Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/483

 SCHOERKEN V. SWIFT <fe COUfiTNEY & BEECHEE 00. iklX �ble in evidence at all, it does not show such an opeu public patent as will defeat a patent of the United States, and that it does not purport to be a patent for the same invention. I Courts of this country take judicial notice of all other nations, and their seals of state, but not of their inferior dopartments and their officers and seals. The copy filed in evidence is certified by the direotor of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers of France, under the seal of that department, verified by the minister of agriculture and com- merce, and the minister of foreign affail-s, under their seals, but not by the great seal of France. This would not be suffi- cient proof of the copy if the common law was to govem. ■Church V. Hvbhart, 2 Cranch, 187. But the difficulties of making proof of foreign as well as of domestic patents have been lessened by statute. Copies of any records, ; books, or papers belonging to the patent-office, and of letters patent, authenticated by the seal, and cei-tified by the commissioner or acting commissioner, are made evidence where the orig- inals would be evidence. Eev. St. § 893. And "copies of the specifications and drawings of the foreign letters patent, certified as provided in the preoeding section, shall be prima facie evidence of the fact of the granting of such letters pat- ent, and of the date and contents thereof." Eev. St. § 893, �This department and its directors, in France, correspond to the patent-office and its commissioner in the United States, as is understood, and the minister of agriculture and com- merce to the secretary of the interior. So that this copy cornes from the proper source, is authenticated in the proper manner, and is admissible in evidence under the statute. De Flonz V. Baynalds, 17 Blatchf. 436. . �This defence, ars formulated in the Revised Statutes, is that ihe invention shall have been patented before the supposed invention by the patentee. Section 4920, par. 3. There are patents in France which may,ifor public and special reasons, be kept secret. The expression "patented," in the stMute, would seem, from the signification of the word, to mean only inventions laid open to the public, and protected to the in- veptors, and such appears to be the construction which thg ��� �