Private Organizations.
In certain departments connected with this matter attempts have been made
to supply, by means of private organizations, what is lacking in the provisions
secured by legislation. Of great importance in this respect are the Merchants’
Associations and the Swedish Advocates’ Union.
The Merchants’ Associations, of which the most important are the Stockholm
Merchants’ Association (founded in 1858) and the Gothenburg Merchants’ Association
(founded in 1857), are associations of wholesale merchants in the different
places, formed with the object of protecting the members’ interests in the matter
of insolvent clients and of preventing or reducing the losses inseparable from
the credit-system which prevails in the wholesale trade. With this purpose in
view, the associations have organized a corps of reliable legal representatives in
different places in the country, whose duties are partly to collect and communicate
information about the traders in their respective districts, partly to enforce
payment of debts and to conduct legal proceedings. The legal representatives
are remunerated according to a fixed scale. In the case ■ of a trader in a particular
district suspending payment or being made bankrupt, the legal representative
for that district is generally entrusted with the duty of winding up the estate
of the debtor. A list of the legal representatives of the association is generally
inserted in a periodically published calendar (e. g. The Oommercial Calendar of
Sweden). In 1907 the activities of the merchants’ associations were considerably
extented by the institution by the Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmo associations
of so-called Composition- and Bankruptcy departments. Within these departments,
bureaus have been set up, which, partly, by means of their officials, directly
wind up the estate in the event of a trader in whom the members of the
association are interested compounding with his creditors hr being adjudged
bankrupt, and partly examine and control the estate by means of inspectors.
The departments co-operate with each other, but each one has a special district
within which its activities 'are exercised. The composition and bankruptcy departments
have proved to be of great service for wholesale trade. (Of. p. I, 324.)
The Swedish Advocates’ Union was formed in the year 1887 and is an association
of the country’s professional advocates. The union has a governing bodj
in Stockholm, which conducts the affairs of the union, examines applications
for membership, exercises disciplinary authority over th.e members of the union,
and adjudicates in the case of disputes arising between advocates and their clients
as to the remuneration for services rendered. The members, of the union bind
themselves to accept without appeal the awards made, when a client calls for
such adjudication. At the end of the year 1914 and the beginning of the year
1915, the number of members amounted to 220, residing in 42 places; of these
members, 101 were in Stockholm, 28 in Gothenburg, and 13 in Malmo. For the
guidance of the public in the choice of a legal representative, the union publishes
an annual list of its members, which is included in the Swedish State Calendar.
(Of. p. I, 318).
Patents.
In Sweden, as in several other countries, the origin of the patent system
can be traced to the privileges, called privilegia exclusiva, which the
Government in earlier times granted by way of reward and encouragement
to a person who had either made some invention himself which could be
advantageously employed in home manufacture, or had started some kind
of trade which had hitherto not been carried on in Sweden.
At the Riksdag of 1809, a Bill was introduced for a better ordering of the
system by which privileges for inventions were conferred, and on April 28, 1819,
what was virtually the first Patents Law in Sweden was passed, although the
Law still spoke of “privilegia exclusiva”. For many reasons, the chief of which
perhaps, -was the preliminary examination required by the Act as to the novelty
and utility of the invention, this Ordinance soon aroused much dissatisfaction,
and, after repeated representations from the Riksdag, a new Ordinance was
promulgated on Dec. 13, 1834, in which the word “privilege“ was exchanged
for the modem term “patent”. Under this Ordinance patents were to be conferred
without a preliminary examination as to novelty. The Swedish Patents
Ordinance of 1819, as well as that of 1834, contained a clause to the effect
that, if no objection had been entered against a patent within a certain time
after it had been granted, of patents, could not be contested. This enactment,
which is also found in the German Patents Act of 1891, was excluded from the
next Swedish Patents Act, issued on August 19, 1856.
As industrial activity in Sweden rapidly developed in the late sixties and early
seventies of the last century, and inventors began to a greater extent to resort
to the protection of patents the defects of the patents law of 1856 became more
clearly apparent, and the demands on the part of industrial interest for a more
effectual and more modern patent system grew increasingly insistent. After
thorough preliminary investigations, proposals were at last drafted, which were
accepted by the Riksdag of 1884, and received the Royal Assent on May 16, of
the same year. This statute, which came into force on January 1, 1885 is the
present Patents Act. It has since been amended in certain particulars so as to
render the protection afforded by patents more effectual, and to facilitate the
obtaining and maintenance of patents.
Patents are granted in Sweden for new inventions of industrial products or
special methods for their production. If the invention relates to foods or drugs,
protection cannot be obtained for the article itself, but only for a special process
for manufacturing the same. Inventions which are contrary to law or morality
are, however, excluded from protection. None but the inventor or his
assignee are entitled to a patent.
Before a patent can be granted, the novelty of the invention is examined
into by the Royal Patents and Registration Office, the documents of application
being kept accessible for' inspection by the public for two months,
and it being open to any one during that time to oppose the grant of the
patent.
The duration of a patent in Sweden is 15 years, reckoned from the date of
application;; As in most other countries, annual fees have to be paid on penalty
of the patent becoming invalid. In Sweden, however, th e * fees are very moderate.
20 kronor are paid on filing the application, and afterwards 25 kronor
a, gear up to and inclusive of the fifth following year, 50 kronor for each
of the five years next succeeding, and finally 75 kronor for each o f the
remaining five years. Thus, the total sum required for mainfatotog the patent
rights for the whole term of the patent amounts to 745 kronor. To be perfectly
accurate, hoWever, there is in addition to this a stamp fee of 10 kronor
for the letters patent. The Patents Law of Sweden does not allow of any reduction
of or dispensation from these fees.
The patentee is under obligation to work his invention in Sweden to an extent'
conformable to conditions prevailing in that country. I f he neglects so to do
any person desirous of obtaining permission to work the invention in despite
of the patent may bring an action against the patentee before the City Court of
¡Stockholm, but not until the expiration of three years from the granting of the
patent. I f the Court is satisfied as to the justice of his claim, it grants such
45—133179. Sweden. II.