Records of Counties, 260. The Administration of Justice in India-No. II., The Bible and the Public Schools, 48. The Case of the Ex-Nawab of Tonk, 307. The Church Building Acts, 251. 27. The Game Laws Jurisprudentially Considered, 177. The late Professor Von Vangerow, 118. The late Sir Frederick Pollock, 200. The Law of Compensation for Closed Churchyards, 301. The Law of Ulterior Destination as Bearing on Contraband of War, 73. The Legal Education Association, 126. The Lord Chancellors of Ireland, 239. The Lords' Amendments to the Married Women's Property The Judges and Judicature of England, 217. THE Law Magazine and Law Review: OR QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF JURISPRUDENCE. No. LIX. ART. I.-OUR PATENT LAWS: THEIR ORIGIN AND POLICY, WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR THEIR AMENDMENT. By JOHN LASCELLES, Esq., Barrister-at-Law. AT T no remote period, our patent laws will engage the attention of the Legislature, and upon its right determination respecting them depend the interests of that large class of inventors which England has the good fortune to possess, and whose genius and perseverance have done so much towards giving her that supremacy in manufacturing industry which she has long enjoyed without dispute. Some of us are perhaps actively connected with manufactures which have been created and improved by inventive genius, and which are still capable of greater improvement. Others, perhaps, only take a general interest in the subject, and yet that general interest cannot fail to be a deep interest, if we realise the effect which enterprise of this kind has had upon the welfare of the country at large and of ourselves individually, by cheapening and improving articles of utility and of daily requirement. Whether the patent laws should be amended or abolished, and if amended, how they should be amended, so as to make VOL. XXX.-NO. LIX. B them beneficial both to inventors and to the people at large, is a question which has a politico-economical importance, which belongs to few branches of law reform. False steps may be taken in our attempts to improve most other branches of the law, without any more serious effect than causing unnecessary expense and trouble to be incurred, by the individuals who happen to come within the operation of the laws which have been dealt with; they seldom have a prejudicial effect upon the well-being of the people at large, and they rarely put a direct check upon the national prosperity and advancement. With respect to amendments of the patent laws, however, the case is different. Good patent laws are the great stimulus which induces inventors to persevere till they have reduced their ideas to practical and useful forms, and according as we amend them upon sound or false principles, will the inventive genius of the nation continue to contribute to our prosperity and advancement, by the production of inventions which perseverance and industry have made perfect and practically useful; or will languish and decay, giving us nothing but crude ideas and philosophical toys, of no use either to the public or to the inventors themselves. We propose first to discuss the justice and policy of our patent laws as a general question, and then to enter into some of the amendments by which we think they may be improved and made more conducive to the encouragement of inventive genius-the object which should be kept constantly in view in dealing with this branch of law reform. We think, however, we shall make ourselves more easily intelligible if, before proceeding to the discussion of either of these divisions of our subject, we give a short account of the origin and history of the laws of which we are about to treat, and of their principal provisions as they now exist. We find from the early history of our manufactures, that during many ages after the Norman conquest, the English were not proficient in the cultivation of the industrial arts, and that, though they had sufficient energy and perseverance to work branches of industry which others had shown to be profitable, they seldom originated arts or manufactures for themselves. It thus became the policy of the kings of England to induce foreigners to introduce their arts and manufactures, and in order to do so, they exercised a part of the recognised prerogative of the Crown in granting them "privileges," conferring valuable rights and immunities with respect to the working of the arts and manufactures which they introduced. In these grants of "privileges" to foreigners, we find the origin of our present practice of granting letters patent to inventors. So long as our sovereigns confined themselves to grants of this description, this exercise of their prerogative was wise and beneficial, for it gave their subjects the immediate advantage of arts and manufactures of which they would otherwise have been for a long time deprived. These "privileges," however, were not granted, without the reservation of valuable rights to the grantors, and the cupidity of our successive monarchs led to such abuses, that, in the time of the Tudors, the Crown was in the habit of selling monopolies for the working of manufactures which were not new, and for the sale of articles, the manufacture of which had long been known to their people. This practice was carried to such an extent in the reign of Elizabeth, that the national prosperity was fast sinking under it; and when the subject was brought before the House of Commons in the 41st year of her reign, it was found that the salt, iron, powder, brush, earthenware, sea-coal, train-oil, bottle, and almost all other trades were carried on under monopolies, which had been sold by the Crown, or given to courtiers. The examination which the subject then underwent, and the disclosures which were made, drew public attention to the question, and called forth such a strong expression of opinion against the grants which had been made, that some of them were immediately cancelled. The abuse was, however, continued in the time of James I., until it was finally abolished by the well-known Statute of Monopolies in the 21st year of his reign. A proviso in this Statute reserved to the Crown the right of granting letters patent and grants of privilege for the term of fourteen years or under, for the sole working or making of any manner of new manufactures within the realm, to the true and first inventor and inventors of such manfactures, which others, at the time of making such letters patents and grants, should not use. This proviso is the foundation of our modern patent law. The Statute of Monopolies has been amended and improved by various Statutes, which it is not necessary for us to mention particularly, and into the details of which we shall not enter at present. At this stage of our enquiry, it will be sufficient for our purpose to state the general effect of them, leaving such of the details as we intend to notice, to be stated when we begin to treat of some amendments of the law which we think would be advantageous. The general effect then of the Statutes now in force relating to the granting of letters patent for inventions is as follows:-Any true and first inventor of a new art or manufacture, or any one who is the first introducer into this country of a foreign art or manufacture, can, upon certain conditions, to be noticed hereafter, have granted to him, his executors, administrators, and assigns, the exclusive right of making, using, exercising and vending such new art or manufacture, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, for the space of fourteen years from the date of the grant. One of the conditions, upon which this exclusive right is granted, is, that the letters patent shall cease and be void, if at any time during the period for which they were granted it be made to appear to the Sovereign, her heirs, or successors, or to any six or more of the Privy Council, that the grant is contrary to law, or prejudicial or inconvenient to the subjects in general, or that the invention, at the time of the grant, was not a new invention as to the public use and |