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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 88

Digest of Certain Clauses of "the Patents Act, 1870."

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Digest of Certain Clauses of "the Patents Act, 1870."

Letters Patent.

Section 5. Letters Patent to true and first inventors are granted in New Zealand, for a term not exceeding fourteen years, for new manufactures for which no Letters Patent have been granted elsewhere, and which others at the time of making such Letters Patent shall not be using.

Section 7. The applicant is required to deposit at the Patent Office an instrument in writing under his hand and seal, in the prescribed form, embodying a specification describing the nature of the invention and in what manner it is to be performed, and also a copy thereof, and of the drawings, if any, accompanying it. Fee, £2 10s. (See Regulations Nos. 3 and 4 and copy of Schedule.) The day of the deposit of the specification is recorded at the Patent Office, and a certificate thereof is given to the applicant or his agent, by which the invention is protected for six months, in the same manner as though Letters Patent were issued for it.

Section 10. The applicant or his agent is then, or as soon after as he pleases, to give notice of his intention to proceed with his application, and will receive a form of appointment of the day of hearing, which ho is to publish, not less than sixty clear days prior to the day appointed, once in the New Zealand Gazelle, page 4 and twice in some newspaper published respectively in each of the towns of Auckland, Napier, New Plymouth, 'Wellington, Nelson, Blenheim, Hokitika, Christchurch, and Dunedin. (See Regulation No. 5.)

Any one interested in opposing the application may, not less than three clear days before the day of hearing, leave at the Patent Office particulars in writing of his objections. Fee, £2 10s.

Sections 11, 12. On the day of hearing, and at the hour appointed, the applicant or his agent shall produce the Gazette and newspapers containing the advertisements, and the Patent Officer will then hear the application and any objections. (See Regulation No. 0.) If no objections have been lodged, the Patent Officer will merely satisfy himself that the requirements of the Act and regulations have been fulfilled, and will thereupon issue his warrant for the grant of the patent. If, however, objections have been lodged, the Patent Officer will separately hear the applicant or his agent and the objector, and their respective witnesses and evidence, and then decide whether to grant his warrant or not. The Patent Officer may call to his aid, in hearing the case, any person he may think fit, and may order a remuneration to such person, and also any costs incurred by either side, to be paid by the applicant or the objector. (See Regulation No. 6.)

Section 15. After the Patent Officer's warrant has been issued, the applicant should apply to have Letters Patent sealed and issued, and at the same time pay the required fee of £2 10s. The Letters Patent cannot be issued after the period of protection has expired, unless (section 16) under certain special circumstances, when the Governor may allow it to be done within another month.

Section 17. The Letters Patent will be dated and take effect from the date on which the specification was deposited at the Patent Office.

Sections 8 and 14. The invention must be brought into actual and public use in the colony within two page 5 years from the date of the patent; and the fee of £15 must be paid within three years from the same date, or the patent will cease to be of any effect.

Letters of Registration.

Section 20. For any invention patented elsewhere no Letters Patent can bo issued; but Letters of Registration will be granted on compliance with Regulations Nos. 13 and 14, and on payment of £10. Such Letters of Registration will be kept in the Patent Office, and will have the same effect in the colony as Letters Patent, but will continue only as long as the original Letters Patent. (A certified copy will be supplied on payment of nine shillings.)

Extracts from Rules and Regulations Under "the Patents Act," 1870.

[Published in the New Zealand Gazette, No. 85, of 5th September, 1878.]

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2. The Registrar of Patents shall have the care and custody of all registers and documents in the Patent Office, and to him all notices or instruments required or authorized by the said Act or these regulations may be delivered. ......

3. The Patent Office will not correspond, and therefore all business with it must be transacted personally by the applicants or by their agents; and, upon any application or hearing, the applicant may appear personally or by agent.

Letters Patent.

4. Every specification relating to applications for Letters Patent shall be subject to the following conditions :—

(1.)It must be written in a large, legible hand, or printed in fair legible type, and shall be in the form contained in the First Schedule to page 6 the said Act, or to the like effect. (See Schedule hereafter.)
(2.)It shall be written book wise upon both sides of one or more skins of parchment, and every page thereof shall be twenty inches in length by fifteen inches in breadth.
(3.)The title of the invention must state distinctly and specifically the nature and object of the invention, and every specification must be limited to one invention.
(4.)After describing the details of the invention with precision, it shall contain a distinct claim for the especial novelty thereof, and
(5.)A declaration that no Letters Patent have been applied for elsewhere by the applicant for the invention in respect of which the application is made.
(6.)Every copy of any specification shall be legibly written upon pages of foolscap paper, and upon one side only of each page.
(7.)The drawings (if any) accompanying such specification shall be made upon parchment or tracing-cloth, and the following directions must be observed in making copies of drawings :—
a.Drawing-paper, tracing-paper, or tracingcloth may be used; should be as white, clean, and smooth as possible, and should be rolled up and not folded.
b.The drawings should be made with Indian ink, freshly rubbed down, quite black, free from grit and glaze.

