I. PATENT OFFICE. Patents. 10. Appeals to examiners in chief regulated. 11. Fees not to be refunded. Fee for caveat not to be credited to applicant. Notice to caveators, how computed. Improvements not to be included in reissued patents. 12. Patents may be issued for original designs. Term of such patent. Fees. Extensions. 13. Applications not completed within two years to be considered abandoned. Exceptions. 14. Duration of patents. Extensions prohibited. 15. Renewal of oath dispensed with. 16. To be void on non-payment of patent fee within six months, 17. How notice of patent to be given. I. PATENT OFFICE. 1. The salary of the commissioner of patents, from and after the passage of this act, shall be four thousand five hundred dollars per annum ; and the salary of the chief clerk of the patent office shall be two thousand five hundred dollars; and the salary of the librarian of the patent office shall be eighteen hundred dollars. Thid. 5. 2. The commissioner of patents is authorized to restore to the respective applicants, rian. or when not removed by them, to otherwise dispose of, such of the models belonging to rejected applications as he shall not think necessary to be preserved. The same authority Models of rejectis also given in relation to all models accompanying applications for designs. He is further authorized to dispense in future with models of designs when the design can be sufficiently represented by a drawing. 3. The tenth section of the act approved the 3d of March 1857, (a) authorizing the appointment of agents for the transportation of models and specimens to the patent office, is hereby repealed. ed applications to be restored, or otherwise dis posed of. Ibid. 6. Ibid. 27. miners. 4. The commissioner is further authorized from time to time to appoint, in the manner already provided for by law, such an additional number of principal examiners, first Appointment of assistant examiners, and second assistant examiners, as may be required to transact the additional exacurrent business of the office with dispatch; provided the whole number of additional Expenses limited examiners shall not exceed four of each class, and that the total annual expenses of the to receipts. patent office shall not exceed the annual receipts. Ibid. 28. His jurisdiction over patent 5. The commissioner may require all papers filed in the patent office, if not correctly, legibly and clearly written, to be printed at the cost of the parties filing such papers. Commissioner And for gross misconduct he may refuse to recognise any person as a patent agent, either may require pagenerally or in any particular case; but the reasons of the commissioner for such refusal pers to be printed shall be duly recorded, and subject to the approval of the president of the United States. 6. All laws now in force fixing the rates of the patent office fees to be paid, and discriminating between the inhabitants of the United States and those of other countries, which shall not discriminate against the inhabitants of the United States, are hereby Fees. repealed, and in their stead the following rates are established: On filing each caveat, ten dollars. On filing each original application for a patent, except for a design, fifteen dollars. On issuing each original patent, twenty dollars. On every appeal from the examiners-in-chief to the commissioner, twenty dollars. On every application for the reissue of a patent, thirty dollars. On every application for the extension of a patent, fifty dollars; and fifty dollars in addition, on the granting of every extension. On filing each disclaimer, ten dollars. For certified copies of patents and other papers, ten cents per hundred words. For recording every assignment, agreement, power of attorney and other papers of three hundred words or under, one dollar. For recording every assignment, and other papers over three hundred and under one thousand words, two dollars. For recording every assignment or other writing, if over one thousand words, three dollars. For copies of drawings, the reasonable cost of making the same. 7. That the commissioner of patents be and he is hereby authorized to print, or in his discretion to cause to be printed, ten copies of the description and claims of all (a) Ante 724, pl. 14. agents. Ibid. 10 Ibid. § 14.' 2 March 1861. Descriptions and claims to be printed. Expenses. 2 March 1861 1. 12 Stat. 246. Commissioner to establish rules for taking depo sitions, &c. Subpoenas. Process of contempt. patents which may hereafter be granted, and ten copies of the drawings of the same, when drawings shall accompany the patents: Provided, The cost of printing the text of said descriptions and claims shall not exceed, exclusive of stationery, the sum of two cents per hundred words for each of said copies, and the cost of the drawing shall not exceed fifty cents per copy; one copy of the above number shall be printed on parchment to be affixed to the letters patent; the work shall be under the direction and subject to the approval of the commissioner of patents, and the expense of the said copies shall be paid for out of the patent fund. II. APPLICATIONS FOR PATENTS. 