CANADA.

[Revised Statutes of Canada, 1906, ch. 69.]

AN ACT RESPECTING PATENTS OF INVENTION.

SHORT TITLE.

1. This Act may be cited as the Patent Act (R. S., c. 61, s. 1).

INTERPRETATION.

2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires(a) "Minister" means the Minister of Agriculture.

(b) "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Patents, and "Deputy Commissioner" means the Deputy Commissioner of Pat

ents.

(c) "Invention" means any new and useful art, machine, manufacture or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement in any art, machine, manufacture or composition of matter.

(d) "Legal representatives" includes heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, or other legal representatives. (R. S., c. 61, s. 2.)

PATENT OFFICE AND APPOINTMENT OF OFFICERS.

3. There shall be attached to the Department of Agriculture, as a branch thereof, an office which shall be called the Patent Office; and the Minister of Agriculture for the time being shall be the Commissioner of Patents. (R. S., c. 61, s. 3.)

4. The Commissioner shall receive all applications, fees, papers, documents, and models for patents, and shall perform and do all acts and things requisite for the granting and issuing of patents of invention; and he shall have the charge and custody of the books, records, papers, models, machines, and other things belonging to the Patent Office. (R. S., c. 61, s. 4.)

5. The Deputy Minister of Agriculture shall be the Deputy Commissioner, and the Governor in Council may, from time to time, ap point such officers and clerks under the Deputy Commissioner as are necessary for the purposes of this act, and such officers and clerks shall hold office during pleasure.

(2) The Deputy Commissioner may do any act or thing, whether judicial or ministerial, which the Commissioner of Patents is authorized or empowered to do by any provision of this Act; and, in the absence of the Deputy Commissioner, any person performing the duties of the Deputy Minister of Agriculture under the authority of the Civil Service Act may, as acting deputy commissioner, do any such act or thing. (60–61 V., c. 25, s. 1; 3 S. VII, c. 46, s. 1.)

6. The Commissioner shall cause a seal to be made for the purposes of this Act, and may cause to be sealed therewith every patent and other instrument and copy thereof issuing from the Patent Office. (R. S., c. 61, s. 6.)

APPLICATIONS FOR PATENTS.

7. Any person who has invented any new and useful art, machine, manufacture or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement in any art, machine, manufacture or composition of matter, which was not known or used by any other person before his invention thereof, and which has not been in public use or on sale with the consent or allowance of the inventor thereof, for more than one year previously to his application for patent therefor in Canada, may, on a petition to that effect, presented to the Commissioner, and on compliance with the other requirements of this Act, obtain a patent granting to such person an exclusive property in such invention. (2) No patent shall issue for an invention which has an illicit object in view, or for any mere scientific principle or abstract theorem. (R. S., c. 61, s. 7.)

8. Any inventor who elects to obtain a patent for his invention in a foreign country before obtaining a patent for the same invention in Canada, may obtain a patent in Canada, if the patent is applied for within one year from the date of the issue of the first foreign patent for such invention.

(2) If within three months after the date of the issue of a foreign patent, the inventor gives notice to the Commissioner of his intention to apply for a patent in Canada for such invention, then no other person having commenced to manufacture the same device in Canada during such period of one year, shall be entitled to continue the manufacture of the same after the inventor has obtained a patent therefor in Canada, without the consent or allowance of the inventor.

(3) No Canadian patent issued previous to the thirteenth day of August, one thousand nine hundred and three, shall be deemed to have expired before the end of the term for which it was granted merely because of the expiry of a foreign patent for the same invention. (55-56 V., c. 24, s. 1; 3 E. VII, c. 46, s. 2.)

9. Any person who has invented any improvement on any patented invention, may obtain a patent for such improvement; but he shall not thereby obtain the right of vending or using the original invention, nor shall the patent for the original invention confer the right of vending or using the patented improvement. (R. S., c. 61, s. 9.)

10. Every inventor shall, before a patent can be obtained, make oath, or, when entitled by law to make an affirmation instead of an cath, shall make an affirmation, that he verily believes that he is the inventor of the invention for which the patent is asked, and that the several allegations in the petition contained are respectively true and

correct.

(2) In the event of the inventor being dead, such oath or affirmation shall be made by the applicant, and shall state that he verily believes that the person whose assignee or legal representative he is, was the inventor of the invention for which the patent is solicited, and that the several allegations in the petition contained are respectively true and correct.

(3) Such oath or affirmation may be made before a minister plenipotentiary, chargé d'affaires, consul, vice consul or consular agent, a judge of any court, a notary public, a justice of the peace, or the mayor of any city, borough, or town, or a commissioner for taking affidavits having authority or jurisdiction within the place where the oath may be administered. (R. S., c. 61, s. 10; 55–56 V., c. 24, s. 2.)

11. The applicant for a patent shall, for the purposes of this Act, elect his domicile at some known and specified place in Canada, and shall mention the same in his petition for a patent. (R. S., c. 61, s. 11.)

