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1883 .] Patent-Right and Patent-Law . 
defamation, in reply to criticisms on their products, quackery 
in many of its forms would be swept from the country. But 
on this subject the Government Bill is dumb. 
With chemical Patents there is a special difficulty. Shall 
new chemical compounds be patentable in themselves, or 
merely the processes by which they have been obtained in 
any particular case ? The German Patent-system takes the 
latter view, holding, rightly enough, that some better, cheaper, 
or otherwise preferable method of obtaining any new com- 
pound may be discovered. If the compound itself is patent- 
able, the public would be deprived of the benefit of such 
future discoveries. It must, however, be noted that many of 
the chemical manufacturers of Germany are by no means 
satisfied with this restriction. On the other hand, it is an 
unedifying spectacle, when a Patent has been taken out, to 
see claims for obtaining the same article, by means of agents, 
simply equivalent to those specified in the original Patent. 
Of this there was a typical instance in the many Patents 
obtained for the manufacture of magenta. On this point 
the new Bill is also silent. 
It is possible that the proposed examination of the speci- 
fications and claims of all new applications may put an end 
to what are called “ fishing ” or trailing ” claims. Some 
inventors, whether from a natural turbidity of thought or 
from a desire to reap what they have not sown, draw their 
claims in such a vague manner as to be incomprehensible. 
Nowhere in a legal or business document is absolute clear- 
ness more necessary than in a Patent-specification. Any 
person conversant with the branch of manufactures in ques- 
tion should be able to see, without the shadow of a doubt, 
what is claimed and what is left open. I trust that the 
knowledge of the official scrutiny to be passed will cause 
both inventors and their Patent-agents to be more careful as 
to the language they employ. 
If we get rid, for the future, of all Patents which are in 
whole or in part merely a re-claiming of what is already 
public property, — of all patents held by aliens, and not 
worked in this country, — of all “ fishing ” claims designed to 
entangle future inventors, and of the class of “ quantum 
valeat ” or “ bogus ” Patents, it will be the better for the 
genuine inventor, and Mr. Macfie and those who think with 
him will find many of their scruples removed. 
Space being available, I hope to return to the considera- 
tion of this subject. 
VOL. v. (third series). 
T 