Pale ink must on no account be used.

No colour but black is allowed.

All lines, writing, figures, and letters must be clearly and firmly drawn, so as to allow of their being visible when considerably reduced by the process of photo-lithography.

All shading must be by black lines sufficiently wide apart for the purpose aforesaid.

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5. The notice of an intention to proceed with an application for Letters Patent must be delivered at the Patent Office at least ninety days before the expiration of the period of protection.

6. When in any case the Patent Officer deems it expedient, he may make an order that the applicant or his agent, and the objector or his agent, shall deposit before the hearing such sum as the Patent Officer may think fit to meet any costs of the hearing, or costs connected therewith or incident thereto.

7. When an applicant is desirous of submitting an amended specification or drawing for the allowance of the Patent Officer, such amended specification or drawing must be left at the Patent Office at least five days preceding the day of hearing.

8. No amendment or alteration at the instance of the applicant will be allowed in any specification or drawing after the specification shall have been registered, except on the hearing of the application for Letters Patent, and then only in the cases permitted by the proviso to the seventh section of the said Act, or for the correction of merely clerical errors, or of omissions made per incuriam.

9. The Patent Officer, or, in case of his illness or absence from Wellington, the Registrar of Patents, shall have power to adjourn from time to time the hearing of any application for Letters Patent.

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11. Notwithstanding the issue of the Patent Officer's warrant, no Letters Patent shall be prepared until application in writing shall have been made by the applicant or his agent for the preparation of the Letters Patent, and until the fee payable on obtaining Letters Patent shall have been paid.

12. If any Letters Patent be lost or destroyed, duplicate Letters Patent of the like tenor and effect, and sealed and dated as of the same day as such lost or destroyed Letters Patent, may be issued upon evidence of such loss or destruction being produced to the satisfaction of the Patent Officer. The fee of page 8 ten shillings shall be paid on making application for now Letters Patent, and the fee of two pounds on obtaining the same.

Letters of Registration.

13. Every application for Letters of Registration shall be accompanied舑

(1.)By a certified copy of the original Letters Patent and specifications and drawings (if any):
(2.)By a duplicate copy of such specification and drawings:
(3.)By a statutory declaration, by a person conversant with the laws of the country or colony in which the said Letters Patent have been granted, that he has searched the Registry of Patents in the country or colony in which the patent has issued, and that such Letters Patent are, according to the laws of that country or colony, still in force, and not assigned or parted with:

Such declaration shall be made by some person other than the person claiming Letters of Registration:

(4.)By a statutory declaration by the applicant that he is the person named in the original Letters Patent or Letters of Registration, and the bona fide holder thereof:
(5.)Provided that, if the applicant be the assignee of the Letters Patent, or of any interest therein which would entitle him to Letters of Registration, he shall furnish, in lieu of the said declarations, a certified copy of the deed of assignment, and a statutory declaration that he is the person named in the copy deed, and that it is a true copy of the original deed.

14. The directions contained in Regulation No. 4, as to writing, material, and size of specifications, shall apply to all manuscript specifications accompanying applications for Letters of Registration.

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The directions as to copies of such specifications shall apply to the duplicate required of such specifications; and the directions as to drawings and copies of drawings shall apply to the drawings and duplicates of drawings (if any) accompanying such specifications.

Printed specifications and drawings of any size and on paper will be received if the duplicates of drawings are capable of being photo-lithographed.

Assignments and Licenses.

15. Before any assignment or license executed in New Zealand shall be registered, the assignee or licensee shall furnish—

(1.)A statutory declaration by one of the attesting witnesses to the said assignment or license of the due execution of the said assignment or license:
(2.)A certified copy or copies of the assignment or license, and other instruments or documents of title.

16. Before any assignment or license executed out of New Zealand shall be registered, the assignee or licensee shall furnish—

(1.)A statutory declaration by one of the attesting witnesses to the said assignment or license of the due execution of the said assignment or license:

Provided that, if it be proved to the satisfaction of the said Patent Officer that the attesting witness to any such assignment or license is dead or cannot be found, the execution of the said assignment or license may be proved by a statutory declaration of any other person capable of declaring to the same:

(2.)A certified copy or copies of the assignment or license, and other instruments or documents of title:
(3.)A statutory declaration by the applicant that he is the person named in the copy deed, and that it is a true copy of the original deed.

