Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

LONDON:

C. ROWORTH AND SONS, PRINTERS,

BELL YARD, TEMPLE BAR.

PREFACE.

PROPERTY in form, distinct from that of the material substance or article in which it was exhibited, was, till within a few centuries, quite unknown. It has of late years attracted much notice, various arts having facilitated the multiplication of copies, and Government has paid attention not merely to the legal protection of Design, but to its encouragement by schools of art, museums, &c. while it is not only patronized but practised by Royalty itself.

Legally the subject has generally been treated of as an appendix to or variation of literary copyright, or of patents. It has, however, an independent character distinct from either of these. 1. In literature ideas are expressed by letters representing vocal sounds; the shape of the black marks, dots or strokes on the paper being immaterial. But in an engraving or a pattern, these are the language of the author, and subject of the right. 2. A patent, again, is properly a right to an art or trade, a process, method or operation, and the forms of machines and vessels are described by the patentee not as the

invention, but to show "the manner in which it is to be performed." An equivalent apparatus might be substituted without altering the principle of the. invention, but it might be a different form and configuration.

As further legislation is anticipated, while the existing laws are likely to obtain judicial development, the Author contemplates a return to the subject, and will esteem as a favour the communication through the publisher of additional information.

Postscript. The report of Lowndes' case has not reached London. An imperfect account in the Mechanic's Magazine seems to show that a design to be first lithographed, and then executed by the needle, was duly registered under Class 10, and even if the class were a wrong one, that the right was not affected by such error,

« ForrigeFortsæt »