8. The commissioner of patents may establish rules for taking affidavits and depositions required in cases pending in the patent office, and such affidavits and depositions may be taken before any justice of the peace, or other officer authorized by law to take depositions to be used in the courts of the United States, or in the state courts of any state where such officer shall reside; and in any contested case pending in the patent office it shall be lawful for the clerk of any court of the United States for any district or territory, and he is hereby required, upon the application of any party to such contested case, or the agent or attorney of such party, to issue subpoenas for any witnesses residing or being within the said district or territory, commanding such witnesses to appear and testify before any justice of the peace, or other officer as aforesaid, residing within the said district or territory, at any time and place in the subpoena to be stated ; and if any witness, after being duly served with such subpoena, shall refuse or neglect to appear, or, after appearing, shall refuse to testify (not being privileged from giving testimony), such refusal or neglect being proved to the satisfaction of any judge of the court whose clerk shall have issued such subpoena, said judge may thereupon proceed to enforce obedience to the process, or to punish the disobedience, in like manner as any court of the United States may do in case of disobedience to process of subpoena ad testificandum Pay of witnesses. issued by such court; and witnesses in such cases shall be allowed the same compensation as is allowed to witnesses attending the courts of the United States: Provided, That no witnesses shall be required to attend at any place more than forty miles from the place where the subpoena shall be served upon him to give a deposition under this law: Provided also, That no witness shall be deemed guilty of contempt for refusing to disquired to disclose close any secret invention made or owned by him: And provided further, That no witness shall be deemed guilty of contempt for disobeying any subpoena directed to him by Fees and expens- virtue of this act, unless his fees for going to, returning from and one day's attendance at the place of examination shall be paid or tendered to him at the time of the service of the subpoena. Not to be re their own secret inventions. es to be tendered. Ibid. § 2. Examiners-in chief. Their duties. Appeals to the commissioner. Ibid. § 3. miners-in-chief regulated. 9. For the purpose of securing greater uniformity of action in the grant and refusal of letters patent, there shall be appointed by the president, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, three examiners-in-chief, at an annual salary of three thousand dollars each, to be composed of persons of competent legal knowledge and scientific ability, whose duty it shall be, on the written petition of the applicant for that purpose being filed, to revise and determine upon the validity of decisions made by examiners when adverse to the grant of letters patent; and also to revise and determine in like manner upon the validity of the decisions of examiners in interference cases; and when required by the commissioner in applications for the extension of patents; and to perform such other duties as may be assigned to them by the commissioner. From their decisions appeals may be taken to the commissioner of patents in person, upon payment of the fee hereinafter prescribed. The said examiners-in-chief shall be governed in their action by the rules to be prescribed by the commissioner of patents. 10. No appeal shall be allowed to the examiners-in-chief from the decisions of the Appeals to exa- primary examiners, except in interference cases, until after the application shall have been twice rejected; and the second examination of the application by the primary examiner shall not be had, until the applicant, in view of the references given on the first rejection, shall have renewed the oath of invention, as provided for in the 7th section of the act entitled "An act to promote the progress of the useful arts, and to repeal all acts and parts of acts heretofore made for that purpose," approved July 4th 1836.(a) Ibid. 29. Fees not to be refunded. Fees for caveat not to be credited to applicant. Notice to caveat ors, how computed. 11. No money paid as a fee, on any application for a patent after the passage of this act, shall be withdrawn or refunded; nor shall the fee paid on filing a caveat be considered as part of the sum required to be paid on filing a subsequent application for a patent for the same invention. The three months' notice given to any caveator, in of the requirements of the 12th section of the act of July 4th 1836, (b) shall pursuance be computed from the day on which such notice is deposited in the post office at Washington, with the regular time for the transmission of the same added thereto, which (a) Ante 727, pl. 25. But see infra 15. (b) Ante 730, pl. 42. 2 March 1861. Improvements not to be included time shall be indorsed on the notice: and so much of the 13th section of the act of con- in reissue of pa Ibid. 11. Patents may be issued for original designs. 12. Any citizen or citizens, or alien or aliens, having resided one year in the United States, and taken the oath of his or their intention to become a citizen or citizens, who by his, her or their own industry, genius, efforts and expense, may have invented or produced any new and original design, or a manufacture, whether of metal or other material or materials, and original design for a bust, statue or bas relief, or composition in alto or basso relievo, or any new and original impression or ornament, or to be placed on any article of manufacture, the same being formed in marble or other material, or any new and useful pattern, or print, or picture, to be either worked into or worked on, or printed, or painted, or cast, or otherwise fixed on any article of manufacture, or any new and original shape or configuration of any article of manufacture, not known or used by others before his, her or their invention or production thereof, and prior to the time of his, her or their application for a patent therefor, and who shall