First: The date of conception of the invention.
Second: Date of the first reduction to writing, or the preparation of drawings.
Third: Date of making of the first model or device.
Fourth: When a complete machine was first produced.
These statements are filed in the Patent Office, and opened on the same day, and times are then set for the respective parties to take testimony.
If one of the parties was the first to conceive and reduce to practice, as well as the first to file his application, he will be adjudged to be the first inventor, without necessitating the taking of testimony.
If, on the other hand, one was the first to conceive, and the other the first to file, then testimony will be required to determine the question of invention.
The granting of a patent is not conclusive that the patentee was, in reality, the first inventor. The law is that the patent must issue to the first inventor, and if it can be proven that another party was the first, a new patent will issue to the one who thus establishes his right. The Commis[p. 192]sioner of Patents has no right to take away the patent first issued. Only the Courts are competent to do this.
A patent is granted for the right to make, to use and to vend.
An owner of a patent cannot sell the right only to make, or to sell, or to use. Such a document would be a simple license, only, for that particular purpose.