The Express.
London, England, 1850-12-28 00:00:00

THE PATENT LAWS.

(hem the Daily Nam)
Tie evils of oar present system of patent laws are
• generally admitted, and the need of some practical
remedy is felt so urgently, that we shall resist the
temptation of filling up the outline we recently leld
before oar readers with any further detail of twos"
hardships and frivolous vexations which torAtitamo
stitute the great aggregate of wrong now perpetrated
by three laws against the rights of inventors. We
take the broad fact that the man who has devoted, It
may be, years of time, labour, and money, to the
preparauon and completion of some new and useful
invention, is further compelled in this country to
make a payment of nearly 3001. before be can obtain
an effectual legal title to the sole use of his invention
for • limited period in the British empire. TM. is
the first and principal item in the charge which
British inventors have to bring against the British
Ingislatore.
-Let us see how this matter stands in the legislation
of foreign states; in France, by the law of 1844, the
duration of patents is declared to be for five, ten, and
fifteen years, and the tax to which each patent is
liable is fixed, as follows :-500 trance (201.) for a
patent of five years; 1,000 francs (401.) for a patent
of ten years; 1,600 francs (601.) for • patent of 15
years. The payment of this tax to be effected by
fixed annual sums of 100 franca (41.), under pain of
forfeiture, if the patentee suffers the term to expire
without discharging it.
It will be obvious to all that these regulations ire
an immeasurable improvement on oar own. With re-
gard to the propriety of the terms of duration, and of
the exact some fixed upon as the total amount of the
tax, there will of course be much difference of opi-
nion ; we think there ought to be none as to
the principle on welch the payment of this amount
is distributed over the whole period of the duration
of the patent. The small sum which, upon this prin-
ciple, would constitute the first payment, can scarcely
operate as a discouragement to invention, even in the
very poorest. If the invention be a practically. useful
one, the assessment of the same sum yearly during the
continuance of the first period for which the patent is
granted cannot be felt as a hardship; while, it it be
so successful as to lead its author to an application
for an extended term, there seems nothing either
unfair or oppressive, in demanding an increased ratio
of taxation ass consideration for the concession by the
state of a further enjoyment of exclusive right.
Another very valuable feature about this prin-
ciple of assessment is, that by requiring an
annual payment on pain of forfeiture of the
patent right, you do much towards clearing
away that accumulation of imperfect and abortive,
patents, which, incapable as they are of being prac-
tically worked to any useful purpose, are yet capable
of being employed—and in unscrupulous hands very
frequently. are employed—as engines of oppression
and extortion against bona file inventors. Upon our
own system, where the whole cost of procuring a
patent is comprised in one outlay, the number of
{Yu impracticable patents is very great, and the
instances are not infrequent in which the meritorious
heventor has been harrassed with an infringement
sett, or forced into a compromise by having suddenly
bsssght to bear upon him one of those abortive
risme. whose title is sufficiently lax to coin-
peeltend his own project, or whose specification is
se drawn as to give a colourable pretext for the
threat of ruinous litigation. By seeming an annual
tax on the holders of patent rights, and enforcing its
payment under penalty of forfeiture, you would
rapidly clear away the lumber of speculative or un-
seseeseful patents, without giving any fair ground of
complaint to the bona fide and successful inventor.
The Austria* law of patent., established by a de-
ems of 1832, though lees liberal and enlightened than
that of France, is, on the whole, far in advance of oar
ewes ; and the total amount to be paid in the Austrian
dominions for the concession of a patent right for the
turn of fifteen years—the utmost the law allows—is
440 florins, or about 461. By the original decree one
half of this amount was to be paid on the first appli-
cation for the patent, the remaining half to be dis-
charged by fixed payments at the commencement of
each ensuing year of the term. By a recent ordinance
the whole must now be paid on demand-
ing the patent. For the reasons already in-
timated this change in the law is to be regarded
as a retrogression, but even after making every allow-
son for the very different value of money in the two
conatries, it must be admitted that the difference be-
tween 461. and 3001. leaves an important balance in
favour of Muftis.
The minimum of cost is that attained in Prussia,
where a patent right for the term of eight years may
be procured fur an outlay of not more than 11. The
seventh article of the Prussian ordinance of 1815 on
