The Law And Practice Relating to Letters Patent for Inventions

of the royal prerogative vested in the hands of a subject. In Reg. v. County Court Judge of Halifax (a), Baron Pollock, in giving the judgment of the Court, said: " It was contended on behalf of the defendant that ' franchise' includes the right or privilege which is granted by a patent for a new invention. The primary meaning of the word ' franchise,' as its origin denotes, is a freedom; but it has been used in the language of the law in a wider sense as including a liberty or privilege. In Termes de la Ley, tit. ' Franchise,' the only meaning given to it is ' an immunity or exemption from ordinary jurisdiction.' The various rights, however, which it aptly describes are dwelt upon at great length in the Digests of Viner and Comyn, and in Bacon's Abridgement; and in Blackstone's Commentaries, Vol. II. p. 7, it is said: ' Franchise and liberty are used as synonymous terms, and their definition is, a royal privilege, or branch of the king's prerogative, subsisting in the hands of a subject. Being, therefore, derived from the Crown, they must arise from the king's grant; or in some cases may be held by prescription, which, as has been frequently said, presupposes a grant. The kinds of them are various and almost (a) L. B., 1891,1 Q. B. 798, 797; rmed by 0. A., L. E., 1891, 2 Q. B. 263. T. B infinite." In Chitty's Prerogative of the Crown, p. 119, a franchise is defined to be a royal privilege, or branch of the royal prerogative, subsisting in the han...