STATUTES OF SARDINIA

RELATING TO LETTERS PATENT.

Royal Decree of the 28th February, 1826, by which His Majesty orders certain régulations in respect to exclusive Privileges.

CHARLES-FELIX, by the grace of God, King of Sardinia, &c. &c. &c.

We are informed that, amongst the persons whom we have honoured and encouraged by the concession of exclusive privileges, there are some who neglect altogether, or retard beyond all reasonable delay, the setting to work of the machines, and putting into a state of activity the manufactures for which they have obtained a privilege; and that, in consequence, industry in general derives no more any benefit from the protection and favour which we accord to the authors of useful discoveries, to those who improve them, or to those who are the first to import into our States the inventions which foreign countries enjoy. Wherefore, it appears to us right to enact certain measures, by means of which, while continuing efficiently to protect the inventors and importers of every useful art, native industry shall no longer have to suffer from the negligence pointed out above.

ART. 1. The authors of discoveries, proper to create or improve of exclusive any branch of industry, the importers into our States of useful privileges. foreign inventions, and the editors of works, which shall be deemed worthy thereof, may alone obtain a privilege.

We reserve to ourselves to recompense in another manner, if so be that they deserve it, the inventors or importers of discoveries, which, although likely to be of use, are not sufficiently important to merit the favor of a privilege.

ART. 2.-Patents shall be only for a time; their duration shall Duration of be computed from the date of the patent of concessions, but they patents. shall not have effed with reference to the public but from the day of their publication.

ART. 3.-Requests for privileges shall be addressed by the inter- Petition and mission of our Secretary of State for the Interior. The request specification. shall contain the sort of industry or discovery which is to be the object of the privilege, the duration, and the place of working it;

Models and

and, besides, the demand shall be accompanied by models, designs, figures, or illustrations, which may suffice to convey a complete and easy understanding of the thing.

ART. 4. When the letters patent shall be granted, the models, designs sent to designs, figures, and descriptions above-mentioned, shall be sent to our Academy of Sciences at Turin, where they shall remain deposited.

Turin..

Magistrates may demand

contents of patent.

When put in activity.

How, when and where recorded.

Must prove the putting of patents in activity in time.

Of previous grants.

ART. 5.-The magistrates presiding over commerce, and all bodies, who, by the nature of their functions, shall have it amongst their duties to take cognizance thereof, may always demand a communication of the same.

ART. 6.—In all patents granting a privilege. shall be fixed a period within which the works of industry, which constitute the object of the patent, shall be put in execution.

ART. 7. When the patents concede a privilege available throughout the whole extent of the State, they shall be recorded at all the Consulates and Tribunals of Commerce; but they shall be enrolled only at the Consulate of Turin, and the Consulate or Tribunal of Commerce of the district within which the privilege is restricted, when the same does not extend beyond the prescribed part of the country. Besides, all patents granting privileges shall be published in the places, and according to the ordinary forms, within three months from their dates, in default of which they shall be of none effect.

ART. 8.-Those who have obtained a privilege ought to produce proof before the Consulate at Turin, and, besides, before the Consulate or Tribunal of Commerce of the district, in which they exercise their industry so privileged, that they have put it in operation within the period fixed by the letters patent.

ART. 9.-Persons who shall have obtained a patent before the date of these presents, and of which the duration has not as yet expired, must, within the space of three months, conform themselves to the conditions prescribed in the 7th and 8th Articles. ART. 10. The grantees must in every year verify before the each year the Consulate or Tribunal of Commerce of the district, and in all of patent, and cases before the Consulate of Turin, that they continue to maingive samples. tain in activity the particular branch of industry for which they

Must prove

continued use

If manufacture prove inferior, right void.

-

nave obtained a privilege, and that they have, besides, presented and deposited at our Academy of Sciences at Turin, a sample of the manufacture of the preceding year, when the privilege has for its object some fabric or manufacture.

ART. 11. When the products of the industry invested with a patent shall be found to be inferior, the Academy of Sciences at Turin shall apprise our Secretary of State for the Interior thereof; and in case that the privilege extends to the entire State, the Minister shall give notice thereof to the Consulate at Turin, in order to have pronounced thereby the forfeiture of the same. If the privilege were limited to a part of the country, notice shall be given to the same end to the Consulate or Tribunal of Commerce of the district, always advising, besides, the Consulate at Turin.

ART. 12.-The Consulate of Turin, and the Consulates and Magistrates to Tribunals of Commerce of the district for which the privilege has report delinquencies. been granted, shall make known regularly, and at the proper time, to our department of the Interior, if the grantees have, or not, complied with the obligations imposed upon them by the patent. Those who shall not have complied therewith, and shall not have fulfilled the conditions prescribed by the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th articles, shall forfeit their privilege.

