ON THE LAWS RELATING TO LETTERS No. II. THE PATENT LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The Laws relating to Patents for Inventions, now in force in the United States of America, are those approved and passed by the Legislature of that country, on July 4th, 1836, March 3rd, 1837, and March 3rd, 1839. There is also another act, passed August 29th, 1842, by which a new class of subjects is protected. This act is similar in operation to the Consolidated Designs Copyright Act, 5 and 6 Vict., c. 100, lately passed by our own Legislature, and is intended to protect new and original designs in metal and other materials; woollen, silk, cotton, and other prints; busts, statues, bas-reliefs; new and useful patterns, prints, pictures, original shapes or configurations of any article of manufacture, &c. &c. There are also some new regulations relative to patents, such as stamping the name of the patentee and date of the patent on all patented articles, but the act does not repeal or change the laws under which patents are granted, but is merely additional thereto. We have not thought it necessary to give all these acts in detail, as there are many parts which merely refer to the internal regulations of the Patent Office, and the salaries to be paid by Government to the officers and servants employed therein; but every portion of the several acts which can at all interest the inventor or patentee, has been carefully extracted and given verbatim, together with such information and instructions, direct from the Commissioner of Patents, at Washington, as may tend to explain the acts and their bearing upon the interests of invenThose paragraphs which are marked by inverted commas, are verbatim copies from the acts themselves, and a reference to the act and section of the act is given at the end of each paragraph so marked. tors. "Patents are granted to any person or persons that may have invented or discovered any new and useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement on any art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, not known or used by others before his or their discovery or invention thereof, and not, at the time of his application for a patent, in public use, or on sale, with his or their consent, or allowance, as the inventor or discoverer."—Act of 1836, sec. 6. The term for which a patent is granted is fourteen years; but it may, under certain circumstances, be renewed for seven years, as hereinafter mentioned. Patents are granted to citizens of the United States, to aliens who shall have been resident in the United States one year next preceding, and shall have made oath of their intention to become citizens thereof, and also to foreigners who are inventors or discoverers. "No person shall be debarred from receiving a patent for any invention or discovery, as provided in the act, approved on the fourth day of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six, to which this is additional, by reason of the same having been patented in a foreign country more than six months prior to his application; provided that the same shall not have been introduced into public and common use in the United States prior to the application for such patent."-Act of March 3rd, 1839, sec. 6. "Every person or corporation who has, or shall have, purchased or constructed any newly-invented machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, prior to the application by the inventor or discoverer for a patent, shall be held to possess the right to use, and vend to others to be used, the specific machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, so made or purchased, without liability therefor to the inventor or any person interested in such invention; and no patent shall be held to be invalid by reason of such purchase, sale, or use, prior to the application for a patent as aforesaid, except on proof of abandonment of such invention to the public, or that such purchase, sale, or prior use, has been for more than two years prior to such application for a patent."-Act of March 3rd, 1839, sec. 7. A patent, taken out by an inventor in a foreign country, will not affect his right to a patent in the United States, provided the invention has not been introduced into public and common use in the United States prior to the application for such patent. In every such case the American patent is limited to fourteen years, from the date of the foreign letters-patent. A patent will not be granted for any new invention imported from a foreign country, unless the person who introduced it be the inventor or discoverer. If an alien neglects to put and continue on sale the invention in the United States, to the public, on reasonable terms, for eighteen months, the patentee loses all benefit of the patent. Joint inventors are entitled to a joint patent, but neither can claim one separately. An inventor can assign his right before a patent is obtained, so as to enable the assignee to take out a patent in his own name; but the assignment must be first entered on record; and the application for a patent must be duly made, and the specification signed, and sworn to by the inventor. And in the case of an assignment by a foreigner, the same fee will be required as if the patent issued to the inventor. But The assignment of a patent may be for the whole or for an undivided part, "by an instrument in writing." All assignments, and also the grant or conveyance of the use of the patent in any town, county, State, or specified district, must be recorded in the Patent Office within three months from date of the same. assignments, if recorded after the three months have expired, will be on record as notice to protect against subsequent purchases. No fee is now charged for recording assignments. Patents, grants, and assignments recorded prior to the 15th of December, 1836, must be recorded anew before they can be valid as evidence of any title. This is also done free of expense. In case of the decease of an inventor, before he has obtained a patent for his invention, "the right of applying for and obtaining such patent shall devolve on the administrator or executor of such person, in trust for the heirs-at-law of the deceased, in case he shall have died intestate; but if otherwise, then in trust for his devisees, in as full and ample manner, and under the same conditions, limitations, and restrictions, as the same was held, or might have been claimed or enjoyed, by such person, in his or her life time; and when application for a patent shall be made by such legal representatives, the oath or affirmation shall be so varied as to be applicable to them."