Porto Rico.-Chattel mortgages are not in use in Porto Rico. Rhode Island.-Unless the property is delivered to the mortgagee, the mortgage must be recorded within five days, in the office of the clerk of the town where the mortgagor resides, or where the property is, if he be a nonresident. The mortgagee may take possession after condition is broken. If there are any provisions for a sale in the instrument, the property inay be sold in accordance therewith. Redemption at law may be had at any time within sixty days after breach, unless the property has been sold as above. The equity may be foreclosed by bill in equity.

South Carolina.-Property mortgaged must be described in writing or typewriting, not printing, on the face of the mortgage. The mortgage must be proved by affidavit of a subscribing witness and recorded within ten days in the office of the register of mesne conveyances if in the counties of Charleston, Greenville or Spartanburg, elsewhere with the clerk of court of the county where the mortgagor resides; or, if he be a non-resident, where the property is situated. Mortgages of stock in trade are valid and cover after acquired property substituted for goods sold. Recording after ten days is notice only as to subsequent creditors or purchasers. Foreclosure by sale after notice posted for fifteen days in three public places in the county where the property is, one of which shall be the court-house door, or after publication for two weeks in the county where the mortgagee resides, unless the mortgagor has otherwise agreed in writing.

South Dakota.-Mortgage must be in writing subscribed by the mortgagor in the presence of two witnesses, who must sign as such, and be filed in the office of the register of deeds of the county in which the property is situated. No acknowledgment is necessary. It must bear a certificate signed by the mortgagor that he has received from the mortgagee a true copy of the mortgage. It is good for three years from the date of filing, but may be extended within thirty days before the expiration of said three years by filing in the office of the register of deeds a copy of the mortgage with a sworn statement of the amount then due. Foreclosure may be by action, or on six days' notice by publication in a newspaper nearest the place of sale.

Tennessee.-Mortgages must be acknowledged or proved and registered in the county where the mortgagor resides, or, if he be a non-resident, where the property is situated. If the mortgage contain a power of sale, it may be foreclosed in accordance therewith; if not, it is foreclosed by bill in equity. Texas. A chattel mortgage must be filed in the office of the clerk of the county where the mortgagor resides, or, if a non-resident, where the property is situated. It is foreclosed by suit, and the property is sold under decree of the court. If the property is removed from the county without the mortgagee's consent, the latter is entitled to immediate possession and sale, whether the debt is due or not.

Utah. A chattel mortgage must be accompanied by an affidavit of the parties that it is made in good faith to secure the sum named, and not intended to hinder or delay creditors, and be witnessed, and filed with the recorder in the county where the mortgagor resides, or, if he be a non-resident, where the property is situated. Within thirty days after the expiration

of three years from date of filing, and within thirty days after the expiration of each year thereafter an affidavit of the mortgagee, or his agent, showing his interest in the property and the amount due must be filed. No mortgage is valid for more than five years. If it contain a power of sale, it may be foreclosed by the sale of the property without legal proceedings, provided certain statutory provisions as to notice, etc., are complied with; otherwise the foreclosure will be by suit.

Vermont.-Mortgages of personal property must be recorded in the office of the clerk of the town where the mortgagor resides, or, if he be a nonresident, where the property is situated, and must be accompanied by an affidavit, subscribed by the mortgagor and mortgagee, that the mortgage is made for the purpose of securing the debt specified in the condition thereof, and for no other purpose whatever, and that the same is a just debt, honestly due, and owing to the mortgagee. At any time after thirty days from the time of condition broken, the mortgagee may cause the property to be sold at public auction by a public officer in the town where the mortgagor resides, or where the property is situated, provided notice of the time, place, and purpose of the sale has been posted in two or more public places in such town ten days previously, and ten days' notice in writing given to the mortgagor. Any surplus is paid to the mortgagor, or applied on subsequent mortgages, if there be any such. The officer must make return of his doings to be filed and recorded where the mortgage is recorded.

Virginia. Chattel mortgages are executed, acknowledged, and recorded in the same manner as deeds of real estate (see Deeds). Chattel mortgages are usually given as deeds of trust, in which case they may be foreclosed by the trustee according to the terms of the mortgage, without the intervention of the courts.

Washington.-A mortgage of personal property must be accompanied by the affidavit of mortgagor that it is made in good faith, and without design to hinder, delay, or defraud creditors, and must be acknowledged and filed within ten days in the office of the county auditor of the county where the property is situated; if for three hundred dollars or more it may also be recorded in the same manner as a deed of real estate. It ceases to be notice unless within two years after it becomes due mortgagee files affidavit of amount due. The mortgagee may on default, or previously if he has reasonable ground to believe that the security is endangered, have the property taken and sold by the sheriff. Notice of the time and place of sale and amount due must be served on the mortgagor, and like notice must be given of the sale as of sales on execution. If the right to foreclose or amount due is disputed, the proceedings may be transferred to the district court, or the foreclosure may be made by suit in court in the first instance.

West Virginia.-Chattel mortgages require the same formalities as deeds of real estate, must be executed under seal or scroll, acknowledged, or else proved by two witnesses, and recorded in the county where the property is. Chattel mortgages are seldom used, and are foreclosed in court of equity after decree. Deeds of trust usually take their place, and, after default, the trustee may sell the property, after due notice, without recourse to the courts.