desire to obtain an exclusive property or right therein to make, use and sell and vend the same, or copies of the same to others, by them to be made, used and sold, may make application in writing to the commissioner of patents, expressing such desire; and the commissioner, on due proceedings had, may grant a patent therefor, as in the case now of application for a patent, for the term of three and one-half years, or for the term of seven Term of patent. years, or for the term of fourteen years, as the said applicant may elect in his application: Provided, That the fee to be paid in such application shall be, for the term of three Fees. years and six months, ten dollars, for seven years, fifteen dollars, and for fourteen years, thirty dollars: And provided, That the patentees of designs under this act shall be en- Extensions. titled to the extension of their respective patents for the term of seven years, from the day on which said patents shall expire, upon the same terms and restrictions as are now provided for the extension of letters patent. Ibid. 12. in two years to abandoned. 13. All applications for patents shall be completed and prepared for examination within two years after the filing of the petition, and in default thereof they shall be Applications not regarded as abandoned by the parties thereto, unless it be shown to the satisfaction of completed with the commissioner of patents that such delay was unavoidable; and all applications now be considered pending shall be treated as if filed after the passage of this act, and all applications for the extension of patents shall be filed at least ninety days before the expira- Exceptions. tion thereof; and notice of the day set for the hearing of the case shall be published, applications for as now required by law, for at least sixty days. Notice of extensions. Ibid. 16. 14. All patents hereafter granted shall remain in force for the term of seventeen years from the date of issue; and all extension of such patents is hereby prohibited. 15. That so much of section seven of the act entitled "An act to promote the pro- 3 March 1863 1. gress of the useful arts," approved July 4th 1836, as requires a renewal of the cath, be and the same is hereby repealed.(b) 12 Stat. 796. Renewal of oath dispensed with. Ibid. 23. Date of patents. To be void on 16. Every patent shall be dated as of a day not later than six months after the time at which it was passed and allowed, and notice thereof sent to the applicant or his agent. And if the final fee for such patent be not paid within the said six months, the patent shall be withheld, and the invention therein described shall become public pro- non-payment of perty, as against the applicant therefor: Provided, That in all cases where patents have patent fee within been allowed previous to the passage of this act, the said six months shall be reckoned from the date of such passage. III. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS. six months. 12 Stat. 249. tent to be given. 17. In all cases where an article is made or vended by any person under the protec- 2 March 1801 13. tion of letters patent, it shall be the duty of such person to give sufficient notice to the public that said article is so patented, either by fixing thereon the word patented, How notice of patogether with the day and year the patent was granted; or when, from the character of the article patented that may be impracticable, by enveloping one or more of the said articles, and affixing a label to the package, or otherwise attaching thereto a label on which the notice with the date is printed; on failure of which, in any suit for the infringement of letters patent by the party failing so to mark the article the right to which is infringed upon, no damage shall be recovered by the plaintiff, except on proof that the defendant was duly notified of the infringement, and continued after such notice to make or vend the article patented. And the 6th section of the act entitled “An act in Repeal. addition to an act to promote the progress of the useful arts," and so forth, approved the 29th day of August 1842, (c) be and the same is hereby repealed. (a) Ante 731, pl. 43. (b) Ante 727, pl. 25. (c) Ante 736, pl. 58. 2 March 1861 15. Certified copies 18. Printed copies of the letters patent of the United States, with the seal of the patent office affixed thereto, and certified and signed by the commissioner of patents, of letters patent shall be legal evidence of the contents of said letters patent in all cases. to be evidence. A patent obtained by an alien, upon an oath, ignorantly or inadvertently made, that he is a citizen of the United States, is not voidable only, but absolutely void. The true representation of citizenship is a condition precedent to the issuing of the patent. Mini's Assignee v. Adams, 12 Leg. Int. 4. Such a mistake does not fall within 2 13 of the act 4 July 1836 (731, pl. 43), so as to authorize a surrender of the old patent and the reissue of a new one. Ibid. An interlocutory injunction will not be granted, when the defendant has letters patent for the same invention as the plaintiff's, which are primâ facie valid. Sargent v Carter, 21 Law Rep. 651. It is the duty of an inventor to describe in his specification, each substantially different modification of his invention that he has made. Ibid. The American assignee of an alien inventor, who obtains a patent in his own name, is not within the alien clause of 15 of the act 4 July 1836 (731, pl. 46). That clause applies only to an alien patentee. Tatham v. Lowber, 2 Blatch. 