INTELLECTUAL

The Patent Office - now the Intellectual Property Office - was established by the Patent Law Amendment Act of 1852, which simplified the procedure for obtaining patents of invention and reduced costs. In 1883 another Act of Parliament brought into being the office of Comptroller General of Patents, with, according to the National Archives, 'a staff of patent examiners to carry out a limited form of examination; mainly to ensure that the specification described the invention properly, but without any investigation into novelty'.

8vo, 9 pp. Disbound. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Headed with the royal crest. The last seven pages carry the 'Schedule'. The British legislature had refused to ratify the 1872 Dominion of Canada bill that enshrined a fixed-royalty principle for Canadian publishers to re-print British copyrighted works. This act only allowed Canadian republishing of books that had gone out of print.

Landscape 12mo (12.5 x 20.5 cm), 2 pp. Good, on lightly-aged and creased paper, with pinhole to one top corner. Concerning a meeting at the Society, Murray is 'so glad to hear that His Excellency, the Greek Minister has consented to take the Chair'. 'My lecture on Hellenism will be practically the same as that which I gave on January 21st to the Royal Institution, [...] I hardly think you will wish to print it again, [...] I did not know when accepting your invitation that you proposed to publish the lecture afterwards.