Wisconsin. The mortgage, or a copy, is to be filed in the office of the clerk of the town, city, or village where the mortgagor resides, or if he is a non-resident, where the property is; and every two years, within thirty days before the expiration thereof, the mortgagee must file an affidavit showing his interest in the mortgaged property. After condition broken, the mortgagee may take possession of the property and at the expiration of five days sell the same, and any surplus over the debt and costs must be returned to the mortgagor. Mortgages of marked logs must be recorded in the office of the lumber inspector of the district where the marks are recorded. Mortgages of exempt property or household furniture must be signed by the mortgagor's wife in the presence of two witnesses.

Wyoming. A chattel mortgage must be executed and acknowledged like conveyances of real estate, and filed in the clerk's office of the county where the property is situated. It is then valid for six months after the expiration of the term for which it was given, but may at or before the expiration of the six months be renewed for another year by filing an affidavit setting forth the mortgagee's interest in the mortgage, and may be further renewed annually in the same manner. It is foreclosed by sale at public auction, after three weeks' advertisement of the time and place of such sale. mortgages may be made to secure future advances.

Chattel

CHAPTER XXXIV.

THE LAW OF PATENTS, INCLUDING DESIGNS, TRADE-MARKS, PRINTS AND LABELS.

WHO MAY OBTAIN A PATENT.

Section 4,886 of the Revised Statutes of the United States provides that "any person who has invented or discovered any new and useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, not known or used by others in this country before his invention or discovery thereof, and not patented or described in any printed publication in this or any foreign country, before his invention or discovery thereof, or more than two years prior to his application, and not in public use or on sale in this country for more than two years prior to his application, unless the same is proved to have been abandoned, may, upon payment of the fees required by law, and other due proceeding had, obtain a patent therefor."

In case of the death of the inventor, his legal representatives will be entitled to apply for and receive the patent.

Joint inventors are entitled to a joint patent, but neither can claim one separately.

An alien may obtain a patent on the same terms as a citizen. Merely conceiving the idea of a machine or improvement is not such an "invention" or "discovery" as will prevent a subsequent inventor from obtaining a patent. In order to have this effect, the alleged prior invention must have been reduced to a practical form, capable of actual use; and, in most cases, actual use itself is also held to be necessary.

Nor will the fact of prior use or invention abroad prevent the issue of the patent, unless the invention has been patented or described in some printed publication.

As between two rival inventors, however, the rule is that he who first conceives the idea of an invention, and uses reasonable diligence in reducing it to practice, is the prior inventor as against one whose conception of the idea was later, though he was the first to reduce it to practice. In such case, drawings, models, or even oral descriptions may be used for the purpose of proving the date of the conception of the invention.

When two or more persons apply for patents for the same invention an "interference" is declared between them. Each party is required to file a statement under oath, of the date and circumstances of his alleged invention, testimony is taken in support of their respective claims, and a trial is then had before an examiner in the Patent Office to determine which was the first inventor. An interference may be declared even though one of the parties has already obtained a patent.

The inventor may employ mechanics to embody his ideas, and may avail himself of their suggestions as to form and details, if the plan of the invention be his own.

An inventor may abandon his invention. By "abandonment" is meant a public use of it with the knowledge and consent of the inventor. If he had knowledge of such use his assent is implied from his silence or the absence of effort to prevent it; and both knowledge and acquiescence may be inferred from circumstances.

Patents are now granted for the term of seventeen years, and confer on the patentee, his legal representatives and assigns, the

exclusive right to make, use, and vend the invention throughout the United States during that time.

WHAT MAY BE PATENTED.

This is defined in the statute above quoted as "any new and useful art, machine, manufacture or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof."

The invention must be "new." By this is not meant that all the parts of a machine or the ingredients of a composition of matter were before unknown. A machine is said to be new in the sense of the patent law when its principles or mode of operation are different from any previously known. A new combination of old parts, producing a new result, or an old result in a new way, is a valid subject of letters patent.

It must be "useful." This means that it must not be harmful, or opposed to the public welfare, but promises some positive advantage. It is an implied requirement, also, that the means employed do actually produce the result attributed to them.

The patent is prima facie evidence both of the novelty and utility of the invention described in it as against an infringer.

It is held that the mere substitution of a new material to produce a known article does not constitute invention, nor does the substitution of a known equivalent for one of the elements of a known combination.

A patent cannot legally be granted, or is void if granted, for a mere property or function of matter, a motive power of the elements, or a physical law or force. But any of these being discovered, or a new use of any of them, the discoverer or inventor may have a patent for his mode or method of applying it to use. Hence a patent may be taken for a new "process" or method of producing a certain result, even though the process be carried out by the use of mechanism or other means not in themselves patentable. But the mere discovery that an old machine can be applied to a new use, without more, as, for instance, that a machine used for cutting wood can be used to cut iron, will not sustain a patent.

If the result of the process be a new product, that also may be patented as a new manufacture or composition of matter, as well as the process.

It is of the utmost importance that the description of the invention in every patent should be clear and accurate, and that