C.,A'VEAT (Lat.. It him beware, from cavere, to take heed). A formal notice addressed to a judicial or administrative otlieer. warning him not to take certain proceedings, which may or may not be in contemplation, without first, giv• iug due notice to the person filing the caveat. The object of the notification is .” secure to the person giving it an opportunity to be heard in opposition to the action or proceeding in ques tion, and it operates as a stay upon such pro ceeding. Caveats are available in England for a Nariety of purposes, as to restrain the enrollment of a decree in chancery, the issuino. of a lunacy commission. the grant of a marriage license, the probate of a will, etc. In the States they are not so common, though they may in some States be employed for some of these purposes. especially to stay the probate of wills and the issuing of letters testamentary.
The laws regulating the granting of patents in the Cnited States, however, provide that a caveat may be filed by an inventor to give notice to the Patent Office of inchoate inventions. Such
a caveat must set forth the purpose of the invention or discovery, and its distinguishing characteristics; and it prays protection of the inventor's right until he shall have matured his invention. It is required to be filed in the con fidential archives of the office and to be pre served in secrecy, and it must be renew,d from year to year in order to be kept in force. The person tiling it is entitled to he notified of any application for a patent made during the lifetime of the caveat, which application, if granted, would interfere with the invention claimed there in, and is entitled to priority by reason thereof. See PATENT. Consult: holes of United Siatcs Patent Office: :Merwin, Patentability of Inven tions (Boston. 1S83) ; Luby, Patunt Office Prue litc (Kalamazoo, 1897).