49. It is not necessary for an alien patentee to prove that he endeavored to sell his invention; but those who seek to defeat the patent, must show that he neglected or refused to sell it for reasonable prices, when application was made to him to purchase. Ibid. An interest in a grant of the future term of a patent, not in esse, is not the subject of assignment, either at common law, or under the statute, and when stipulated for, rests only in contract. And the right of a bonâ fide purchaser, without notice, will prevail against such contract. Gibson v. Cook, 2 Blatch. 144. Within the three months limited for recording the assignment of a patent, an unrecorded assignment will prevail; but it must be an assignment in writing that may be recorded. Ibid. When one part of a combination is new, the combination is new, though the other parts of it may be old. Hall v. Wiles, 2 Blatch. 194. A disclaimer is only necessary, when the thing claimed without right, is a material and substantial part of the thing patented. Ibid. Whether there has been unreasonable delay in entering a disclaimer, is a question that goes to the right of action. Ibid. Novelty and utility in an improvement, are the only conditions requisite to the granting of a patent. McCormick v. Seymour, 2 Blatch. 240. The act 3 March 1839 2 7 (728, pl. 32), virtually extends the patentee's privilege to sixteen years instead of fourteen. Ibid. Where a party has discovered a new application of property in nature, never before known or in use, by which he has produced a new and useful result, the discovery is the subject of a patent, independently of any peculiar or new arrangement of machinery for the purpose of applying the new property. Foote v. Silsby, 2 Blatch. 260. Where the commissioner of patents has jurisdiction over an application for an extension of a patent, his decision is conclusive as to the regularity of the proceedings on the extension; except, perhaps, in case of frand. Colt v. Young, 2 Blatch. 471. An inventor, who forbears to take out a patent, until he has perfected his invention, or tested its value by experiments, is protected against one who has, in the mean time, surreptitiously obtained a knowledge of the invention. Kendall v. Winsor, 21 How. 322. A patent is not avoided by the mere fact that the invention or discovery patented had been known or used in a foreign country before the discovery of the patentee. Bartholomew v. Sawyer, 16 Leg. Int. 316. No description, in any printed publication, of the thing patented, will avoid the patent, unless such publication was anterior to the discovery of the patentee; it is not sufficient that it was anterior to the application for the patent. Ibid. Where an inventor has made application for a patent, the delay afterwards interposed, either by the mistakes of public officers, or the dilatory proceedings of courts, if gross negligence cannot be imputed to the applicant, will not affect his rights. Adams v. Jones, 7 Pittsburgh Leg. J. 161. If an inventor claim two distinct improvements in one machine, he may apply for them jointly, and have a single patent for them both. Ibid. The clearness the law requires in a specification is such as will distinguish the thing patented from all others previously known, and which will enable a person skilled in the art of which it is a branch, to construct the thing patented. Teese v. Phelps, 1 McAllister 48. The production of the patent is prima facie evidence of novelty. Ibid. If the idea involved in the patented article has occurred to others, but that idea has not been embodied in a practical form, it will not disprove novelty Ibid. If the article produced be substantially the same with the one protected, with variations in form only, or where a new and substantial result is not produced, it is an infringement of the original patent. But if there be invention, to whatever extent, it is sufficient. Ibid. If the process require no more skill than that possessed by an ordinary mechanic, skilled in the business, there is an absence of inventive faculty, and only the exercise of mechanical skill. Ibid. The assignees of a patent, though it be conveyed to them in separate undivided parts, may all join in an action on the case for its infringement. Stein v. Goddard, 1 McAllister 82. An invention is not patented in a foreign country, in the sense of our patent acts, unless it is made patent and known to the world by a sufficient specification and description. Howev. Morton, 23 Law Rep. 70. The defendant in an action for the infringement of a patent right, may give the notice of special matter authorized by the act 4 July 1836 15 (732, pl. 46), without an order of court for that purpose; and under it, depositions previously taken, may be read in evidence. Teese v. Huntingdon, 23 How. 2. In such an action, counsel fees are not a proper element for the consideration of the jury in the estimation of the damages. Ibid. Day v. Woodworth, 13 Ibid. 363. Though a court of law may treble the damages in a patent suit, yet a court of equity has no power to inflict exemplary or punitive damages. Sanders v. Logan, 9 Am. L. R. 475. The patentee is not required, before obtaining an injunction to restrain an infringement of his patent right, to establish his legal title in a court of law. Ibid. It seems, that an injunction ought not to be granted to restrain the use of a patented article, without making compensation to the patentee; the remedy, in such case, is an action at law for damages. Ibid. The use of several machines in public, for more than two years prior to the application for a patent, which, thongh slightly varying in forin and arrangement, are yet substantially the same as the one afterwards patented, cannot be alleged to have been experimental, so as to avoid the legal consequences of such prior use. Ibid. The patent law (732, pl. 46) does not require the defendant to give notice of the time when any person may have possessed the knowledge or use of the invention in question. Phillips e. Page, 24 How. 164. No rights can be asserted under a patent which has been surrendered: it is a legal extinction of it. Moffitt v. Garr, 1 Black 273. The use of ether in surgical operations, being merely the dis covery of a more perfect effect of the action of well known agents, operating, by well-known means, upon well-known subjects, is not patentable. Morton v. The New York Eye Infirmary, 11 Am. L. R. 672. Pensions. 