ACTION ON THE PATENT QUESTION. 341 



who I supposed would have a special interest in the 

 matter, and asked them to form a "Patent Protection 

 Union", with the object of procuring a rational Ger- 

 man patent -law. The call was generally responded 

 to, and a short time after the Union was called into 

 existence under my presidency. I remember with 

 pleasure the stimulating debates of this Union, to 

 which eminent legal authorities such as Professor 

 Klostermann, Mayor Andre, and Dr. Rosenthal be- 

 longed. The final result of the discussions was the 

 draft of a patent -law, which essentially rested on 

 the foundation laid by me in my statement of 1863. 

 This consisted of a preliminary inquiry in regard to 

 the novelty of the invention and subsequent public 

 exhibition of the specification, thereby affording an 

 opportunity for objections to the grant; further the 

 grant of the patent for the term of fifteen years, with 

 yearly increasing impost and complete publication of 

 the patent granted; finally establishment of a patent- 

 tribunal , which on application could always declare 

 the nullity of the patent, if the originality of the in- 

 vention was afterwards successfully disputed. 



These principles gradually gained approval with 

 the public also, and even the Free Trade party of the 

 most rigid principles was quieted by the economic 

 basis of the proposal, which consisted in the protection 

 appearing as a reward for the immediate and complete 

 publication of the invention, whereby the new ideas 

 underlying the patented invention became themselves 

 industrial common property, and might even bear 



