XX3 m LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 019 923 868 1 American Association of Inventors AND Manufacturers. Washington, D. C, April i6, i8g^. DRAI^T OF A BII.Iv AMENDING THE PATENT lyAW PREPARED BY THE COMMITTEE ON LEGISI^ATION AND SUBMITTED TO THE COMMITTEE ON PATENTS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section forty-eight hundred and eighty-seven of the Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to read : ' ' SECTION 4887. No person shall be debarred from receiv- ing a patent for his invention or discovery, nor shall any patent be declared invalid by reason of its having been patented or caused to be patented in a foreign country within one year prior to the application for a patent on the same invention in this country, but every such patent hereafter granted shall be limited in duration to the term for which any such prior patent had been granted, or if there be more than one foreign patent prior to the filing of the application in this country, then said patent granted thereon shall be limited in duration to the term for which any such prior foreign patent having the shortest term had been granted. No patent now in force, or which shall be hereafter granted, shall be held to be limited in its duration, by the terms of a prior foreign patent for the same invention unless the date from which the term of said foreign patent commences to run, was prior to the date of filing of the application for the patent in this country. This section shall not apply to any patents which have heretofore expired by virture of the Acts ^^?y '^. ^ in force prior to the passage of this Act. But no patent shall be granted for an invention previously patented, or for which an application for patent has been filed in a foreign country, unless the application shall be made in the United States within one year from the date of such foreign patent. And if more than one patent shall be granted for matter shown or described in a prior foreign patent or application for the same invention, such patent shall issue simultaneously." Skc. 2. That section forty-eight hundred and ninety-four of the Revised Statutes be, and hereby is, amended by erasing the word " application " and substituting the word "petition '' in lieu thereof ; also by erasing the words * ' two years ' ' in each place where they occur and substituting in lieu thereof the words * * six months, ' ' so that the section as amended will read : * ' Sec. 4894. All applications for patents shall be completed and prepared for examination within six months after the filing of the petition, and in default thereof, or upon failure of the applicant to prosecute the same within six months after any action therein, of which notice shall have been given to the applicant, they shall be regarded as abandoned by the parties thereto, unless it be shown to the satisfaction of the Commissioner of Patents that such delay was unavoidable." This section (two) shall apply only to the applications here- after filed. Sec. 3. That all actions shall be brought during the term for which the I^etters Patent shall be granted or extended, or within six years after the expiration thereof. Sec. 4. That section forty-nine hundred and nineteen of the Revised Statutes be, and hereby is, canceled and repealed and the following substituted therefor and enacted in lieu thereof. ' * Sec. 4919. Damages for the infringement of any patent may be recovered in an action at law in the name of the party interested either as patentee, assignee, or grantee. And whenever in such action a verdict is rendered for the plaintiff, except as provided in section eight, the court may enter judg- ment for any sum not exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars, exclusive of costs, in lieu of damages and profits or the plaintiff shall be entitled to recover the damages caused by the infringe- ment of the defendant, and in addition thereto the total profit of the defendant derived from the unlawful use of the patented invention, and in this case the court may enter judgment on the verdict for any sum above the amount found by the verdict as the damages sustained, according to the circumstances of the case, not exceeding three times the amount of such verdict, together with the costs." Sec. 5. That a court of equitable jurisdiction, after personal notice to all parties shown by the records of the Patent Office to be interested, may pass the title to Letters Patent of the United States, or any interest therein, by decree, without any act on the part of the defendant, whenever, in its opinion, that shall be the proper mode of enforcing the equitable rights of the parties, and a copy of such decree when recorded in the Patent Office shall be legal notice to all parties, and such decree while in force shall be as effectual to transfer said Letters Pat- ent, or any interest therein, as a conveyance to the same effect executed by such defendant. Sec. 6. That the Commissioner of Patents may refund to the payer money paid into the Patent Office by mistake. Sec. 7. That the Assistant Commissioner of Patents shall perform such duties pertaining to the office of the Commis- sioner as may be assigned to him by the Commissioner, and in the absence of the Commissioner he shall be Acting Commis- sioner. Sec. 8. That section forty-nine hundred and twenty-one of the Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby, amended by adding thereto the following clauses : ' * But hereafter, when- ever a patent is alleged to be infringed, the patentee or his representative shall seek his remedy by bringing suit in the first instance against the manufacturer or vendor of the article alleged to infringe said patent, provided such manufacturer or vendor can be found within the United States, and shall in no case bring suit against any individual who shall have purchased, in good faith, an article of a regular dealer in the open market for his own use, or who shall innocently use for agricultural or domestic purposes a patented article until the patent has been sustained by a decree of a court of competent jurisdiction; iiiiiiili 019 923 86J Provided, That such individual purchaser shall give to said patentee, or his representative, at his request, the name and residence of the party from whom said article was purchased, and that the manufacturer or vendor can be found within the United States, and when a suit is brought against an innocent purchaser the remedy shall be limited to an injunction, and plaintiff shall pay all costs. And provided also, That this exemption from liability of the innocent purchaser shall not apply to any corporation, firm or company, nor to any corpora- tion or party, as to any patented machine or process made or used by them for the manufacture of an article or product for sale. Actions at law or suits in equity for infringements of patent rights may be brought in the district where the infringer has a place of business, whether the defendant or defendants be domiciled therein or in some other district. The courts of equity of the United States shall have juris- diction of cases of infringement of patents, after a patent shall have expired, for the purpose of ordering an account and pay- ment to the owner of the patent of such profits as may have been made by the infringer during the lifetime of the patent from the infringement complained of. Sec. 12. That all Acts and parts of Acts inconsistent with the provisions of this Act be, and the same are hereby, repealed. 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