1% Patent-Law Amendment. [January, 
patent shall then lapse. It might be well to add that if a 
British patent exists for the manufacture of any article, 
the importation of such article from abroad shall be pro- 
hibited. 
There is another defeCt in the present Patent Law which 
is very objectionable, but which, singularly enough, is quite 
overlooked by the various bodies who have issued proposals 
for its amendment. Our present system is in one respeCt a 
step backwards from what is known as the “ Old Law.” 
Separate patents were indeed required for England, Ireland, 
and Scotland ; but the English patent, on payment of a 
small additional fee, covered “ all her Majesty’s possessions 
and plantations abroad.” I have never seen any reason, or 
shadow of a reason, why this Imperial scope of a patent 
was abolished. It was once said, in an off-hand manner, 
when the subjeCb was mentioned in Parliament, “ Oh, the 
Colonies have got their own Patent-systems.” Precisely ; 
and this is the very evil complained of. If an inventor 
wishes to have his invention protected throughout the whole 
British Empire he has to pay altogether about £1200. Now 
it is not within the power of the Imperial Parliament to 
extend the hoped-for new law to those colonies which have 
quasi-independent legislatures. But India and the remain- 
ing colonies might be included with the home kingdoms. 
Nor do I think that Canada, Victoria, New South Wales, 
&c., would objeCt to come in, since their Patent Offices 
would then — like that of London — have the power of 
granting Imperial patents, which would obviously be of 
much more value to inventors than the present local ones. 
There is a further innovation which I venture to think 
would be of great public utility. Following the wise ex- 
ample of Germany, we ought to exclude proprietary medi- 
cines, foods, beverages, and substitutes for foods from the 
benefits of the Patent Law. By so doing we should strike 
a deadly blow at quackery, and at various phases of fraud 
and adulteration. 
