372 GENERAL TOPICS. 



article of manufacture ; or any new, useful, and original 

 shape or configuration of any article of manufacture, the 

 same not having been known or used by others before his 

 invention or production thereof, or patented or described in 

 any printed publication, may, upon payment of the fee pre- 

 scribed and other due proceedings had, obtain a patent on 

 the same. 



Every patent contains a short title or description of the 

 invention or discovery, correctly indicating its nature and 

 design, and a grant to the patentee, his heirs or assigns, for 

 the term of seventeen years of the exclusive right to make, 

 use, and vend the invention or discovery throughout the 

 United States and the Territories, referring to the specifica-. 

 tion for the particulars thereof. 



If it appears that the inventor, at the time of making his 

 application, believed himself to be the original and first in- 

 ventor or discoverer, a patent will not be refused on account 

 of the invention or discovery or any part thereof having 

 been known or used in a foreign country before his inven- 

 vention or discovery thereof, if it had not been patented or 

 described in a printed publication. 



No person shall be debarred from receiving a patent for 

 his invention by reason of its having been first patented in 

 a foreign country, unless the application for the foreign 

 patent was filed more than seven months prior to the filing 

 of the application in this country. But every patent granted 

 for an invention which has been previously patented in a 

 foreign country shall be so limited as to expire at the same 

 time with the foreign patent, or if there be more than one, 

 at the same time with the one having the shortest term, but 

 in no case shall it be in force more than seventeen years. 



Joint inventors are entitled to a joint patent; neither can 

 claim one separately. Independent inventors of distinct 

 and independent improvements in the same machine can- 

 not obtain a joint patent for their separate inventions; nor 

 does the fact that one furnishes the capital and another 

 makes the invention entitle them to make application as 

 joint inventors ; but in such cases they may become joint 

 patentees. 



