provided that the registrar of friendly societies shall not certify the rules of any friendly society for the purpose of securing any benefit depending on the laws of sickness or mortality, unless such society shall adopt a table which shall have been certified to be a table which may be safely and fairly adopted for such purpose under the hand of the actuary to the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt, or of some person who shall have been for at least five years an actuary to some life insurance company in London, Edinburgh or Dublin (h). On the death or removal of any treasurer or trustee of one of these societies, the whole property of the society vests in the succeeding treasurer or trustee for the same estate and interest as the former treasurer or trustee had therein, and subject to the same trusts, without any assignment or conveyance whatever, except the transfer of stocks and securities in the public funds (i). And on the death, bankruptcy or insolvency of any officer of any such society, or on any execution issuing against him, or on his making any assignment or conveyance for the benefit of his creditors, the money or effects in his hands belonging to the society are to be paid over and delivered to the society before any other of his debts are paid (j). Loan societies are regulated by another Loan Societies. act of parliament, which is annually continued (k).

cieties.

An act of parliament has also been passed for the Building soregulation of benefit building societies (1). The funds of these societies are raised by monthly subscriptions of the members, which must not exceed 20s. per share, and by fines for non-payment. The shares must not exceed the value of 1507. each. When the amount of the shares has

(h) Stat. 9 & 10 Vict. c. 27,

s. 13.

(i) Stat. 10 Geo. IV. c. 56, s. 21. (j) Stat. 4 & 5 Will. IV. c. 40,

(k) Stat. 3 & 4 Vict. c. 110, last continued by stat. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 53.

(1) Stat. 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 32.

Judgment debts.

Patents.

been realized, the money is divided amongst the members, and the society is dissolved. Such members, however, as may wish to buy land or to build, may receive the amount of their shares in advance on payment of an additional subscription by way of interest, and also on payment of a bonus for the advance, which of course is deducted from the amount of the share advanced. This bonus is usually determined by competition amongst the members, the shares to be paid in advance being put up by auction by the society; and the subscriptions and fines to become due in respect of the advanced shares are then secured to the society by the purchasers, by mortgage of land or houses of sufficient value. These mortgages are exempt from any of the forfeitures or penalties of usury (m); and a receipt for the monies secured, indorsed by the trustees of the society upon any such mortgage, vests the estate comprised in the security in the person entitled to the equity of redemption, without any reconveyance (n).

The provisions above referred to for charging the stock of any debtor with the payment of any judgment debt (o), extend to stock and shares in any public company in England, whether incorporated or not (p).

The prerogative of the crown in the grant of letterspatent is frequently exercised not only for the incorporation of joint stock companies, but also for conferring on private individuals certain exclusive rights and privileges. These rights, called patents from the letterspatent which confer them, will be considered in the next chapter.

(m) Sect. 2.
(n) Sect. 5.

(0) Ante, p. 155.

(p) Stat. 1 & 2 Vict. c. 110, s. 14.

CHAPTER II.

OF PATENTS AND COPYRIGHT.

A PATENT is the name usually given to a grant from the A patent. crown, by letters-patent, of the exclusive privilege of making, using, exercising and vending some new invention (a). The granting of such letters-patent is an ancient prerogative of the crown. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, this prerogative was stretched far beyond its due limits, and the monopolies thus created formed one of the grievances which King James, her successor, was at last obliged to remedy. Accordingly by a statute passed in the twenty-first year of his reign, and commonly called the Statute of Monopolies (b), it Statute of was declared and enacted that all such monopolies were Monopolies. altogether contrary to the laws of this realm, and so were and should be utterly void and of none effect, and in nowise put in ure or execution. In this statute, however, there are certain exceptions, and particularly one on which the modern law with respect to patents may be said to be founded. This exception is as

follows: "Provided also and be it declared and enacted, Proviso. that any declaration before-mentioned shall not extend to any letters-patent and grants of privilege for the term of fourteen years or under, hereafter to be made, of the sole working or making of any manner of new manufactures within this realm, to the true and first inventor and inventors of such manufactures, which others at the time of making such letters-patents and grants shall not use, so also they be not contrary to the law nor mischievous to the state, by raising prices of commo

(a) See a form of letters-patent in Appendix B.

(b) Stat. 21 Jac. I. c. 3.

Term of patent fourteen years.

Extension of term.

dities at home, or hurt of trade, or generally inconvenient; the said fourteen years to be accounted from the date of the first letters-patent or grant of such privilege hereafter to be made; but that the same shall be of such force as they should be if this act had never been made and of none other (c)."

It will be seen that the granting of letters-patent is not expressly warranted by this statute; but that it merely reserves to such letters-patent as fall within the terms of the exception, such force as they should have had if the act had never been made, and none other force. As, however, all grants of exclusive privilege by letters-patent, which do not fall within this exception, and some others of little importance, are now rendered void by the statute, the construction of this exception has become a matter of great practical importance. And first, the term must be fourteen years from the date of the letters-patent, or under; and the full term of fourteen years is usually granted. By a recent act of parliament (d), a prolongation of the term granted by the original letters-patent may be granted either to the original grantor or to his assignee (e), for a term not exceeding seven years after the expiration of the first term, in case the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council shall, upon proper application, report to her Majesty that such further extension of the term should be granted. And if such further period of seven years can be shown to be insufficient for the reimbursement and remuneration of the expense and labour incurred in perfecting the invention, then, by a subsequent statute (f), the crown may grant to the inventor, or his

(c) Stat. 21 Jac. I. c. 3, s. 6.
(d) Stat 5 & 6 Will. IV. c. 83,
s. 4, amended by 2 & 3 Vict. c.
67.

(e) Russell v. Ledsam, 14 Mee.

& Wels. 574; affirmed, 16 M. & W. 633.

(f) Stat. 7 & 8 Vict. c. 69, ss. 2, 4.

assignee, an extension of the patent for any time not exceeding fourteen years.

Secondly, the patent must be for "new manufactures New manuwithin this realm, which others at the time of making factures. such letters-patents and grants shall not use." The use here mentioned has been held to mean a use in public; if therefore the invention, for which the patent is sought to be obtained, has been previously used in public within the realm, the patent will be void (g). And the realm in this statute has been recently determined to mean the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; so that if any invention has been publicly known or practised in England, a patent for Scotland will be void (h). By an act of parliament, to which we have before referred, it is however provided that letters-patent may be confirmed, or new ones granted, for any invention, or supposed invention, which shall have been found by the verdict of a jury, or discovered by the patentee or his assigns, to have been either wholly or in part invented or used before, if the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, upon examining the matter, shall be satisfied that the patentee believed himself to be the first and original inventor, and that such invention, or part thereof, had not been publicly and generally used before the date of the first letters-patent (i).

inventor.

Thirdly, a patent must be granted "to the true and True and first first inventor and inventors." If, therefore, the original inventor should sell his secret to another person, such person cannot obtain letters-patent for the invention in his own name; but the original inventor must obtain the letters-patent, and then assign them to the other.

(g) Lewis v. Marling, 10 Barn. & Cres. 22; Carpenter v. Smith, 9 M. & W. 300.

(h) Brown v. Annandale, 8 Cl. & Fin. 214.

(i) Stat. 5 & 6 Will. IV. c. 83,