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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Legislature assembled and by the authority of the same:

SECTION 1. Section four of Act Numbered Twenty-seven hundred and ninety-three, entitled "An Act to establish the manner of securing patents for inventions or discoveries, and for other purposes," is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 4. If the manufacture of the patented articles takes place in the Philippines, there shall be no tax paid on the patents protecting the invention or discovery.

"If the manufacture of the patented articles takes place entirely or largely in a foreign country or countries, there shall be paid upon the patents protecting the invention or discovery twenty pesos on the date of the issue of the same and, besides, a tax of twenty pesos per annum during the entire life of the patent, in addition to the fees established in section twenty-one.

"The provisions of this section shall not be applicable to public officers and employees desiring to register a patent for an invention for the use of the Government, in which case the inventor shall state in his application that the Government of the Philippine Islands or any of its officers or employees may use said patent in the execution of work of the Government without any payment to the inventor, which condition shall be set forth on the letters patent."

SEC. 2. Section ten of said Act Numbered Twenty-seven hundred and ninety-three is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 10. Any person claiming to have made a new discovery or invention may make an application, which must be in accordance with the requirements established by regulations issued in the premises by the Secretary of Commerce and Communications.  The application shall be accompanied by a model or copy of the discovery or invention.  In case the application is in accordance with the requisites and conditions established by this Act and the regulations herein before mentioned, it shall be published in two consecutive issues of the Official Gazette and, also, in two of the newspapers most widely read in the Islands, one published in Spanish and the other in English, for a period of six consecutive days.  Together with the application there shall be published a notice to all persons having any objection to the application filed, inviting them to file at the Patent Office, within the inextensible period of thirty days from and after the date of the last publication, a written objection specifying clearly and in detail the reasons on which their opposition is based.  Upon the expiration of the time set for the filing of objections, if none has been filed, an investigation shall be made as to whether or not the discovery or invention mentioned in the application has the requisite mentioned in section three, and the patent applied for shall be granted if nothing appears to the contrary.  If any objection is filed, the applicant shall be directed to reply to the same within ten day's time, and upon the filing of such reply, the Director of the Bureau of Commerce and Industry shall render his decision without delay, in view of the allegations of both parties.

"Upon a patent being granted, the same shall be published in two consecutive issues of the Official Gazette."

SEC. 3. Section twenty-one of said Act Numbered Twenty-seven hundred and ninety-three is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 21. The Bureau of Commerce and Industry shall be entitled to collect, in addition to the fees or taxes established in section four, the following:

"For the registration of each application and expenses of publication, thirty pesos; for the issue of a patent, twenty pesos; for recording any assignment, sale, exchange or transfer, ten pesos; for recording any agreement, power of attorney or other document not a conveyance of title, if the same contains three hundred words or less, two pesos; if it contains more than three hundred words, but less than one thousand, four pesos; for each one thousand additional words or fractions thereof, two pesos; for certified copies of patents and other documents, fifty centavos per page certified or any fraction thereof, plus fifty centavos for the certificate."

SEC. 4. This Act shall take effect on its approval.

Approved, March 12, 1919.