12. The applicant shall, in his petition for a patent, insert the title or name of the invention, and shall, with the petition, send in a specification in duplicate of the invention and an additional or third copy of the claim or claims. (56 V., c. 34, s. 1.)

13. The specification shall correctly and fully describe the mode or modes of operating the invention, as contemplated by the inventor; and shall state clearly and distinctly the contrivances and things which he claims as new and for the use of which he claims an exclusive property and privilege.

(2) Such specification shall bear the name of the place where, and the date when it is made, and shall be signed by the inventor, if he is alive, and, if not, by the applicant, and by two witnesses to such signature of the inventor or applicant.

(3) In the case of a machine the specification shall fully explain the principle and the several modes in which it is intended to apply and work out the same.

(4) In the case of a machine, or in any other case in which the invention admits of illustration by means of drawings, the applicant

shall also, with his application, send in drawings in duplicate, showing clearly all parts of the invention; and each drawing shall bear the signature of the inventor, if he is alive, and, if not, of the applicant, or of the attorney of such inventor or applicant, and shall have written references corresponding with the specification; but the Commissioner may require further drawings or dispense with any of them, as he sees fit.

(5) One duplicate of the specification and of the drawings, if there are drawings, shall be annexed to the patent, of which it shall form an essential part, and the other duplicate shall remain deposited in the Patent Office.

(6) The Commissioner may, in his discretion, dispense with the duplicate specification and drawing, and in lieu thereof cause copies of the specification and drawing, in print or otherwise, to be attached to the patent, of which they shall form an essential part. (R. S., c. 61, s. 13.)

14. In all cases in which the invention admits of representation by model, the applicant, if required by the Commissioner, shall furnish a model of convenient size exhibiting its several parts in due proportion; and when the invention is a composition of matter, the applicant, if required by the Commissioner, shall furnish specimens of the ingredients, and of the composition, sufficient in quantity for the purpose of experiment.

(2) If such ingredients or composition be of an explosive or dangerous character, they shall be furnished with such precautions as are prescribed in the requisition therefor. (55–56 V., c. 24, s. 3.)

15. On each application for a patent, a thorough and reliable examination shall be made by competent examiners to be employed in the Patent Office for that purpose. (55-56 V., c. 24, s. 8.)

16. No application for a patent shall be withdrawn without the consent in writing of each and every registered assignee of such patent or any part thereof. (55–56 V., c. 24, s. 4.)

REFUSAL TO GRANT PATENTS.

17. The Commissioner may object to grant a patent in any of the following cases:

(a) When he is of opinion that the alleged invention is not patentable in law.

(b) When it appears to him that the invention is already in the possession of the public, with the consent or allowance of the inven

tor.

(c) When it appears to him that there is no novelty in the invention.

(d) When it appears to him that the invention has been described in a book or other printed publication before the date of the application, or is otherwise in the possession of the public.

(e) When it appears to him that the invention has already been patented in Canada, unless the Commissioner has doubts as to whether the patentee or the applicant is the first inventor.

(f) When it appears to him that the invention has already been patented in a foreign country, and the year has not expired within which the foreign patentee may apply for a patent in Canada, unless the Commissioner has doubts as to whether the foreign patentee or the applicant is the first inventor. (R. S., c. 61, s. 16.)

18. Whenever the Commissioner objects to grant a patent as aforesaid, he shall notify the applicant to that effect and shall state the ground or reason therefor, with sufficient detail to enable the applicant to answer, if he can, the objection of the Commissioner. (R. S. c. 61, s. 17.)

19. Every applicant who has failed to obtain a patent by reason of the objection of the Commissioner, as aforesaid, may, at any time within six months after notice thereof has been mailed, addressed to him or his agent, appeal from the decision of the Commissioner to the Governor in Council. (R. S., c. 61, s. 18.)

CONFLICTING APPLICATIONS.

20. In case of conflicting applications for any patent, the sam shall be submitted to the arbitration of three skilled persons, two of whom shall be chosen by the applicants, one by each, and the third of whom shall be chosen by the Commissioner; and the decision or award of such arbitrators, or of any two of them, delivered to the Commissioner in writing, and subscribed by them or any two of them, shall be final, as far as concerns the granting of the patent.

(2) If either of the applicants refuses or fails to choose an arbitrator, when required so to do by the Commissioner, and if there are only two such applicants, the patent shall issue to the other applicant.

(3) If there are more than two conflicting applications, and if the persons applying do not all unite in appointing three arbitrators, the Commissioner may appoint the three arbitrators for the purposes aforesaid.

(4) The arbitrators so named shall subscribe and take before a judge of any court of record in Canada, an oath in the form following, that is to say:

"I, the undersigned (A. B.), being duly appointed an arbitrator under the authority of the Patent Act, do hereby solemnly swear or (affirm, as the case may be), that I will well and truly perform the duty of such arbitrator on the conflicting applications of (C. D. and E. F.) submitted to me."