10. Pensions to orphan sisters. No pensions to be paid to disloyal persons. 11. When pensions to commence. 12. Fees of pension agents. 13. Penalty for demanding greater compensation. 14. Surgeons to be appointed to examine invalids. 15. Printed instructions, &c., to be furnished without charge. 16. Bounty and pensions to sailors, &c., not regularly mustered into the service. 17. Pensions to widows and heirs of such persons. 18. Special agent to detect frauds, to be appointed. 19. Pension law extended to masters of gunboats, their widows and heirs. 20. Compensation of pension agents. 11 Stat. 3u9. Widows' pen sions to continue 1. That all those surviving widows and minor children who have been or may be 3 June 1858 1. granted and allowed five years' half-pay under the provisions of any law or laws of the United States, be and they are hereby granted a continuance of such half-pay, under the following terms and limitations, viz.: to such widows during life, and to such child during life. or children, where there is no widow, whilst under the age of sixteen years; to commence Children's, until from the expiration of the half-pay provided for by the first section of the act entitled 16 years of age. "An act to continue half-pay to certain widows and orphans," approved February 3d 1853:(a) Provided, however, That in case of the marriage or death of any such widow, In case of death the half-pay shall go to the child or children of the deceased officer or soldier whilst under or marriage of widow, to be the age of sixteen years; and, in like manner, the child or children of such deceased paid to children. officer or soldier, when there is no widow, shall be paid no longer than while there are children or a child under the age aforesaid: And provided further, That the half-pay of Rate of pensions. such widows and orphans shall be half the monthly pay of the officers, non-commissioned officers, musicians and privates of the infantry of the regular army of the United States, and no more, and that no greater sum shall be allowed to any such widow or minor children than the half-pay of a lieutenant-colonel: And provided also, That this act shall not be construed to apply to or embrace the case of any person or persons now receiving a pension for life; and, further, that wherever half-pay shall have been granted by any special act of congress, and is renewed or continued under the provisions of this act, the same shall commence from the date hereof. 2. The provisions [pensions] renewed and continued by this act shall be payable out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. Ibid. 2. How payable. 3 March 1859 8 2. 11 Stat. 439. Evidence on appictur invalid pension. 3. In all cases of application for the payment of pensions to invalids under the several laws of congress granting pensions to invalids, the affidavit of two surgeons or physicians, whose credibility as such shall be certified by the magistrate before whom the affidavit is made, stating the continuance of the disability for which the pension was originally granted (describing it), and the rate of such disability at the time of making the affidavit, shall accompany the application of the first payment, which shall fall due upon a day in the fiscal year for which provision is made herein, to be declared by the secretary of the interior, and at the end of every two years thereafter; and if in a case of continued disability it shall be stated at a rate below that for which the pension was originally granted, the applicant shall only be paid at the rate stated in the affidavit: Provided, That where the pension shall have been originally granted for a Exceptions. total disability, in consequence of the loss of a limb, or other cause which cannot, either in whole or in part, be removed, the above affidavit shall not be necessary to entitle the applicant to payment. 12 Stat. 332. 4. No pension shall be paid under this act(b) to any person who has been engaged 8 Jan. 1862 1. in the present rebellion against the government of the United States, or who has in any way given aid and comfort to those engaged in the rebellion. 12 Stat. $37. 5. That the secretary of the interior be and he is hereby authorized and directed to 4 Feb. 1862 1. strike from the pension rolls the names of all such persons as have or may hereafter take up arms against the government of the United States, or who have in any manner encouraged the rebels or manifested a sympathy with their cause. 6. No claim for a pension, or for an increase of pension, shall be allowed in favor of the children or other descendants of any person who served in the war of the revolution, or of the widow of such person, when such person or his widow died without having established a claim to a pension. Names of disloyal persons to be stricken from the. pension rolls. 2 April 186231. 12 Stat. 376. 7. If any officer, non-commissioned officer, musician or private of the army, including 14 July 1862 31. regulars, volunteers and militia, or any officer, warrant or petty officer, musician, sea (a) Ante 748, pl. 69; 749, pl. 76. (b) Appropriation act for 1862-3. 12 Stat. 566. |