Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/455

 DE FLOEEZ V. BAYNOLDS. ���441 ���the same shall not have been introduced into public use in the United States for more than two years prior to the application, and that the patent shall expire at the same time with the foreign patent, or, if there be more than one, at the same time with the one having the shorteat term; but in no case shall it be in force more than 17 years." �These provisions of the act of 1870 apply only to patents granted after that act was passed, and do not apply to this case. Moreover, section 111 of that act, in repealing the acts of 1836, 1837, 1839, and 1861, provides that such repeal shall not "affect, impair, or take away any right existing under any of said laws." �It is quite apparent that the idea running through section 16 of the act of 1861 is that no patent thereafter granted should be ex- tended, but that, instead thereof, their original terms of duration should be 17 years instead of 14 years, with a privilege of extension for seven years more, which had been the prior law. The language is "that all patents hereafter granted shall remain in force for the term of 17 years from the date of issue ;" not that they shall by their terms, and on their face, be granted for 17 years from a date, but that they shall "remain in force" for the term specified. It was not improper, under this provision, to grant them for 17 years from a date, as came to be the practice. But the test is that, whatever be the term on their face, they shall remain in force for the term of 17 years from the date of issue. �What is "the date of issue?" Under section 8 of the act of 1836, in force when the act of 1861 was passed, and when the patents in this case were issued, the patent could "take date" from a date earlier, though not exceeding six months earlier, than the "actual issuing of the patent." The actual date of issuing was one thing, one date. The date from which the patent took date, or its term began to run, was another thing, another date. The latter date may very properly be called "the date of issue." Such latter date need not, necessarily, be a date expressed on the face of the patent. Under section 6 of the act of 1839, such latter date is "the date or publication" of the foreign patent. Looking at the state of legislation before 1861, and at the evident scope of section 16 of the act of 1861, as aimed at extensions of patents, it would be reasonable to say that "the date or publication" of the foreign patent spoken of in section 6 of the act of 1839 might be regarded, in reference to patents issued under such section 6, (as the one in this case was,) as "the date of issue" intended by section 16 of the act of 1861, — the date from which, under such ��� �