RIGHT OF PROPERTY IN INVENTIONS.
As the evils of the present system of patent and registration law are On all hands admitted, and the subject is now pretty generally understood in its broader features, nothing remains to be done but to put the public in pos- session of the details which experience proves to be necessary in order to carry out the changes universally admitted to be almost imperative.
1st. The right of an inventor to copyright should be admitted by the Le- gislature, so that his property in his own design should not be dependent upon favour from any quarter. The time for which that copyright should be granted mast be arranged in such a manner as will secure to the public the enjoyment of the benefit to be derived from it, at as early a period as may be consistent with encouraging ingenious men to devote their time and energies to the discovery or improvement of articles beneficial to society. 2tr. A cheap mode of securing the copyright should be granted by registra- tion or otherwise.
3d. A short and simple process of protecting the copyright, when obtained, from piracy. This might be done by granting jurisdiction in such matters to the County Courts, or by establishing a special tribunal for the determina- tion of questions involving disputed rights. 4th. Copyrights should be divided into several short periods ; paying fees increasing in a ratio proportional to the increased length of time for which the public are required to give up their claim to the use of the invention. By making the first period short, and the fee payable small, an inventor may experiment at a comparatively small outlay on the profitableness of his - invention, before incurring the larger expenditure which may fairly be de- manded for continuance of copyright in a successful speculation.
5th. Parties obtaining copyrights should in all instances undertake the defence of their own rights ; and for the accuracy of the description of the article in his speculation, the party claiming the copyright must be entirely responsible.
nth. All descriptions or specifications should be delivered at the time the copyright is grouted, and no alterations should be afterwards allowed. If any improvement is made, it should be the subject of an additional and se- parate registration ; which, the fee being small, would not be a hirdship, were the improvement of any value. 7th. All copyrights should be dependent upon novelty : previous publi- eation, at home or abroad, should invalidate the copyright. This would be necessary in order to prevent importers from securing the rights of inventors and thereby defrauding the public. 8th. A question has been raised concerning the appointment of a Board of scientific men to examine inventions previously to the copyright being granted. It is hardly to be conceived that such a body, exercising a discre- tionary power—at all times to be avoided if possible—would not be a source of great dissatisfaction to all parties whose claims might be denied, and who would naturally feel that uo person or body of men should have the power to come between an inventor and his right to ran thc risk of a registration.
These requirements being premised, the question arises, how they are to be obtained in the simplest cud most economical manner.
1. It will be admitted that a single office for the purpose of registering all copyrights—in which the duties should be as far as possible simply ex, etltire, and with as little discretionary power vested in any hands as may be con- sistent with the well working of the department—is the most desirable mode -by which the above objects would be obtained.
2. To render this system satisfactory to the public, it would be required to declare all articles now registerable or patentable by the present existing laws fit subjects for obtaining copyrights under the new arrangement. By this means, the clashing of "shape and configuration" with principle, so com- mon under the present law, would be at once removed. 3. Provisional registration for a single year, at a very low fee, should be continued, in order to give poor inventors the power of bringing their de- signs into the market without danger of piracy. 4. All copyrights, and the deserytions of the articles to which they refer, to be -published periodically by the Registration Office—in order to give every facility to parties, not having the opportunity of searching the records, to ascertain how far their inventions arc involved in previous registrations or patents.
cifications and the periods for which they are to continue, would be most de
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5. A publication of all at present existing patents, setting forth th their spe- sirable though -perhaps difficult of attainment. 6. As great difficulties might be anticipated in -repealing the patent-laws now in existence—such as their being in a degree embodied in the Acts of Union between the Eingdoms—I would suggest that they might be allowed to die a natural death, as no one having the right to simple registration involve nvolve himself in the trouble and expense of taking out a patent under the old law.
In order to render this practicable, an act should be passed declaring that no patent obtained under the old law should override or supersede a regis- tration previously made. Of course it will be understood that this paper merely pmports to be a
general outline ; and that the scales of fees, periods of copyright, lte., being matters of detail, are reserved for consideration. Another matter of some importance is, whether the adoption of the French system of an an- nual payment would be advisable. My own impression is, that in some points great advantage would be derived from it, by the e,xpiry in natural course of a great number of useless copyrights : but still it ought to be con- sidered whether-many ;poor and meritorious inventors might not'be exposed to lose their copyright-nom oversight, or even Irom a temporary difficulty of raising a small -sum of money. -The Registration Office should under -any circunistanaes publish period- ioally,thertitles and.numbers of all copyrights which may have stxpired.
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