RIGHT IS SECURED, BY AFFIXING THE GREAT SEAL. It may here be observed, that the unsuccessful party, in a compe tition on caveat before the attorney-general, may be heard again, by the lord chancellor, on caveat lodged at the great seal. before the patent is sealed.
The patentee has now to perform his part of his con tract with the public, by fairly and fully disclosing his in vention. This, by the present law, he must do within one, or, more generally in practice, two months after the patent is sealed, in a writing sworn to, signed, and seal ed, by him, before a master in chancery, or magistrate in the country, and containing a minute description of his invention, with the relation and mode of operation of the several parts, and the union of the whole machine, so clear, that any person engaged in the same sort of manu facture, or versant in mechanics or chemistry in general, may construct or make the patent article from the descrip tion alone. Drawings or models may accompany the de scription, but are no legal part of it, as it must be inde pendent of them. This description, called the specrfica tion, forms the last step of the proceedings, and is consi dered as part of the patent, being essential to ascertain and limit the patent right. It is enrolled or put on record ; and any person applying is entitled, on paying the office fees, to have a copy. The reason assigned for this pub licity, in so early a stage of the patent right, is, not that the public may be enabled then to make the article, for they cannot touch it for fourteen years, but that ingenious men may know how far they are anticipated, and may both save their labour, and avoid unintentional piracy. If the patent is of any value or public interest, its specification generally soon appears in all the scientific journals.
The specification is a document of great nicety, and most of the patents, which, on judicial trial, have been lost, have been so from mistakes here. As it is the con dition of the patent that the invention shall be fully and fairly disclosed in the specification, any part of it false, defective, or obscure, so as to mislead the public, even unintentionally, but still more designedly, any want of conformity of the description to the title of the invention, renders the patent void. Accordingly, in most prosecu
tions for infringement of patents, the prosecuted take their stand here ; and have generally been well advised that the specification is faulty, before they venture on the infringe ment.
Alanifold are the imperfections in specifications which are fatal to the patent right. The following are a few of them. Specifying one material and using a cheaper, not specified or included. Omitting some beneficial part of the process. Specifying something useless, superfluous, or redundant. Specifying something which will not pro duce the professed effect. Specifying some step that is not new, and not noting that fact, whereby the patentee is held to have assumed what he did not invent. Specify ing the whole article as invented, when the patent should have been for an improvement only. Omitting to specify the old article sufficiently to identify it. Specifying arti cles which are meant to puzzle, and which are not essen tial. Specifying less extensively. not than the title of the patent, but than the mode of afterwards constructing. for example, specifying one machine, and using two. In the last case, it is plain, that the different construction or use practised by the patentee, is not protected by the patent, it is a different thing.
Common utensils, and processes universally known, need not be described, but merely called the common in strument, material, utensil, or process.
The right once completed, by letters patent and speci fication, is a vested right which descends to the patentee's heirs, and is transferable to assigns; but these must not exceed five individuals, without the sanction of an act of parliament. A patent likewise cannot be originally grant ed to more than five persons.