Recent discussions on the abolition of patents for inventions in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the Netherlands : $b Evidence, speeches, and papers in its favour
General
Recent discussions on the abolition of patents for inventions in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the Netherlands : $b Evidence, speeches, and papers in its favour
Patents
But what if these are
the subject of Patents the holder of which will not come to terms or
cannot be treated with? Retardation, if the privilege is temporary; a
full stop, if perpetual.
NOTES ILLUSTRATIVE OF MR. MACFIE’S SPEECH.
[Page 17.]
The views taken in the text as to the meaning of the word “manufacture”
receive confirmation from the following extract from the _Engineer_ of
June 4, 1869:—
THE AMERICAN PATENT-LAW.
... Accordingly, in the first general Patent-Law passed by Congress,
the subject for which Patents were to be granted were described as
the invention or discovery of “any useful art, manufacture, engine,
machine, or device, or any improvement therein not before known or
used.” In the next statute—that of 21st February, 1793—the phraseology
was first introduced which has been ever since employed—namely, “any
new and useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or
any new and useful improvement in any art, machine, manufacture, or
composition of matter, not known or used before the application for a
Patent.”... We have, then, the following four heads of subjects suitable
for Patents—viz., an art, a machine, a manufacture, and a composition of
matter.... In England, to make a new process the subject of a Patent,
the word “manufacture” would be used, and would have to be interpreted
somewhat liberally. Thus, in some cases, there might not be a perfect
distinction between the thing itself and the art or process of making the
thing.... With regard to the head “manufacture,” we cannot do better than
give the definition which Mr. Curtis has added as a note to his work.
He says a manufacture “would be any new combination of old materials,
constituting a new result or production in the form of a vendible
article, not being machinery.”...
As well as from the following extract from—
HINDMARCH ON “VENDING OR SELLING.”
“The sole privilege of making the invention as expressed ... is
in truth the same in substance as the sole privilege of using and
exercising it.... By the first section of the Statute of Monopolies,
patents granting ‘the sole buying, selling, making, working, or using
of anything’ are declared to be void, and the proviso in favour of
inventions contained in the sixth section only extends to ‘grants
of privilege of the sole working or making of any manner of new
manufactures,’ leaving the sole buying or selling of anything within
the prohibition.... The sole privilege granted by a _Patent_ for an
invention authorises the inventor ‘to make, use, exercise, and vend’ the
invention.... And as no one can use the invention except the patentee,
no one besides him can lawfully have such articles for sale.... Every
part of the privilege granted by a _Patent_ for an invention, when thus
explained (!) is therefore clearly within the meaning of the exception
contained in the _Statute_....”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account