Two or more inventors may apply for a patent, provided each has contributed something toward bringing it to its perfected state. Each cannot apply separately. The patent issued will be owned by them jointly.
Joint owners of a patent are not partners, unless they have signed partnership papers respecting the patent. Because they are partners in some other enterprise, disconnected from the patent, that does not constitute them partners in the patent. They are merely joint owners.
If they have no special agreement with respect to the patent each can grant licenses to manufac[p. 190]ture, independently of the others, without being compelled to account to the others, and each has a right to sell his interest without asking permission of the others.
An inventor is one who has devised an invention. A patentee is one who owns a patent, or an interest in one, be he the inventor or not.
The United States government does not grant Caveats. The only protection offered is by way of patent.
A patent runs for a period of seventeen years, and may be renewed by act of Congress only, for a further term of seven years.
An interference is a proceeding in the Patent Office to determine who is the first inventor of a device. The following is a brief statement of the course followed:
When two or more applicants have applications pending, which, in the opinion of the Examiner, appear to be similar, the Office may declare an interference.
If an applicant has an application pending, and the Examiner rejects it on reference to a patent already issued, the applicant may demand an interference, and the Office will then grant a hearing to determine which of the two is entitled to the patent.
The first step, after the declaration of interfer[p. 191]ence, is to request that each applicant file a preliminary statement, under oath, in which he must set forth the following: