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same. Such request shall be accompanied by a copy of the specification and of the drawings proposed to be amended, showing in red ink the proposed amendment.

(2.) The request and the nature of such proposed amendment shall be advertised in the prescribed manner, and at any time within one month from its first advertisement any person may give notice at the office of the Examiner of Patents of opposition to the amendment.

(3.) Where such notice is given the Examiner of Patents shall give notice of the opposition to the person making the request, and shall hear and determine the case, subject to appeal to the Minister of Justice.

(4.) The Minister of Justice shall, if required, hear the person making the request and the person so giving notice and being in the opinion of the Minister entitled to be heard in opposition to the request, and shall determine whether, and subject to what conditions, if any, the amendment ought to be allowed.

(5.) Where no notice of opposition is given, or the person so giving notice does not appear, the Examiner of Patents shall determine whether, and subject to what conditions, if any, the amendment ought to be allowed.

(6.) When leave to amend is refused by the Examiner of Patents, the person making the request may appeal from his decision to the Minister of Justice.

(7.) The Minister of Justice shall, if required, hear the person making the request and the Examiner of Patents, and may make an order determining whether, and subject to what conditions, if any, the amendment ought to be allowed.

(8.) No amendment shall be allowed that would make the specification as amended claim an invention or improvement substantially larger than or substantially different from the invention or improvement claimed by the specification as it stood before amendment.

(9.) Leave to amend shall be conclusive as to the right of the party to make the amendment allowed except in case of fraud; and the amendment shall in all Courts and for all purposes be deemed to form part of the specification.

(10.) The foregoing provisions of this section do not apply when and so long as any suit or action for infringement or proceeding for revocation of a patent is pending.

3. In a suit or action for infringement of a patent, and in a proceeding for revocation of a patent, the Supreme Court or a Judge of that Court may at any time order that the patentee shall, subject to such terms as to costs and otherwise as the Court or Judge may impose, be at liberty to apply to the Minister of Justice for leave to amend his specification by way of disclaimer, and may direct that in

the meantime the trial or hearing of the suit or action shall be postponed.

4. Where an amendment by way of disclaimer, correction, or explanation has been allowed under this Act, no damages shall be given in any suit or action in respect of the use of the invention or improvement before the disclaimer, correction, or explanation, unless the patentee establishes to the satisfaction of the Court that his original claim was framed in good faith and with reasonable skill and knowledge.

5.-(1.) The proceeding by scire facias to repeal a patent is hereby abolished.

(2.) Revocation of a patent may be obtained on petition to the Supreme Court in its equity jurisdiction.

(3.) Every ground on which a patent might at the commencement of this Act be repealed by scire facias shall be available by way of defence to a suit or action of infringement, and shall also be a ground of revocation.

(4.) A petition for revocation of a patent may be presented by

(a.) The Attorney-General;

(b.) Any person authorized by the Attorney-General;

(c.) Any person alleging that the patent was obtained in fraud of his rights, or of the rights of any person under or through whom he claims;

(d.) Any person alleging that he, or any person under or through whom he claims, was the author or designer of any invention or improvement included in the claim of the patentee;

(e.) Any person alleging that he, or any person under or through whom he claims an interest in any trade, business, or manufacture, had publicly manufactured, used, or sold within the Colony of New South Wales, before the date of the patent, anything claimed by the patentee as his invention or improvement.

(5.) The petitioner must deliver with his petition particulars of the objections on which he means to rely, and no evidence shall, except by leave of the Court, be admitted in proof of any objection of which particulars are not so delivered.

(6.) Particulars delivered may be from time to time amended by leave of the Court.

(7.) The patentee shall be entitled to begin and give evidence in support of the patent, and if the petitioner gives evidence impeaching the validity of the patent, the patentee shall be entitled to reply.

(8.) When a patent has been revoked on the ground of fraud, the Governor may, on the application of the author or designer, or the agent or assignee of the author or designer (as the case may be),

in accordance with the provisions of the Acts in force dealing with the grant of Letters Patent, grant to him a patent in lieu of and bearing the same date as the date of revocation of the patent so revoked, but the patent so granted shall cease on the expiration of the term for which the revoked patent was granted.

6. In this Act the word "patent" means Letters Patent as defined in the Patents Law Amendment Act of 1887, and the word "patentee" includes a person entitled for the time being to the benefit of Letters Patent.

7. This Act shall be construed as one with the Act 16 Vict., No. 24, the Patents Law Amendment Act, and the Patents Law Amendment Act of 1887,* and may be cited as "The Patents Law Amendment Act, 1895 [sic, 1896]."

ACT of the Government of Western Australia, to regulate the Law of Copyright, and for other purposes.

