The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-09 00:00:00

CON TINENTAL PATENTS

The French law and practice for securing inventions
by patents, is, on the whole, well settled and understood
in the country ; patents issuing of course when the
terms of the law are duly complied with. But it is
doubtful to me, whether any other country in Europe,
except England and France, has any settled rules or
unvarying law of patent right. Several years since I insti-
tuted inquiries on this subject in Turin, and had some in-
tercourse with an ex judge on the subject ; also in Milan,
where I found Austria granted all privileges, and
in Florence. The Austrian practice in this, as in many
other matters, governs that of the following states, viz.,
Lombardy, Sardinia, Tuscany Modern, Parma, &c.,
Lucca, Two Sicilies, and (if the Pope grant patent rights
for anything else except for nobility and keeping houses
of ill-fame, which is doubtful) Rome also. Austrian
patents cover Transylvania, Hungary, Austria Proper,
Gallicia, Moravia, Bohemia, Styria, Dalmatia, „Illyria,
Tyrol, Lombardy, and Venice. The continual petty
piracies and infringements that occur, and all dubious
points on patent rights, must be discussed and settled
at Vienna, for the above Austrian States. The
mode of application seams to be universally through
the Minister of the Interior, with full specifications,
plans, and drawings. He refers these to the Council
of Commerce, and, they to the Chamber of Merchants,
who report, generally after seeing the thing so far at
work as to lead to the idea that it is feasible, should
the expense not be great or the machinery complicated
or difficult, in which case this is dispensed with, and
more minute inquiries are instituted. On this chamber
forwarding reports, the Minister of the Interior (and if
revenue is effected the Minister of Finance) advise and
the Sovereign decides. If in favour of the applicant,
the term is generally 15 years, and one year is given to
get to work fairly, which must be certified by competent
judges, and a responsible person is appointed, both as to
knowledge of the invention and pecuniary means to
carry it into the desired operation, whose name, with a
titular or short description of the object of the patent,
is inserted in the State Gazette, as a reference for
examination, and as authorised to grant licenses. The
favour of a principal member of the Commercial Cham-
ber is always desirable; also the Minister of Commerce
must be interested; and the usual plan is to get the Sove-
reign to see, approve, and protect the invention, both
personally and publicly. After all, patents have been
generally almost useless in these states, as to increasing
manufactures, or securing profit to the inventors. They
are looked upon with great suspicion and aversion, as,
in most cases, tending to decrease manual labour, and
lower the value and profit of existing machinery and
capital in the trades upon which they operate. Thus in-
vasion is winked at, and if legally and, successfully at-
tacked, only !slightly fined. To obtain increased protection,
or time for operation, or indeed any ether security or
favour, requires ministerial aid and royal sanction, and
therefore is dreadfully slow and expensive. There is
also a peculiar feature in the practice of patenting in
these sates. It is not only a privilege to use solely a
certain improvement, but often a monopoly to perform
a certain well-known ancient operation (possibly in a
superior, or supposed superior manner) to the exclusion
of the performance of it in the old manner, and even
sometimes all other parties are prohibited from entering
into the business besides the patentees and their licen-
tiates. In the texhibition at Milan, in 1825, of the
Lombardo-Venetian manufactures, which filled four
large apartments, there were but three patented arti-
cles, viz., a machine for corking bottles—a new clog
with springs—and a new loom for weaving tapestries.
These imperfect remarks, founded on limited experience,
may be concluded by quoting an observation of the
Chevalier Aldini, nephew of the celebrated Galonici, a
man of letters and science, with whom I had agreeable
intercourse at Milan, " That patent rights are but of
little value, unless granted by a liberal government, and
to operate where extensive commerce prevails." Adding
my own opinion that they are often an injury to trade,
and seldom profitable to the patentee. In ordinary cases
a man will gain more by working an invention quietly,
than through the pretended security of a patent, thereby
inviting and instructing imitators, through the publicity
given under these patent laws.—Correspondent of the
IVottingham Review.

ANECDOTE OF THE LATE L. E. L. —On the
other hand, in the mixed companies, witty and con-
versant as she was, you bad a feeling that she was play-
ing an assumed part. Her manner and conversation
were not only the very reverse of the tone and sentiment
of her poems, but she seemed to sayl things for the sake
of astonishing you with the very contrast. You felt not
only no confidence in the truth of what she was assert-
ing, but a strong assurance that it was said merely for
the sake of saying what her hearers would least expect
to hear her say. I recollect once meeting her in company,
at' a time when there was a strong report that she was
actually, though secretly, married. Mrs. Hofland, on
her entering the room, went up to her in her plain,
straightforward way, and said, "Ah! my dear, what
must I call you? Miss Landon, or who?" After a well-
feigned surprise at the question, Miss Landon began to
talk in a tone of merry ridicule of this report, and ended I
by declaring that, as to love or marriage, they were
things that she never thought of. " What, then, have
you been doing with yourself this last month?" " Oh,
I have been puzzling my brain to invent a new sleeve;
pray, how do you like it?" showing her arm. "You
never think of such a thing as love!" exclaimed a
young sentimental man, "you, who have written so
many volumes of poetry upon it?" " Oh, that's all
professional, you know!" exclaimed she, with an air
of merry scorn. " Professional !" exclaimed a grave
Quaker, who stood near, " why dost thou make a differ-
ence between what is professional and what is real?
Dost thou write one thing and think another? Does
not that look very much like hypocrisy?" To this the
astonished poetess made no reply but by a look of
genuine amazement. It was a mode of putting the
matter to which she had evidently never been accus-
tomed; and, in fact, there can be no question that much
of her writing was professional. She had to win a
golden harvest for the comfort of others as dear to her as
herself ; and she felt, like all authors who have to cater
for the public, that she must provide, not so much what
she would of her free-will choice, but what they expected
from her.—William Howitt's Homes and Haunts of
I 3 ritish