Industrial and Commercial Property (Protection) Act, 1927

Definitions.

3.—In this Act—

the word “patent” means letters patent for an invention;

the expression “British patent” means a patent granted by the Patent Office in London;

the word “patentee” means the person for the time being entered on the register as the grantee or proprietor of the patent;

the word “invention” means any new and useful art, process, machine, manufacture or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement in any art, process, machine, manufacture or composition of matter, and includes an alleged invention;

subject to the provisions of this Act, the words “inventor” and “applicant” respectively include the legal representative of a deceased inventor or applicant;

the word “design” means only the features of shape, configuration, pattern, or ornament applied to any article by any industrial process or means, whether manual, mechanical, or chemical, separate or combined, which in the finished article appeal to and are judged solely by the eye, but does not include any mode or principle of construction, or anything which is in substance a mere mechanical device;

the word “article” means (as respects designs) any article of manufacture and any substance artificial or natural or partly artificial and partly natural;

the word “copyright” when used in relation to a design registered under Part III . of this Act means the exclusive right to apply the design to any article in any class in which the design is registered;

the expression “proprietor of a new or original design”—

(a) where the author of the design, for good consideration, executes the design for some other person, means the person for whom the design is so executed, and

(b) where any person acquires the design or the right to apply the design to any article either exclusively of any other person or otherwise, means, in the respect and to the extent in and to which the design or right has been so acquired, the person by whom the design or right is so acquired, and

(c) in any other case means the author of the design,

and where the property in, or the right to apply, the design has devolved from the original proprietor upon any other person, includes that other person;

the expression “working on a commercial scale” means the manufacture of the article or the carrying on of the process described and claimed in a specification for a patent in or by means of a definite and substantial establishment or organisation, and on a scale which is adequate and reasonable in all the circumstances;

the word “mark” includes a device, brand, heading, label, ticket, name, signature, word, letter, numeral, or any combination thereof;

the expression “trade mark” means a mark used or proposed to be used upon or in connection with goods for the purpose of indicating that they are the goods of the proprietor of such trade mark by virtue of manufacture, selection, certification, dealing with, or offering for sale;

the word “controller” means the Controller of Industrial and Commercial Property appointed under this Act;

the expression “the Office” means the Industrial and Commercial Property Registration Office established pursuant to this Act;

the word “Journal” means the Official Journal of Industrial and Commercial Property issued by the controller pursuant to this Act;

the expression “the register” means the appropriate register kept pursuant to this Act;

the expression “British register” means the appropriate register kept in the Patent Office in London pursuant to the statutes relating to that Office;

the expression “Patent Office in London” means the office in London called the Patent Office and maintained under the statutes relating to the granting of patents for inventions and the registration of designs and trade marks in the late United Kingdom and in Great Britain;

the expression “late United Kingdom” means the late United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland;

the expression “self-governing British dominions” means and includes the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, and Newfoundland;

the expression “British dominions” includes Great Britain and Northern Ireland and (save where the context otherwise requires) the self-governing British dominions;

the expression “the Minister” means the Minister for Industry and Commerce;

the expression “Law Officer” means the Attorney-General of Saorstát Eireann;

the word “prescribed” means prescribed by general rules made under this Act;

the word “court” means the High Court of Justice in Saorstát Eireann.