-Act of 1836, sec. 10. The Patent Office will be open for examination during office hours, and applicants can personally, or by their agents, satisfy themselves, on inspecting the models and specifications, of the expediency of filing an application for a patent. All fees received are paid into the Treasury, and the law has required the payment of the patent fee before the application is considered; two-thirds of which fee is refunded on withdrawing the application. But no money is refunded on the withdrawal of an application, after an appeal has been taken from the decision of the Commissioner of Patents. And no part of the fee paid for caveats, and on applications for the addition of improvements, re-issues, and appeals, can be withdrawn. It is a frequent practice for inventors to send a description of their inventions to the office, and inquire whether there exists any thing like it, and whether a patent can be obtained. As the law does not provide for the examination of descriptions of new inventions, except upon application for a patent, no answers can be given to such inquiries. On the Application for a Patent. No application can be examined until the fee for the patent is paid, and the specification, model, and drawings filed. The application for a patent must be made by petition to the Commissioner of Patents, signifying a desire of obtaining an exclusive property in the invention or discovery, and praying that a patent may be granted for the invention, which petition should be signed by the inventor. Description or Specification. "Before any inventor shall receive a patent for any such new invention or discovery, he shall deliver a written description of his invention or discovery, and of the manner and process of making, constructing, using, and compounding the same, in such full, clear, and exact terms, avoiding unnecessary prolixity, 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 any machine, he shall fully explain the principle, and the several modes in which he has contemplated the application of that principle or character by which it may be distinguished from other inventions; and shall particularly specify and point out the part, improvement, or combination, which he claims as his own invention or discovery."-Act of 1836, sec. 6. A defective specification or drawing may be amended at any time before a patent has issued; in which case the applicant will be required to make oath anew. Of New Improvements. "Whenever the original patentee shall be desirous of adding to the description and specification of any new improvement of the original invention or discovery, which shall have been invented or discovered by him, subsequent to the date of his patent, he may (like proceedings being had in all respects as in the case of original applications, and on the payment of fifteen dollars, as hereinafter mentioned) have the same annexed to the original description and specification; and the Commissioner shall certify, on the margin of such annexed description and specification, the time of its being annexed and recorded; and the same shall thereafter have the same effect in law, to all intents and purposes, as though it had been embraced in the original description and specification."-Act of 1836, sec. 13. In all such cases, the claim in the original patent is subjected to a re-examination; and if it shall appear that any part of the claim was not original at the time of granting the patent, a disclaimer of such part must be filed in the Patent Office, or the specification of claims restricted, by having the patent re-issued, before the improvement can be added. And if there is not any thing which can be claimed, the improvement cannot be added, but may be secured by a separate patent, on the payment of the fee of thirty dollars, if the inventor is a citizen. If the patent was VOL. XXII. Ꮓ granted before the 15th of December, 1836, a model and drawings of the invention, as first patented, verified by oath, must be furnished, unless dispensed with by the Commissioner. No patent for an improvement can be granted to the original inventor, assignee, or possessor of a patent granted before the 15th of December, 1836, until a model and drawings of the invention, as originally patented, verified by oath, shall have been deposited, unless dispensed with by the Commissioner. If the applicant be an alien, and have resided one year in the United States next preceding the application, and have given legal notice of his intention to become a citizen of the United States, he must make oath to these facts before he can apply for a patent for the same fee as that paid by a citizen. Of Drawings, Specimens of Ingredients, and Models. The law requires that the applicant for a patent "shall accompany the whole with a drawing or drawings, and written references, where the nature of the case admits of drawings; or with specimens of, ingredients and of the composition of matter sufficient in quantity for the purpose of experiment, where the invention or discovery is of a composition of matter; which descriptions and drawings, signed by the inventor and attested by two witnesses, shall be filed in the Patent Office; and he shall moreover furnish a model of his invention, in all cases which admit of a representation by model of a convenient size, to exhibit advantageously its several parts. The applicant shall also make oath or affirmation that he does verily believe that he is the original and first inventor or discoverer of the art, machine, composition, or improvement, for which he solicits a patent, and that he does not know or believe that the same was ever before known or used; and also of what country he is a citizen."—Act of July, 1836, sec. 6. The drawings should, in general, be in perspective, and neatly executed; and such parts as cannot be shewn in perspective, must, if described, be represented in section or detail. Duplicates of them are required, as one must accompany the patent when issued, as explanatory of it, and one must be kept on file in the office. The drawings must be signed by the patentee, and attested by two witnesses, except when the specification describes the sections or figures, and refers to the parts by letters; in which case they are neither required to be signed nor accompanied by written references upon the drawings, the whole making one instrument. Drawings are absolutely necessary, when the case admits of them. An examination, as to originality of invention, may be made on a single drawing; but duplicates will be required before the patent issues. |