on his part to hinder delay or defraud his creditors, or any of them, shall be null and void as againt the creditors of such debtor, except as to purchasers in good faith and for a present fair consideration; and all property of the debtor conveyed, transferred, assigned or encumbered as aforesaid, shall, if he be adjudged a bankrupt, and the same is not exempt from execution and liability for debts by the law of his domicile, be and remain a part of the assets and estate of the bankrupt, and shall pass to his said trustee, whose duty it shall be to recover and reclaim the same by legal proceedings or otherwise for the benefit of the creditors. And all conveyances, transfers, or incumbrances of his property made by a debtor at any time within four months prior to the filing of the petition against him, and while insolvent, which are held null and void as against the creditors of such debtor by the laws of the State, Territory or District in which such property is situated, shall be deemed null and void under this act against the creditors of such debtor if he be adjudged a bankrupt, and such property shall pass to the assignee and be by him reclaimed and recovered for the benefit of the creditors of the bankrupt."

"All levies, judgments, attachments or other liens obtained through legal proceedings against a person who is insolvent, at any time within four months prior to the filing of a petition in bankruptcy against him, shall be deemed null and void in case he is adjudged a bankrupt, and the property affected by the levy, judgment, attachment or other lien shall be deemed wholly discharged and released from the same, and shall pass to the trustee as a part of the estate of the bankrupt, unless the court shall on due notice order that the right under such levy, judgment, attachment or other lien shall be preserved for the benefit of the estate; and thereupon the same may pass to and shall be preserved by the trustee for the benefit of the estate as aforesaid. And the court may order such conveyance as shall be necessary to carry the purpose of this section into effect: Provided, that nothing herein contained shall have the effect to destroy or impair the title obtained by such levy, judgment, attachment or other lien of a bona fide purchaser for value who shall have acquired the same without notice or reasonable cause for inquiry."

Set-offs and counter claims.-"In all cases of mutual

debts or mutual credits between the estate of a bankrupt and a creditor, the account shall be stated and one debt shall be set off against the other, and the balance only shall be allowed or paid. A set off or counter-claim shall not be allowed in favor of any debtor of the bankrupt which (1) is not provable against the estate; or (2) was purchased by or transferred to him after the filing of the petition, or within four months before such filing, with a view to such use and with knowledge of notice that such bankrupt was insolvent, or had committed an act of bankruptcy."

Title to property.-"The trustee of the estate of a bankrupt, upon his appointment and qualification, and his successors, if he shall have one or more, upon his or their appointment and qualification, shall in turn be vested by operation of law with the title of the bankrupt, as of the date he was adjudged a bankrupt, except in so far as it is to property which is exempt, to all (1) documents relating to his property (2) interests in patents, patent rights, copyrights and trademarks, (3) powers which he might have exercised for his own benefit, but not those which he might have exercised for some other person, (4) property transferred by him in fraud of his creditors, (5) property which prior to the filing of the petition he could by any means have transferred or which might have been levied upon and sold under judicial process against him, (6) rights of action arising upon contracts or from the unlawful taking or detention of, or injury to, his property. Provided, that when any bankrupt shall have any insurance policy which has a cash surrender value payable to himself, his estate or personal representatives, he may within thirty days after the cash surrender value has been ascertained and stated to the trustee by the company issuing the same, pay or secure to the trustee the sum so ascertained and stated, and continue to hold, own and carry such policy free from the claims of the creditors participating in the distribution of his estate under the bankruptcy proceedings, otherwise the policy shall pass to the trustee as assets."

Title to property, when vested by bankruptcy proceedings in the trustee, is also conveyed by him to the purchaser. When a composition is set aside, or discharge revoked, the trustee is re-vested with the title to all of the property of the bankrupt as of the date of the final decree setting aside the composition or revoking the discharge.

The trustee may avoid any transfer by the bankrupt of his property which any creditor of the bankrupt might have avoided, and may recover the property transferred, or its value, from the person to whom it was transferred, unless he was a bona fide holder for value prior to the adjudication. For this purpose courts of bankruptcy have jurisdiction and also state courts which would have had jurisdiction, had not bankruptcy intervened.

When a composition is confirmed, the title to all property is revested in the bankrupt.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

PATENTS, COPYRIGHTS AND TRADE-MARKS.

SECTION I.

PATENT S.

In general.-Under the constitution of the United States Congress has power "to promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." A patent creates a legal monopoly for the period allowed by the statute. At common law, an inventor has no property right in his invention. Under the laws of the United States, a patent is given for "invention", that is, for something created by original thought. An invention must belong to one of the statutory classes in order to be patentable. Any person who has discovered or invented any new or useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or an improvement thereon, or a new and original design, is entitled to a patent. Anything to be the subject of a valid patent must, besides being the subject of invention, be new and useful, provided that the invention or discovery shall not have been patented or described in any publication in the United States or elsewhere and that it shall have been unknown to others in this country for more than two years before the date of the application, and it must not have been previously abandoned.

The statutes grant to the patentee, his heirs and assigns for a term of seventeen years, without privilege of extension the exclusive privilege of making, using and vending the patented article throughout the United States and the territories, and provide for the recovery of damages by the party interested, either as patentee, assignee or grantee, on proof that another has made, used or sold the patented article

without license from the present owner of the patent. A bill in equity for an infringement to prevent the violation of any right secured by a patent may also be filed. Patents are are assignable and the patentee or his legal representative may dispose of their right under the patent for any specific part of the country, or may dispose of the whole patent or an undivided part of the exclusive right, but a patent can only be assigned as is allowed by the statutes of the United States. [See Forms.] The statutes provide that an assignment, grant or conveyance of a patent shall be void as against any subsequent purchaser or mortgagee for a valuable consideration, without notice, unless it is recorded in the patent office within three months from the date thereof. This provision protects bona fide holders for value without notice merely. As between the parties, an assignment is good though not recorded. Joint inventors procure a joint patent, but neither can claim one separately. Inventors who discover and invent, independently, improvements on the same machine, are not thereby entitled to a joint patent.

Patentability.-A thing may be entirely new and still not be patentable. It must fall within one of the classes mentioned above and involve invention and be novel and useful. A process may be patentable, but merely doing an operation by a machine and producing a certain result is not a "process" which is patentable. A merely mechanical process cannot be patented, for, as the United State Supreme Court has said, "a man cannot have a patent for the function of a machine." The process for the making of a machine may be the subject of patent. "Those processes are patentable which look to results which are to be produced otherwise than by any particular machine or by means not purely mechanical." A law of nature is not patentable, but a machine for bringing about a useful result thereby may be. A result is usually not the subject of a patent. It must be remembered that a subject is not patentable unless it embodies invention, that is, something created by original thought. Mere mechanical skill, usefulness or novelty will not entitle one to a patent. If a person in some line of business should make a given article by applying the ordinary knowledge of his trade, this is mere mechanical skill and not invention. The prior state of the art in which the thing was made and previous patents, will be considered in this regard. There must be an exercise of the inventive faculties. A thing