PATENTS 



803 



the country would not, therefore, support a separ- 

 ate profession ; and the parliamentary reports of 

 1829 and 1851 throw a somewhat painful light on 

 the proceedings of many of those persons who 

 carried on the work of patent agents in connection 

 with other callings. Under the Act of 1852, how- 

 ever, the numher of patents annually obtained 

 greatly increased ; foreigners and British subjects 

 abroad desired t<> patent their inventions more fre- 

 quently than before, and consequently the work of 

 the patent agent became a distinct profession. On 

 the 12th of August 1882 an Institute of Patent 

 Agents was incorporated under the Companies 

 Acts, 1862 to 1880. The Patents Act, 1888 ( sect. 1 ), 

 created a Register of Patent Agents, on which 

 every person who assumes the name of 'patent 

 agent' after July 1, 1889, must be enrolled under 

 a penalty not exceeding 20. The Kegisti-i- <>f 

 Patent Agents Rules, issued by the Board of Trade, 

 came into operation on 12th June 1889, and gave 

 to the Institute of Patent Agents a practically 

 complete control over the whole profession. A 

 communication to a patent agent is not privileged 

 from disclosure in a court of law, even although he 

 be a solicitor. 



The Patent Office. All the formal, and much of 

 the judicial, work connected with the grant of 

 letters-patent for inventions is done at the Patent 

 Office in Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, 

 London. At the head of the whole department is 

 an officer called the comptroller-general, who is 

 appointed by, and responsible to, the Board of 

 Trade, and is assisted by a staff of examiners, 

 clerks, &c. In addition to his formal and judicial 

 duties relating to applications, the comptroller 

 attends to the Register of Patents, in which the 

 names of patentees and notifications of all assign- 

 ments and licenses must l>e entered, and prepares 

 an annual report as to the work of the Patent 

 Office, which is laid before both Houses of Parlia- 

 ment. The Patent Office contains a valuable free 

 public library, which is ordinarily open from 10 

 A.M. to 10 P.M., and in which all the publications 

 of the Patent Office specifications, reports of cases, 

 illustrated official journals, &c. may t>e consulted. 



Patents in the United States. Before the Declara- 

 tion of Independence patents were occasionally 

 issued by the colonial governments ; and the con- 

 stitution of the United States expressly vested in 

 congress powers ' to promote the progress of science 

 ami useful arts by securing for limited times to 

 authors and inventors the exclusive right to their 

 respective writings and discoveries.' The congress 

 of 1790 passed an act regulating the issue of patents 

 for inventions, requiring the would-be patentee to 

 petition the Secretary of State, the Secretary of 

 War, or the Attorney-general ; with the approval 

 of any two of these the description of the patent 

 was certified by the Attorney-general, and the 

 president directed the issuing of the patent. The 

 patent was recorded in the office of the Secretary of 

 State, and delivered to the patentee under the 

 great seal of the United States. Under this law, 

 which remained practically unchanged till 1836, 

 patents were granted with little examination, and 

 the responsibility of deciding whether the patentee 

 had made out his case was left wholly to the courts 

 a system found to be inconvenient and unsatis- 

 factory for the interests of the public. On occasion 

 of a fire at the Patent Office, when many of the 

 documents were destroyed, congress repealed former 

 acts and established a new system, which remains 

 in force till now. The general principles of the 

 law are the same as in England, but the term for 

 which patents are granted is seventeen ycnrs 

 longer than elsewhere. The Patent Office is 

 attached to the department of the Secretary of 

 the Interior. The commissioner, assistant-com- 



missioner, and three examiners-in-chief are ap- 

 pointed by the president, with the consent of the 

 senate. The chief clerk, a staff of a hundred 

 examiners (principal, first assistants, second assist- 

 ants, third assistants), draughtsmen, copyists, 

 attendants, &c. are nominated by the commissioner 

 of patents and approved by the Secretary of the 

 Interior. The office publishes pamphlets on The 

 Patent Laics and Laws relating to the Registration 

 of Trade -marks and Labels, and The Rules of Prac- 

 tice in the United States Patent Office, which may 

 be had on application. But inventors are recom- 

 mended to secure the assistance of ' patent lawyers,' 

 who are a distinct branch of the legal profession. 

 The minimum expense may be stated at 60 ; but 

 difficulties and references to various authorities 

 may greatly increase the outlay. The number of 

 patents issued in the United States greatly exceeds 

 that of any other country. In 1837-46 the number 

 was 5019 ; in 1847-56 it was 12,578 ; in the decade 

 1877-86 it was 169,478 ; in the century ending 10th 

 April 1890 nearly 437,000 grants were made. 



The International Convention. It has long been 

 the desire of inventors and legislators to bring 

 about an assimilation of the patent laws of the 

 world. As early as 1851 a society called the 

 ' Association of Patentees ' included in their list 

 of proposed reforms in the patent law 'inter- 

 national arrangements for a mutual recognition 

 of the rights of in Teuton. ' Adopting in substance 

 the views of Sir H. Bessemer, Sir William Arm- 

 strong, and Mr C. W. Siemens, the Select Com- 

 mittee of 1872 recommended that ' Her Majesty's 

 government be requested to inquire of foreign and 

 colonial governments how far they are ready to 

 concur in international arrangements' in relation 

 to the proposed international patent law. In 

 accordance with this recommendation Earl Kini- 

 Ijerley, then Colonial Secretary, directed the 

 governors of the British colonies to ascertain the 

 state of colonial opinion upon the subject. At the 

 same time our representatives abroad were required 

 by Lord Granville to prepare succinct reports upon 

 the patent laws of the countries to which they were 

 severally accredited, and these reports were pub- 

 lished arid laid before parliament in 1873 (C 741). 

 The inquiries thus held showed that colonial and 

 foreign official opinion was in the main favourable 

 to the proposed change, and also that, all diver- 

 gencies notwithstanding, there existed in the 

 patent laws of the world ample materials out of 

 which an international patent system might event- 

 ually be created. The International Congress at 

 Vienna in 1873 and the Paris Congress, organised 

 during the Exhibition of 1878, carried the move- 

 ment forward ; and on 20th March 1883 an ' Inter- 

 national Convention for the Protection of Indus- 

 trial Property ' was signed at Paris. The pleni- 

 potentiaries of the contracting parties exchanged 

 ratifications on 6th June 1884, and the convention 

 came into effective operation a month later. The 

 original signatories were Belgium, Brazil, Spain, 

 France, Guatemala, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Sal- 

 vador, Servia, and Switzerland. The accession of 

 Great Britain was delayed until special statutory 

 power had been given to the crown to allow the 

 ante-datintf of patents granted under the con- 

 vention. The adhesion of Great Britain to the 

 convention took place on 17th March 1884, and 

 was formally accepted on the 2d of April following. 

 The United States, Norway, Turkey, Tunis, New 

 Zealand, and other countries have subsequently 

 joined the International Union. Germany is the 

 most important .European state that still holds 

 aloof. The principal changes introduced into our 

 patent system by this important treaty are these : 

 ( 1 ) Formerly a patentee could not import into 

 some of the states now comprised in tne union 



