THE NEW PATENT LAW: ITS HISTORY, OBJECTS, AND PROVISIONS: THE Protection of Inventions Acts, 14 Vict. c. 8, & 15 Vict. c. 6; AND The Patent Law Amendment Acts, 15 & 16 Vict. c. 83; 16 Vict. c. 5 ; & 16 & 17 Vict. c. 115; THE RULES OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF PATENTS, AS REVISED TO JANUARY, 1854, AND PRACTICAL FORMS AND PROCEEDINGS. FOURTH EDITION. BY THOMAS WEBSTER, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., BARRISTER-AT-LAW. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY; F. ELSWORTH, 39, CHANCERY LANE. 1854. INTRODUCTION. THE following pages are designed as a Manual for Inventors desirous of availing themselves of the provisions of the new Patent Law; they will also serve as a guide in the further reform of our patent system. The Statutes, portions of which relate to patents for inventions, are sixteen in number; most of these are superseded or affected by "The Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852," which may consequently be regarded as the first step towards the consolidation of the Law and Practice of Patents for Inventions. The provisional specifications have hitherto been treated as secret documents until after the filing of the complete specification; and inventors are advised by some professional persons to place no reliance on the provisional protection, but to proceed at once for the patent. Inventors adopting such advice abandon the benefit to be derived from the use and publication of the invention during the period of provisional protection, and incur at once and without trial the whole expenses of the patent and specification. The inadequacy of the provisional specifications is alleged as one reason for advice so contrary to the whole spirit of the new system; and the practice under the old system, whereby the mere possession and knowledge of the invention by an opponent was allowed to prevail in opposition to a prior applicant, is assumed still to prevail, in utter disregard of the principle of the new system, that credit is to be given to the first applicant, except in cases of fraud; and to which principle full effect has been given by the Lord Chancellor and the Law Officers in the cases of opposition which have occurred. By the Act of last Session (16 & 17 Vic. c. 115, s. 2, post 97), the doubt supposed to exist under the Patent Law Amendment Act is removed, and the Commissioners are em |