6. The specification should be sealed up by the board of commissioners, as soon as approved of; and remain in their custody ; with power to them, and to them alone, to open it up when ordered by any court of law competent to the question of infringement; or when they them selves deem a recurrence to the specification necessary. The specification thus reinspected should be resealed, the report of the commissioners upon it having the legal force of a verdict. At the termination of the patent term, the specification should be enrolled and made open to the public.
7. In all cases of infringement, the fact should be tried by the commissioners; whose decision should be used as a verdict in actions for profits and injunction (in Scotland interdict) or for damages; or should operate as a verdict for the alleged infringer, the defendant, as its import may be.
The commissioners should keep an exact register of the titles of current patents, with their dates, and an explicit declaration of their objects in these titles. This should be open to public inspection for a trifling fee, and indeed ought to be regularly published in all the scientific journals.* It may be objected, that the proposed proclamation for competitors may occasion to the applicant for a patent the loss of his labour. It is answered that, besides the great advantage he derives from his protected preparation, lie is no worse than, under the present law, he remains through the whole term of his patent. And, at any rate, he ought to run the risk or anticipation to entitle him to an exclusive privilege,—Ior, against a patent once scaled, even previous public use ought not to be permitted to be pleaded. Again, it may be said, that too much power is proposed to be given to the commissioners. We fear, however, that this evil is essential to the due regulation of patent law, which, without such a power, must re main a sort of chartered injustice. In a country like this, however, with a free press and free discussion. there would always be sufficient check upon any thing like partiality. Such a board must, moreover, be composed of men 011171i exceptione majores, and be endowed, by re gulated fees, in such a manner as to place them above all temptation to, or suspicion of, the slightest abuse of their power.
The security of the public in the fidelity, as well as in the general and local knowledge, of the commissioners, would be much increased by an arrangement well worthy of the consideration of the legislature; namely, that the court of commissioners for patents should consist of three branches of three members each, resident in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, respectively ; that these branches should successively deliberate upon every question, both in the original' granting and vindication of a patent, and a majority of two-thirds of the total individuals determine every disputed point. By an easy and expeditious mode of communication among the three branches, very little delay would be occasioned. They would obviously be a
check upon each other, and their local knowledge would be of great service to the arts in all parts of the three kingdoms.
We should propose that the three sets of commission ers shoutu be paid the applicants, whether these ob tain certificates or not ; and by the party failing in all competitions before them, or actions at law, for which their verdict is wanted. We would avoid details here, but we think the commissioners ought to be well paid, even were their fees to be over and above the present expense; as the patentee will be amply compensated by the security of his right, and the total immunity he will enjoy from vexatious piracies, and ruinous law-suits.
A patent ought not to be obtained too cheaply, but it ought not to be unnecessarily enhanced by heavy sinecure dues. It is well worth the consideration of the legisla ture, whether or not the office-fees might not be subjected to reduction. A reduction in London of one-third, which is not greatly more than officers paid by government have been subjected to, would create an ample fund for the whole commissioners. But we do'not think that the re muneration of the commissioners, even added to the pre sent expense, at all above the value of a patent right of the improved quality which would result from the new law.
But there is another and most desirable mode of aug menting the value and security of a patentee's right,name ly, to enact that the same sign manual shall be warrant for affixing to the same patent the great seals of the three kingdoms respectively, so that for a moderate fee at the offices of the Seals of Scotland and Ireland, the right shall extend to the three kingdoms. This fee may be made much smaller than it now is in the two latter kingdoms, as the officers would be much more than compensated by every patent passing these seals, instead of one in five or six, the present proportion; for the increase of the market is greatly too insignificant relatively to induce patentees to extend their patents to Scotland and Ireland, at the present cost, which for each of these kingdoms is not far short of the rate already paid for England. It is more for security than profit that the extension is at present gene rally applied for, to prevent the patent article from being made in the sister kingdoms, to be surreptitiously sold in England. The patent ought not to be complete till sealed in Scotland and Ireland. In this view of the expense, adding a small fee for the colonies, the patent would have the extensive range which it ought to have, and which an author's copy-right has; the commissioners, to whose es tablishment it owes its value, would be amply paid, as would the present officers, while the patentee would not be taxed to the amount of one half of the sum now neces sary to extend his right to the three kingdoms.