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ASSIGNMENTS, LICENSES, MORTGAGES OF PATENTS. Supreme Court of the United States. WATERMAN VS. MACKENZIE et al. An assignment is an instrument in writing, conveying either (1) the whole patent, comprising the exclusive right to make, use, and vend the invention throughout the United States; or (2) an undivided part or share of that exclusive right; or (3) the exclusive right under the patent within and throughout a specified part of the United States. Such an instrument vests in the assignee a title in so much of the patent itself, with a right to sue infringers, alone in the first and third cases, and joiutly with the assignor in the second. Any other transfer is a mere license, giving the licensee no title in the patent and no right to sue at law in his own name for an infringement. A grant, by the owner of a patent, of the sole and exclusive right and license to manufacture and sell the patented article throughout the United States, does not iuclude the right to use such patented article, at least if manufactured by third persons, and is, therefore, a mere license. The recording of a mortgage of a patent right in the Patent Office is equivalent to a delivery of possession and makes the title of the mortgagee complete toward all other persons, as well as against the mortgagor; and the mortgagee is the only person who can thereafter sue for an infringement of the patent by third persons. Mr. Justice Gray delivered the opinion of the court. To Remove Tattooing. Mr. T. W. Dodd, of Walsingham, England, writes as follows in the Chemist and Druggist: " Twenty years ago I removed three very indelible tattoo marks on my hand. Certainly it left a scar, but now it is scarcely perceptible. The operation was performed by applying nitric acid with the stopper of the bottle (a better instrument would be a glass rod pointed, to carry the acid), just sufficient to cover the stain, so as to avoid making a larger scar than needful, the acid to remain about one and a half minutes, until the outisvera was penetrated and a crusted appearance shown, then washed off with clean cold water. In a few days after this treatment a scab forms, which contains the tattoo mark or stain ; remove it, and should inflammation supervene,poultice and bathe with warm water. In this way the skin with the stain is not only removed almost painlessly (I mean tattoo marks about the size of peas), but the nitric acid at the same time to a certain extent seems to decolorize the stain. Of course large tattoo marks, greatly extending over the surface, must necessitate the operation being performed differently. Dr. Variot, of the Paris Biological Society, advises the following method : Tattoo the skin, in the usual way, with a concentrated solution of tannin, following the original design. Then apply a crayon of nitrate of silver until the part tattooed with the tannin blackens. Wipe off excess of moisture and allow matters to take their own course. Slight pain continues for two to four days, and after two months the cicatrix which results will almost disappear.--Amer. Druggist.
