Page:Prerogatives of the Crown.djvu/198

 178 Patents. [Ch.X. Sec.II. the statute of James 1. expressly provides, - that no declaration therein contained shall extend " to any letters patents, and grants of privilege, for the term of fourteen years or under, thereafter to be made, of the sole working or making of any- manner of new manufactures within this realm, to the true and Jirst inventor and inventors of such manufactures, which others at the time of making such letters patents, and grants, shall not use, so as also they be not contrary to, the law, nor mis- chievous to the State, by raising prices of commodities at home, or hurt of trade, or generally inconvenient ; the said fourteen years to be accounted from the date of the first let- ters patents, or grant, of such privilege thereafter to be made, but that the same shall be of such force as they should be, if that act had never been made, and of none other." In noticing the law, respecting patents for inventions, we will consider — First, for what inventions patents may be granted; secondly, who is to be considered the inventor J thirdly, the description of the invention in the specification ; fourthly, how a patent is obtained ; fifthly, the remedies for the infraction of the patent right ; and, lastly, how the patent may be vacated. First, It will be observed, that the Act mentions letters patents for the sole working or making of " new manufactures'* within this realm. Manufactures are things made by the hands of man, and are reducible to two classes, namely, machinery and substances* In the former case, the machine, in the latter the substance produced, forms the manufacture and is consequently the sub- ject of a patent {a). As observed by C. J. Eyre (Z>), " the word manufacture is of extensive signification : it applies not only to things made, but to the practice of making ; to prin- ciples carried into practice. Under things made we may class new compositions of things, such as manufactures in the most ordinary sense of the word ; all mechanical inventions, whe- ther made to produce old or new effects, for a new piece of mechanism is certainly a thing made. Under the practice of making, we may class all new artificial manners of operating with the hand, or with instruments in common use, new pro- cesses in any art producing effects useful to the public. New methods of manufacturing articles in common use, where the («) 2 H. B. 481, 2. ib) Ibid. 492. whole