17. No assignment or license of two or more Letters Patent or Letters of Registration included page 10 in one deed or instrument shall bo registered, and no certificate of assignment or license shall be granted, unless a fee for such registration or certificate be paid in respect of each such Letters Patent or Letters of Registration in respect of which such registration or certificate is desired.

Miscellaneous.

18. Documents in any language other than English, deposited in the Patent Office, must be accompanied by translations into English certified to as correct by some person approved of by the Patent Officer, and the regulations relating to original documents shall apply to translations.

* * * * *

20. The fee of one shilling for every search and inspection mentioned in the Eighth Schedule to the said Act shall be paid for the inspection of each book, specification, and the drawings appertaining to each Letters Patent, Letters of Registration, or Application.

21. Applications for copies of documents or drawings in the Patent Office must be accompanied by a deposit of such sum as the Registrar of Patents shall consider sufficient to cover the cost of copying. Copies of drawings are to be charged for according to the time and labour required in each case.

* * * * *

23. In the interpretation of these regulations, the following terms and expressions shall have the meanings hereby assigned to them :—

(1.)A "statutory declaration" means a declaration made in Great Britain or Ireland, or any British colony, or New Zealand, before a Justice of the Peace, notary public, or other person having authority to take or receive a declaration under any law for the time being in force; and, if made in any foreign country, means a like declaration made before a British Consul or Vice-Consul, or other person having authority to take or receive such a declaration under any Act of the Imperial Parliament for page 11 the time being in force authorizing the taking or receiving thereof.
(2.)A "certified copy" means a copy of any deed or instrument certified by a statutory declaration as aforesaid, or by a notary public, to be a true and correct copy, and shall include any such copy under the seal of any Patent Office or other department issuing any such patent, and certified under the hand of any Commissioner or other officer of such office or department to be a true copy thereof.

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The following is the Schedule referred to in Regulation No. 4:—

To All to Whom These Presents Shall Come,

I,___, of___, in the___of___, Send Greeting:

Whereas I am desirous of obtaining Royal Letters Patent for securing unto me Her Majesty's special license that I, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others as I or they should at any time agree with, and no others, should and lawfully might from time to time, and at all times during the term of fourteen years (to be computed from the day on which this instrument shall be left at the office of the Patent Officer), make, use, exercise, and vend, within the Colony of New Zealand and its dependencies, an invention for [Insert the title of the invention]; and in order to obtain the said Letters Patent I must, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and must also enter into the covenant hereinafter contained: Now know ye that the nature of the said invention and the manner in which the same is to be performed is particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement (that is to say) [Describe the invention, and the especial novelty therein for which Letters Patent are claimed]. And I do hereby, for myself, my heirs, page 12 executors, and administrators, covenant with Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, that I believe the said invention to be a new invention as to the public use and exercise thereof, and that I do not know or believe that any other person than myself is the true and first inventor of the said invention, and that I will not deposit these presents at the the office of the Patent Officer with any such knowledge or belief as last aforesaid. And I do hereby declare that no Letters Patent have been applied for elsewhere by me for the invention in respect of which this application is made. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this day of, 18.

Witness to signature—

Table of Fees Under "Patents Act, 1870."

£ s. d. On depositing specification 2 10 0 On obtaining Letters Patent ... 2 10 0 At or before the expiration of the third year 15 0 0 On lodging particulars of objections ... 2 10 0 On presenting petition for extension ... 2 10 0 Etery search and inspection 0 1 0 Entry of assignment or license 0 10 0 Certificate of assignment or license 0 10 0 Filing of memorandum of alteration or disclaimer ... 2 10 0 Entering any caveat ... 2 10 0 Copy or extract of any writing, per common law folio 0 1 0 On obtaining Letters of Registration... 10 0 0 Copy of Letters of Registration 0 9 0 On application for duplicate Letters Patent... 0 10 0 On obtaining same 2 0 0 12

N.B.—Copies of Specifications of Inventions patented in Great Britain, Victoria, New South Wales, &c., are available for inspection at the Patent Office.

Specifications of Inventions in respect of which Letters Patent or Letters of Registration have been applied for in New Zealand, illustrated by photolithographs, are published, and may be obtained through any bookseller, price 12s. for the first series, 1870-73; 2s. 6d. for the second series, 1874; and 5s. each for subsequent volumes.