Odger's English Common Law

598 INFRINGEMENT OF PATENTS, COPYRIGHTS, &C.
given to trade marks rests upon property, and that the Court
interferes by injunction because that is the only mode by
which such property can be effectually protected."
An action for the infringement of any such right closely
resembles an action of trespass. To succeed in such an
action the plaintiff has only to establish that he possesses the
right and that the defendant has violated it. He need not
prove that the defendant acted fraudulently or maliciously
and where the defendant was unaware of the existence
of the right which he has violated, the plaintiff can still
as a rule obtain an injunction, though not damages. 1 Nor
need the plaintiff show that he has suffered any special
damage from the defendant's act ; it is sufficient if he prove
facts from which it may properly be inferred that some
jdamage must result. 2
We will deal first with patent rights.
I. Patent Bights.
The Crown has power under its Royal prerogative to grant
to a man the exclusive right to "make, use, exercise and
vend " a new manufacture within the realm. This prero-
gative was preserved to the Crown by the Statute of Mono-
polies, which, while abolishing all other monopolies, sanctioned
u any letters patent and grants of privilege for the term of
fourteen years or under of the sole working or making of any
manner of new manufactures within this realm to the true
and first inventor and inventors of such manufactures, which
others at the time of making such letters patent and grants
shall not use." 3
This right is generally called a " patent
right," because it is conferred by letters patent The
Patent and Designs Act, 1907, 5 consolidated the law on
this subject. By section 18 of this Act the owner of such
a right, be he the original inventor or his assign, may apply
1 See 7 Edw. VII. o. 29, s. 33.
2 Exchange Telegraph Co. v. Gregory % Co., [1896] 1 Q. B..147, 153, 156.
3 21 Jao. I. o. 3, s. 6. Section 4 of the same Act gives aright of action, to any
one who is "hindered, grieved, disturbed or disquieted ... by occasion or pretext
of any monopoly or of any . . . letters patent," except of course such as are
validly granted under s. 6 : see Peck v. Hindes, Ltd. (1898), 67 L. J. Q. B. 272.
1 For the form of a patent, see the Third Schedule to the Patent Rules, 1H03.
" 7 Edw. VII. c. 29.
;