STATUTES OF RELATING TO LETTERS PATENT. The King's preamble. Patents to be granted foreign inventions as well us domestic. To be without prejudice to others, and void if not new. Duration and cost. Prolongation of patents. Laws of the 25th January, 1817, concerning the granting of Exclu sive Privileges for Inventions and Improvements in objects of Art and Industry. WE, William, by the grace of God, King of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange, Nassau, Grand Duke of Luxemburg, &c. &c. &c. To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting: Whereas we have taken into our consideration the importance of fixing certain general rules for the granting of exclusive privileges for inventions and improvements in objects of art and industry: Having heard our Council of State, and in common accord with our States General, have ordained as we do ordain by these presents: ART. 1.—There shall be granted by us within this kingdom, for inventions and real improvements in certain branches of art and industry, as well as on the first introduction or putting into activity in this country of such foreign objects or inventions and improvements, exclusive rights for a stated term by letters patent, on our being applied to for that purpose. ART. 2.-These letters patent shall be granted without prejudice to any other party, and thus shall have no value when it shall that the invention or improvement for which any one may have obtained a patent, had been used or employed by any other in this kingdom before the granting of the letters patent. appear ART. 3.-Patents of invention shall be granted for the terms of five, ten, or fifteen years. The dues or taxes to be paid by the applicant shall be proportioned to the duration of the patent and the importance of the invention or improvement, but shall never exceed the sum of 750 florins, nor be less than 150.. ART. 4.-A patent of invention for the term of five or ten years may likewise be prolonged at the expiration of the term, should there exist sufficient reason to favor such demand, but its duration shall never exceed the term of fifteen years. ventions to ART. 5.-Patents of importation, for the introduction or the Imported inapplication of inventions or of improvements made in foreign coun bear same date tries, for which the authors may be the patentees, cannot be granted as their for a longer term than that of the duration of such patent in the patents. foreign country, and contains the express clause that the objects Shall be manumentioned shall be manufactured in the kingdom. ART. 6. Patents of invention guarantee to their possessors or Rights of Paassigns the authority, factured in the Kingdom. tentees in case ment. To manufacture and sell exclusively through all the kingdom, of infringeduring the term of the patent, or to cause or license to be made and sold by others, the objects of which the patent consists": To proceed against, before the courts, such persons who may be guilty of any infringements on his invested rights, to the effect of obtaining the confiscation, to their profit, of all objects made in Goods or mainfraction of his rights, and not yet sold, and of the price of the goods which are already sold, as likewise to institute an action for damages and interests, to the extent of the wrong done. chines forfeited to Patentee., ART. 7.-Any person demanding a patent of invention is required What docuto deposit an exact detailed description, signed by himself, of the ments are required. object or secret for which he wishes to obtain a patent, accompanied by the necessary plans and designs. This description will be pub- Process published at the lished after the expiration of the term of the duration of the patent, expiration or whether as an original one or under a prolongation thereof, or when forfeiture of the patent may have become annulled for any of the before-men- patent. tioned causes. The government may, nevertheless, defer this publication, if, for important reasons, it should think fit. ART. 8.-A patent of invention shall be declared null for any of When declarthe following causes : ed void. When it shall appear that the petitioner has wilfully omitted Fraud, or some part of his secret, or has given a fraudulent explanation in omission. his specification. If it should appear that the object for which a patent has been Not new. granted, has been previously printed and published in some work. When the party who may have obtained a patent has not made Not put in practice. use of his privilege within two years of the grant, unless for some weighty reasons, of which the government will judge. If any person, after having obtained a patent of invention, should If patented in obtain one in any other country. other coun tries. If it should appear that the invention, for which the patent is If dangerous granted, be dangerous in its nature or application to the security to government. of the kingdom or of its inhabitants. ART. 9.-An account shall be kept separate of the dues paid by Premiums. those who obtain patents of invention, and the produce shall be employed as premiums of encouragement for the national arts and industry. ART. 10.-Are abrogated or annulled by these presents, the laws Previous enand regulations existing as to patents of inventions and other simi- nulled. actments an Execution of the law. lar exclusive rights. It is to be observed, nevertheless, that those to whom patents of invention have been granted prior to this day, shall be maintained in possession of all their rights. Ordered, that the present law shall be inserted in the "Staats, blad," and that our ministers and other authorities whom it may concern, shall require its strict execution. Given at Brussels the 25th January, 1817, the fourth year of our reign. (Signed,) GUILLAUME. Law respecting delinquents. When dues Law of 17th August, 1827. We, Guillaume, having seen the report of our Minister of Inteterior, dated the 16th of June, No. 103, on the measures to be taken to put an end to the neglect of persons who obtain patents of invention, to pay the dues on such patents, and to claim their posses sion : Having heard our Council of State,— Seeing the law of 25th January, 1817, (Official Journal,) we agreeing with the above advice, we have found good, and enact to authorise our Minister of Interior : 1st. To require of the demanders of patents on depositing the must be paid. petition and document, to give a declaration by which they engage to accept the patent if it be accorded, and to pay the dues within three months from the date thereof, and to submit in the event of the not fulfilling this engagement, to have their patent annulled, and the invention made public. Must put invention in activity. 