

 or invention. If no application has been made in a foreign 

 country, the oath should set forth that the applicant is the 

 original and first inventor of the invention disclosed in the 

 application and described and claimed in the specification; 

 that such invention was never known or used before his in- 

 vention or discovery thereof; that such invention had not 

 been patented or described in any printed publication in 



Vol. 7-25 