this branch of the law provides that " in order to
encourage industry there shall be no duty payable for
a private patent. The sole expenses shall be the
incidental ones and of the stamp."
In Rolland and Belgium the charge for patents is,
for five years, 131. ; for ten years, 26/. ; for fifteen
years, 621. ; and for the payment of each of these
sums' a period of two years is, in practice, allowed
from the commencement of the grant. Between the
laws of Spain and Portugal in this respect the differ-
'ace is very great. In the former country the sum
of 101. is payable for a five years' patent, 301. for one
of ten years duration, and 601. for one of fifteen : the
money, too, must be paid, and the patent claimed,
within three months from the date of the petition.
In Portugal, on the other hand, patents are procured
with very great facility, and at an expense very little
exceeding 11. per annum during the period the patent
runs.
In the United States the charge for a patent of
harken years is 30 dole., or 61. 10..., to a native or
tallest ; 300 dole., or about 641., to foreigners in
and 500 dots., or 1081., to a subject of Great
rrlitirafo.; This increased charge is avowedly imposed
as a principle of retaliation, in consequence of the
high charges exacted in Great Britain.
From this rapid review of the actual mount of
'taxation imposed in various parts of the world, on the
concession of the patent rights, it results that Great
Britain enjoys the distinction of demanding about six
times the sum exacted in those countries where the
right is &area, and more than a hundred times that
which is imposed where it is cheapest. That for
which the Frenchman pays 601. in instalments spread
over fifteen years, and which the American purchases
for a single payment of 61. 101., costa the Englishman
in hard cash very little short of 300.. This is bad
enough, but the case by no means rests here. The
Frenchman, in return for hie payment, has as
admirable system of registration, and a publication
by the state of all speciications. In addition to this,
the Americans have published a list of all their
patents from 1790 to the end of 1849, and have
printed for gratuitous circulation 136,000 copies of
the " Annual Patent Report" foe 1847. It reads like
fable to one accustomed to official doings in England,
bat is in truth sober statistical fact, that after paying
all expenses a hind of 40,0001. has been accumulated
in America by the fees paid ou patent registrations.
The first thing, therefore, to be done by those who
would reform the patent laws in this country, is to
cut down the present enormous scale of charges, and
spread the liquidation of whatever amount shall be
fixed upon as a fair sum to be paid by applicants for
patent rights, over the whole period of time for which
the concession may be granted. The proposal made by
the committee of the Society of Arts upon this head
is: "That registration of inventions should be
ob-
Linable for a period of one year, on payment of fire
pound., and should be renewable for four periods of
five years, on payment of ten pounds at the first re-
newel; of twenty pounds at the second renewal ; of
fifty pounds at the third renewal; and of one hun-
dred pounds at the fourth renewal." The total sum
which, upon this plan, would be payable for the con-
cession of a patent tight, for the term of twenty-one
years, is 1851. It may reasonably be doubted whether
this sum is not considerably too high. It may also be
deserving of further consideration, whether, with a
view to the speedier extinction of abortive patents, it
might not be advisable to divide the total amorist
flied for the whole term, into equil yearly mese-
manta, payable on penalty of forfeiting the conceded I
right. This appears a simple and unobjectionable
mode of effecting en object, which, is "many of the
continental codes is 'ought to be attained, by provid-
ing that the pateat right shall become extinct, if not
pat into practical operation, within a certain fixed
period after it is applied for.

Whatever slight difficulties however may arise as
to mattersof detail, them can be no difference of
opinion as to the general policy of a great and imme-
diate reduction in coat : with a view to the interests
of numbers amongst our most gifted artisans who, in
the hope that the Patent Laws would be impended
during the Exhibitiou,are understood to have devoted
their time, labour, and money to the construction of
models, it is essential that somethiog should be done
speedily. Why should not her Manterr, by order in
cooncil,at once remit the payment of those fees which
are now demanded in the Signet and Pettybag offices P
This might be done before the wembliog of parlia-
ment; directly parliament meet., let a measure be
submitted to It for establishing a court of registration
with a small scale of fees, at all events for one year.
Some such steps as these might be taken to meet the
immediate emergency; but no partial proceeding
mast be allowed to interfere with the great duty of •
total revision and reconstitution of the whole law.