ART. 13.—At the expiration of the duration of the privilege, and Void and exat all times when the grantees shall have forfeited their rights, the pired patents, Consulate of Turin shall make it known to the public by publica- certain places. published in tion; and every one may freely exercise the industry in question. When the question is about a privilege available only in a part of the State, besides the publication of the Consulate of Turin, there shall be a particular one made by the Consulate or Tribunal of Commerce of the district for which the privilege has been granted. These publications shall always be inserted in the Piedmontese Gazette.

ART. 14.-The Consulates and Tribunals of Commerce are Of frauds. specially charged to take care that no fraud be committed to the prejudice of those who have obtained privileges.

lists, &c.

ART. 15.—Our Academy of Sciences of Turin shall publish a The Academy list of privileges granted: mention shall be made therein of the of Sciences shall publish object and duration of such privileges. It is equally charged with the publication of the patents, the term of which shall have expired. This publication shall comprise the description of the processes of the industry, with the figures and designs necessary for the perfect understanding thereof.

ART. 16.-The epoch of the publication of these patents shall When made be fixed by our first Secretary of State of the Interior, who shall public. at the same time submit to us a way of meeting the expenses,

which shall be required for the before-mentioned objects.

ART. 17.-Grants and renunciations in favor of third parties Assignmentsshall be null and void, whenever they shall not have been in the how made. first instance approved by us; and in that case, the privilege, which shall have been the object of such grant or renunciation, shall be immediately regarded as revoked.

ART. 18. We declare, exempt from the preceding conditions, Of authors. the authors of all books and designs, which shall be published in our States, in conformity with the laws in force in matter of the press. We will that they should enjoy the exclusive right of printing and selling their works during a period of fifteen years; on their making, nevertheless, an express declaration of a wish to avail themselves of this right; and on condition, that before every publication they shall have deposited a copy at the office of the Secretary of the Interior; and one also in each of the Libraries of the University of Turin, of our Academy of Sciences, and of our Archives of the Court.

We order all, whose duty it is, to observe and cause to be

observed, these presents; and to the magistrates of the Consulate
of Turin, to enrol them; it being our will, that the copies printed
at the Royal Printing-office should be regarded as authentic.
Given at Turin, the 28th February, 1826, and in the sixth year
of our reign.

CHARLES-FELIX.

Term of Art. extended.

Amendments respecting enrolments.

Shall be pub

lished in the chief towns.

Of proofs of

notice.

Patentees of

By which his Majesty prorogues for three months the time fixed by Art. 7th of the Royal Decree of the 28th February, 1826, for the enrolment and publication of Letters of Privilege, and modifies some other dispositions of the same Decree.

CHARLES-FELIX, by the grace of God, King of Sardinia, &c. Albeit, that we always remain in the firm intention of not granting particular privileges, but to those authors alone, designated in the first article of our Decree of 28th February, 1826, and that for objects really worthy from their well-established utility; we are willing also, on the other hand, that those who have already obtained the grant of any privilege, may also the more easily preserve the enjoyment thereof. To this end, we have judged it right to prolong the term fixed for the enrolment and publication of those privileges; and to modify at the same time some other dispositions of the same Decree.

In consequence, we have, by these presents, and of our full authority, and with the advice of our Council, ordered as follows:

7 ART. 1.—The term of three months fixed by the 7th Art. of our Decree of the 28th February, 1826, is extended to six months from the grant of the privilege.

-

ART. 2. The enrolment of these letters patent shall no longer take place at the Tribunals of Commerce of the Duchy of Genoa. Henceforward it shall be sufficient that they shall be enrolled by the Senate of Genoa, and the Consulates of Turin, Chambery, and Nice, according as they extend to our entire States, or shall be limited to the respective parts of our territories.

ART. 3.-These letters patent shall be published in the chief towns of the provinces alone, and shall be obligatory in all the communes which are dependent thereon.

ART. 4.-The proofs and the notice, of which mention is made in 8th, 10th, and 11th Arts. of our Decree above-mentioned, shall be furnished only by the Senate of Genoa, and the Consulate aforesaid, which shall transmit forthwith to our Department of the Interior the information prescribed in the 12th Art.

ART. 5.-Those who, after the publication of the Manifesto of former inven- the Consulate of Turin, of date 6th March last, shall have obtained tions to con- the grant of any privileges, or a prolongation of those privileges, certain time. of which the expiration has been declared in the same Manifesto,

form within a

and which shall not have as yet fulfilled all the formalities of the enrolment and publication prescribed by our Decree of 1826, may supply the same by conforming themselves, to the end of April next, to the dispositions of the present Decree, without prejudice, however, to the rights of third parties acquired before the publication of these presents.

ART. 6. All the other dispositions of our Decree of 1826, which All other acts are not specially derogated from by these presents, shall be main- to remain in tained to their full effect.

We order and command, &c.

Given at Turin the 2d June, 1829, 9th year of our reign.

CHARLES-FELIX.

force.