2d. To require of the persons who shall have obtained a patent, an engagement to put the object which constitutes their patent into activity within the limited term required by the law, on pain of seeing the invention made public. A copy of this act, as likewise the advice of the Council of State, shall be transmitted for execution to our Minister of Interior, and for information to the Council of State. Done at Laeken, the 17th August, 1827. GUILLAUME. J. G. DE MEY VAN STREEFKERK. Patents of importationhow prepare and address. Regulation for the execution of the Law of 25th January, 1817, and the delivery of Patents of Invention, Importation, and Improve ment. ART. 1.-Those who wish to obtain a patent of invention, importation, or improvement, must deliver, at the Secretariat of the provincial government, a petition to the King, containing the general object of his demand, his name, Christian name, and domicile, as likewise the term for which he desires to obtain a patent, and for which the object may already have been patented in a foreign country. There must be added under seal an exact description detailed Description and signed by him, of the object or secret for which the patent is and plans. demanded, accompanied by plans and designs in conformity with Art. 7, of the law of 25th January, 1817. ART. 2.-The proper officer of the provincial government will To be endors make a declaration on the back of the sealed package, (Form I.) ed by governof the exact date of the deposit of the petition and accompanying of date of dement officer, pieces: and the declaration (procès-verbal) shall be signed by him posit. and by the petitioner, to whom there must be delivered a copy. Minister of ART. 3.-The governor of the province will immediately, or at Gov. to address latest, within the term of ten days from the date of the deposit, Interior. address the demand to the Minister of Interior. ART. 4.-The Commissary-General will present the petition to How petition the King with his report; and when it is considered that the demand to be present ed to the King. is of that nature that it may be granted, the patent is joined to the report for the signature of his Majesty. notified. ART. 5.-When the King shall judge proper not to accord the If refused, demand, or to send it up for the opinion of the Royal Institution petitioner of the Netherlands, or of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres at Bruxelles, information shall be given to the petitioner. ART. 6.—The patent (Form No. 2,) shall contain the descrip- Of forms. tion of the invention; it shall indicate the rights which it gives to the proprietors, according to Art. 6, of the law of the 25th Jan. 1817, and shall expressly mention that the government, in granting the patent, guarantees in no wise the priority nor the merit of the invention, and that it reserves the faculty of declaring the patent null for one of the causes indicated in Art. 8 of the law. A patent of importation for an object patented in a foreign Regulation country shall contain, likewise, the express declaration that the of foreign ingovernment does not guarantee the truth of the assertion of the ventions when previously petitioner respecting the duration of the patent of which it is an patented importation. It will, likewise, contain the clause, prescribed by abroad. Art. 5 of the law, that the objects mentioned, and in which the The invention patent consists, shall be made in the country. must be manufactured in the ART 7.-Any person wishing to procure a prolongation for a country. patent, of five or ten years, (Art. 4,) should make his demand to Demands for the Commissary-General of instruction in the arts and sciences, extension of who will make his report to the King. patent, to whom addressed. These prolongations will be likewise signed by the King. ART. 8.-Any proprietor of a patent, who by a new invention Patents of adhas improved that for which he has obtained a patent, may obtain dition how a patent of addition, for the term for which his former patent has granted. to run, or, on the terms fixed by Article 3 of the law of 25th January, a new patent for the exercise of his new means may be obtained. Must pass through the same formali ties as at first. ART. 9.-To obtain this patent he must pass through the same formalities as for the first. With respect to the dues to be defrayed, this will be regulated proportionably to the length of time which he has still to enjoy his patent, and in proportion to the importance of the improvement.. When patents ART. 10.-If any person discover a means of improvement, on are granted for an invention already patented, he may obtain patents for the excluimprovements sive exercise of such means of improvements, without his being on unexpired patents which permitted, however, under any pretext, to use, or cause to be used, do not origi- the original invention, as long as such patent shall be in use; and nate with the reciprocally without the original patentee being allowed to make rights of each use of the new improvement until the patent for the same is expired. owners. The party. How transfers. of patents Are not admitted, as objects of improvement, mere alterations in form or proportion, nor ornaments, of whatsoever kind they may be. ÅRT. 11.—Any proprietor of a patent, who may wish to transfer his patent, wholly or in part, to another party, is required first to must be made. obtain the authority of the King. He must, under pain of nullification, register the transfer at the Secrétariat of the provincial government, where a procès-verbal, in conformity with Form No. 3, will be made up, which shall be transmitted directly to the Commissary-General of Instruction in the Arts and Sciences. This procès-verbal shall be entered in the register, or book of enrolment, of which mention will be made hereafter. When patents ART. 12.-Likewise, those who by right of succession become are inherited. proprietors of a patent, shall, before taking possession of their rights, have the same registered at the Secrétariat of the province, where a procès-verbal shall be made up in conformity with Form No. 4, which shall be transmitted directly to the CommissaryGeneral of Instruction in the Arts and Sciences. This procèsverbal shall be registered or enrolled, as will be mentioned hereafter. Patents expir- ART. 13.-On the expiration of a patent, or when a patent shall ed or annulled, have been declared null for any of the causes provided in Art. 8 published. of the law of the 25th January, the Commissary-General of Instruction shall take suitable measures to publish' such inventions or improvements. Sometimes the patent is not made known at its expira tion. ART. 14.-If at the expiration of a patent, or in consequence of one of the cases provided in Art. 8, and if the Commissary-General of Instruction does not think proper, for any political or commercial reasons, to publish the discovery, he shall make his report to the King, who shall decide whether it shall be made public or not. ART. 15. The Commissary-General of Instruction shall forward patent is dethe letters patent of invention or importation, granted and signed livered after by the King, to the governor of the province where the domicile being granted. of the patentee is recorded, informing him of the amount which is required to be paid for the patent. The governor will then How the |