Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 07.djvu/182

PATENT 138 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 con- tain a short title or description of the invention or discovery, correctly indi- cating its nature and design, and a grant to the |)atentee, his heirs, or assigns, for the term of 17 years of the exclusive right to make, use and vend the inven- tion 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 appli- cant. Patents are extended only by special congressional legislation. The filing of a caveat power to applying for a patent entitle? 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 pro- vision for keeping an application in the secret archives of the patent office for six months, to enable the inventor to ar- range foreign patents. 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 pro- duce it. A man is entitled to all the benefits of the article which he has in- vented and patented. Another who hap- pens 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 j^-J^" °"^"^^ principle of operation, a different result in kind, or a new com- bination, there exists a patentable nov- elty. When either the manufacture pro- duced or the manner of producing an old one is new, there is the novelty contem- plated by the patent laws. The safest guide to accuracy in making the distinc- tion 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- dependent of the mere form and propor- tions of the thing used for the purpose, may generally, if not universally, be considered as the principle of the inven- tion. 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 ma- chine, 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 receiv- ing a patent for his invention or dis- covery 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 pat- ent must be made in writing to the Com- missioner of Patents. The applicant must also file in the Patent Oflfice a writ- ten description of the same, and of the manner and process of making, con- structing, 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 contem- plated applying that principle, so as to distinguish it from other inventions, and particularly point out and distinctly claim the part, improvement or combina- tion which he claims as his invention or discovery. The specification and claim must be signed by the inventor and at- tested by two witnesses. 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- covery. 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 pat- ent; 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