4. OPPOSITION TO THE GRANT OF PATENT Before a patent is granted, but after the complete specification has been "accepted," i.e. passed by the Patent Office, interested parties may, within two months, oppose the grant, and, if successful, prevent a patent from being sealed; or, as a condition of the sealing, obtain a variation in the complete specification. The opposition must be based on either of three grounds, viz. (1) that the invention sought to be patented has been obtained from the opponent, or from a person of whom he is the legal representative; (2) that it has been patented in this country on an application of prior date; or (3) that the complete specification covers an invention which is not in the provisional specification, and that this invention forms the subject of an application made by the opponent in the interval between the leaving of the provisional specification and the leaving of the complete specification. Oppositions are conducted before the Comptroller of Patents. They are comparatively inexpensive proceedings, and are of value in preventing litigation, or in clearing the ground for future litigious proceedings. From the decision of the Comptroller, an appeal lies to the Law Officers of the Crown. Owing to the difficulty of deciding whether inventions are the same, and that opponents are often satisfied with acknowledgments in the specifications of their prior claims to novelty of some portion of the subject-matter which is described, and that the refusal of patents prevents subsequent adjudications by the Courts, the specifications are more usually allowed to be varied in order to meet the opposition than the outright The variations, however, in the Solicitor-General from the decision of the Comptroller. When amended, the specification takes for all purposes the place of the original specification, except where an action for damages has been brought for infringements which took place before the specification was amended. In this case, it is in the discretion of the judge before whom the action is brought to allow damages as though the specification had been amended, and as though the patent had been valid at the date of the infringement. The correction of clerical errors in or in connection with an application for a patent is also specially provided for in the Act of 1883. Proposed amendments are advertised, and opportunity afforded for opposition to the proposals. In practice, no amendment in the substance of a provisional specification is allowed. When an action for infringement or proceeding for the revocation of a patent is pending, leave to apply at the Patent Office to disclaim a portion of the specification which is in question must be obtained from the judge before whom the case is pending. The judge, in giving the leave, may impose such terms as he thinks fit. The amendment of specifications before their publication, i.e. before the acceptance of the complete specification, is dealt with in virtue of powers given to the Patent Office when the specifications are under examination (p. 118). CHAPTER II The Construction or Interpretation of I. THE POSITION AND IMPORTANCE OF CONSTRUCTION By considering the subject of construction or interpretation of specifications apart from other topics, many of the difficult questions that arise when patents are under adjudication are rendered easy of solution. Provided the process and function |