600 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Mr. Howe said that tlie provision of the bill referring to priority of inven- 

 tion had been struck out. In his practice he has found an absolute neces- 

 sity for power of compulsory attendance of witness in cases of interfer- 

 ence. It j,s much wanted. It is not quite so easy a matter to charge for 

 publication according to importance or length of specification. The dis- 

 pensing with models is an excellent idea. They are useless. Drawings 

 fulfill all conditions essential to the identification of the invention. 

 Models should be dispensed with at the discretion of the Commissioner^ 

 On an average they cost $25, which is a heavy useless tax on inventors. 

 This money could better be expended in getting up engravings and printed 

 reports as in England. The English reports, though elaborate, are got 

 out much earlier than ours. Some of those for 1859 are now in our Patent 

 Office, while ours are only down for 1858, and are wretched at that. 



Mr. Fisher. — The space occupied by engravings and printed matter 

 001 Id be charged for as advertisements are. 



Mr. Dibbin thought it impracticable to have an international reciprocity 

 of patents, as the first applicant gets the patent in England, whereas the 

 first inventor gets it here. 



Mr. Garbanati. — There ought to be a uniform charge, which would be 

 moderate, and embody the same idea as a uniform rate of postage, for com- 

 plicated inventions are, as a general thing, made by poor men, who could 

 not pay the heavy charges that would come from discriminating between 

 inventions. 



Mr. Garvey stated that in the early patent laws of England the object 

 was to introduce methods of manufacture and machinery new to the people 

 of England, so as to promote domestic manufactures and industry. There- 

 fore, whoever divulged a manufacturing secret, was guaranteed the exclu- 

 sive right to it for twenty-one years. But the necessity for that policy has 

 passed away, and now the practice of the English Patent Ofiice is. very 

 similar to the practice of ours— the original first inventor is prefoi-red and 

 gets the patent. 



Mr. Fisher showed that all the difficulties likely to occur from difference 

 of practice in the different Patent Offices are already met, and are now 

 sati:^factorily settled in courts of law. By having an advertising tax, 

 absurd fellows would be compelled to limit their specifications, or pay a 

 heavy tax. To show the worthlessness of the present Patent Office reports, 

 he read some claims from " The Railway Beview," which were exact 

 copies, four of them occupying only four inches, and conveying no valuable 

 nforniation. Our reports are not fit to be produced in a court of law ; 

 the English are. Inventors have a right to see the whole specification, and 

 not to be led into a waste of time and money. 



Mr. Garbanati alluded to the absurdity of destroying models of rejected 

 cases, or of requiring a model before the patent was agreed to be granted- 



The Chairman. — There is a tendency to use drawings alone, to the 

 exclusion of models. And all things tend to bring about an international 

 copyright. Yet different nations take different views of the value of inveu- 