[No. 24.]

[Assented to, October 2, 1895.]

BE it enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly of Western Australia, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

PART I-Preliminary.

1. This Act is divided into parts as follows:Part I.-Preliminary, sections 1-4.

Part II.-Copyright of Literary, Dramatic, and Musical Productions, Lectures, &c., sections 5-34.

Part III.-Copyright of Fine Arts, sections 35-44.

Part IV. Miscellaneous provisions, sections 45-59.

2. This Act may be as "The Copyright Act, 1895," and shall come into operation on the 1st day of January, 1896.

3.-(1.) The Acts mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act are hereby repealed.

(2.) Such repeal shall not affect the validity of any registration made under "The Copyright Register Act, 1887," or any copyright vested thereunder; but all such registrations shall be and continue to be as valid and effectual, and every such copyright shall continue to be vested, as if made or vested under this Act, and all such

* Page 1011.

registrations which could lawfully be made under "The Copyright Register Act, 1887," before the passing of this Act may be validly and effectually made under the provisions of this Act, and shall be subject thereto and protected thereby.

(3.) Such repeal shall not affect any rights accrued, liabilities incurred, or any legal proceedings instituted or commenced before the coming into operation of this Act; but such rights shall be enforceable, and such liabilities shall continue, and such proceedings may be instituted and prosecuted in like manner as though this Act had never been passed.

4. Except where there is anything in the context repugnant thereto or inconsistent therewith, the following words and expressions in this Act mean or include the matters following:

"Book" means and includes every volume, part, or division of a volume, newspaper, pamphlet, sheet of letter-press, sheet of music, map, chart, or plan, separately published.

Copyright" means the sole and exclusive right and liberty of making, printing, writing, drawing, painting, photographing, or otherwise howsoever multiplying copies of any matter, thing, or subject to which the said word is herein applied.

"Dramatic or musical production" means and includes every tragedy, comedy, play, opera, farce, or other scenic, musical, or dramatic piece, entertainment, or composition.

"Drawing or painting" means and includes every drawing or painting made in any manner and material, and by any process:

Engraving" means and includes every work made upon a plate, block, or slab of any material by engraving, lithography, or other process whereby impressions may be taken from such plate, block, or slab, or whereby prints or impressions of drawings or designs are capable of being multiplied.

"Photograph" means and includes every photograph or other similar work which is produced by the action of light or any chemical process.

"Proprietor" means and includes

(1.)-(a.) The author of any book, or of any tragedy, comedy, play, opera, farce, or other dramatic or musical composition or production, or of any lecture as hereinafter described in Part II of of this Act.

(b.) The author of every original painting, drawing, work of sculpture, and photograph hereinafter described in Part III of this Act, unless such author has executed any of the works aforesaid on behalf of another person for a good or a valuable consideration, in which case such person shall be the proprietor thereof, and shall be entitled to be registered in the place of the author; and

(2.) Every person acquiring for a good or valuable consideration.

the copyright in any book, tragedy, comedy, play, opera, farce, or other dramatic or musical composition or production, or in such lecture, and in such original painting, drawing, work of sculpture, and photograph; and

(3.) Every person upon or to whom the property in such copyright or any part thereof as aforesaid devolves or is bequeathed, and to the extent to which the same has been so acquired, or has so devolved or been bequeathed, but not otherwise; and

(4.) Any other person expressly or impliedly included in this definition by any of the provisions of this Act.

Registrar" means and includes the Registrar and Assistant Registrars (if any) appointed under and by virtue of this Act. "Regulations" means the regulations made under the provisions of this Act.

"Work of sculpture" means and includes any and every piece of sculpture, whether in the round, in relief, or in intaglio, made in any material and by any process.

PART II.-Copyright of Literary, Dramatic, and Musical
Productions, Lectures, &c.

Books.

5.-(1.) The copyright in every book which, before or after the coming into operation of this Act, has been or is first published in Western Australia in the lifetime of its author shall, except as hereinafter mentioned, endure for the natural life of such author, and for the further term of seven years, commencing at the time of his death, and shall be the property of such author and his assigns.

(2.) Whenever the said term of seven years expires before the end of forty-two years from the first publication of such book in Western Australia, the copyright shall in that case endure for such period of forty-two years.

(3.) The copyright in every book which has been or is published in Western Australia after the death of its author shall endure for the term of forty-two years from the first publication thereof in Western Australia, and shall be the property of the proprietor of the author's manuscript from which such book is first published and his assigns.

6. The Governor may, on complaint made to the AttorneyGeneral

(1.) That the proprietor of the copyright in any book, after the death of its author, has refused to republish or to allow the republication of the same; and

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