Patent
an exclusive right granted open, whence the name) to any person by a government (in letters patent or or persons to manufacture and sell a invention. A patent obtained in England extends to 14 years, and several of the colonies have machinery for granting, patents for a like period. In France the term is 5, 10, or 15 years at the option PATENT of the applicant; in Prussia for 15 years; in Russia for 3, 5, or 15 years; in Spain for 5, 10, or 20 years; in Belgium for 20 years; in Holland there are no patent laws; in Austria not more than 15 years; in Hungary 15 years. In the United States the person applying for a patent may present a petition, specification, oath, and filing fee, with a drawing if the nature of the case admits of it. Sec. 4884 "Revised Statutes of the United States" reads: "Every patent shall contain 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 17 years of the exclusive right to make, use and vend the invention or discovery throughout the United States and the Territories thereof."
Design patents are granted for periods of three years and six months, seven years, or 14 years, at discretion of the applicant. Patents are extended only by special congressional legislation. The filing of a caveat power to applying for a patent entitles the inventor to notice of an interfering application filed during the life of the caveat (one year), during which he may perfect his invention. The alleged inventions set forth in caveats are transferable. Special facilities are given American inventors for securing patents in foreign countries, by a provision for keeping an application in the secret archives of the patent office for six months, to enable the inventor to arrange foreign patents. PATENT dependent of the mere form and proportions of the thing used for the purpose, may generally, if not universally, be considered as the principle of the invention. As a cumulative definition, it may be said that novelty consists in producing a new substance, or an old one in a new way, by new machinery, or by a new combination of the parts of an old machine, operating in a peculiar, better, cheaper or quicker method, or a new mechanical employment of principles already known. No person otherwise entitled thereto is debarred from receiving a patent for his invention or discovery by reason of its having been first patented or caused to be patented by the inventor or his legal representatives or assigns in a foreign country, unless the application for said foreign patent was filed more than seven months prior to the filing of the application in this country.
Applications.- Applications for a patent must be made in writing to the Commissioner of Patents. The applicant must also file in the Patent Office a written description of the same, and of the manner and process of making, constructing, compounding, and using it in such full, clear, concise and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art or science to which it appertains or with which it is most nearly connected, to make, construct, compound, and use the same; and in case of a machine he must explain the principle thereof and the best mode in which he has contemplated applying that principle, so as to distinguish it from other inventions, and particularly point out and distinctly claim the part, improvement or combination which he claims as his invention or discovery. The specification and claim must be signed by the inventor and attested by two witnesses. Patentable Inventions. By the statute of 1870 it was enacted that an invention to be patentable, must possess, among other qualifications, that of newness.
He who produces an old result by a new mode or process is entitled to a patent for that mode or process; but he cannot have a patent for a result merely without using some new mode or process to produce it. A man is entitled to all the benefits of the article which he has invented and patented. Another who happens to discover an additional use to which the invention may be applied does not, by that discovery and application create a patentable novelty. When there is an original principle of operation, a different result in kind, or a new combination, there exists a patentable nov-covery. elty. When either the manufacture produced or the manner of producing an old one is new, there is the novelty contemplated by the patent laws. The safest guide to accuracy in making the distinction between form and principle has been adjudged to be to ascertain what is the result to be secured by the discovery.
Whatever is essential to that object, in-
When the nature of the case admits of drawings the applicant must furnish a drawing of the required size, signed by the inventor or his attorney in fact, and attested by two witnesses. In all cases which admit of representation by model, the applicant, if required by the Patent Office, shall furnish a model of conveni ent size to exhibit advantageously the several parts of his invention or dis- The applicant shall make oath that he believes himself to be the original and first inventor or discoverer of the art, machine, manufacture, composition or improvement for which he solicits a patent; that he does not know and does not believe that the same was ever before known or used before his invention or discovery thereof, and shall state of what 1 PATENT PATERNOSTER country he is a citizen and where he Granted-Patents on mechanical oath that the invention has not been inventions 37,316 two years prior to his application. If the applicant must distinctly state under Granted-Reissue patents oath that the invention has not been Granted-Design patents patented or described in any printed pub- Registered-Trade-marks lication in any country before his inven- Registered-Labels tion or discovery thereof or more than Registered-Prints 2,102 6,984 ... 622 158 Total 47,409 any application for patent has been filed in any foreign country by the applicant in the United States, or by his legal representatives or assigns, prior to his application in the United States, he shall state the country or countries in which such application has been filed, giving the date of such application, and shall also state that no application has been filed in any other country or countries of his knowledge and belief the invention had not been in public use or on sale in the United States, for more than two years prior to his application.
On the filing of such application and the payment of the fees required by law, if, on examination, it appears that the applicant is justly entitled to a patent under the law, and that the same is sufficiently useful and important, the Commissioner will issue a patent therefor. Every patent or therein shall be assignable in law by an instrument in writing; and the patentee or his assigns or legal representatives may, in like manner, grant and convey an exclusive right under his patent to the whole or any specified part of the United States. any interest Reissues. A reissue is granted to the original patentee, his legal representatives or the assignees of the entire interest when, by reason of a defective or insufficient specification, or by reason of the patentee claiming as his invention or discovery more than he had a right to the patentee claiming as his invention or claim as new, the original patent is inoperative or invalid, provided the error operative or invalid, provided the error or mistake, without any fraudulent or deceptive intention. Reissue applications must be made and the specifications sworn to by the inventors if they be tions must be made and the specifications living.
Fees. Fees paid in advance are as follows: On filing each original application for a patent, except in design cases, $15. On issuing each original patent, except in design cases, $20. In design cases, for three years and six months $10; for seven years $15, for 14 years $30. On every application for the reissue of a patent $30. On filing each disclaimer $10. Following are the figures for patents granted and applied for at the Patent Office in 1920.
Number of applications filed for- Inventions Designs Reissues Trade-marks Labels Prints Total 81,948 4,110 322 14,710 1,280 570 102,940