RECENT LEGAL DECISION.

Progress, Volume I, Issue 12, 1 October 1906, Page 336

RECENT LEGAL DECISION.

Patent. Prior Publication. The Wilfley Ore Concentrator Syndicate, Limited, sued N. Guthridge, Limited, for infringement of their patent for the Wilfley Table for concentrating ores. One of the defences was that the patent had been anticipated by the prior publication m Melbourne of a New York journal containing

a description of the invention. Mr. Justice Hood held that the description so published was unintelligible. Held on appeal by the High Court of Australia that that the principle to be applied was whether the description was sufficient to convey to men of science and employers of labour information which would enable them, without the exercise of inventive ingenuity, to understand the invention and to give a workman specific directions for the making of the machine, and that subject to evidence as to the state of common knowledge among persons familiar with the subject matter at the time of the publication and as to the meaning of technical terms or words of art, the interpretation of the document is a question of law for the Court ; further, that the description quite intelligibly described the construction of a table which anybody of ordinary intelligence and sufficient mechanical ability could make, and that therefore there had been prior publication. N. Guthndqe, Limited v The Wilfley Ore Concentrator Syndicate, Limited. 3 Commonwealth L.R. >*3