406. Officers on Special Services.- All officers belonging to or having duties to perform in connection with Cadets' training colleges, Boys' training ships, or the Coast Guard, transport, and recruiting services, will respectively be guided by the special instructions issued relative thereto in so far as they in any way add to, or modify, the Regulations contained in this Volume and in Volume II.

407. Meeting with a Senior Officer.- If an officer in command of one or more of His Majesty's ships should meet with a senior officer, and the state of the weather admits, he is to wait on such senior officer, to show all the orders, which are not secret, that he is acting under, and inform him of the state and condition of the ship or ships under his orders. Officers commanding His Majesty's yachts in home waters are not to be required to wait on any officer under the rank of Commander ; but on foreign stations they are to report to the senior officer present, whatever may be his rank.

408. Senior Officer's Conduct towards Junior.- A senior officer is not to require a junior officer to show him any secret orders, nor is he to divert him from his service, take him under his command, or interfere with the orders, he may have received, should, however, any pressing exigency of the public service require the senior officer to depart from these injunctions, and his. measures have tended to delay the junior officer, he is to allow him to proceed in execution of his orders as soon as possible, if it is still advisable that they should be carried out. He will lose no time in acquainting the Admiralty with what he has done, and if the ship or ships so diverted belong to another officer's command, he is to inform that officer also, without delay.

409. Surveying Ships.- Although a surveying ship is to be considered as under the orders of the Commander-in-Chief of the station on which she happens. to be, her programme of work and the directions for her movements will as a rule emanate directly from the Admiralty. Should it be necessary for the good of the Service to divert her from her important duties or to interfere with her establishment, full particulars of any change are to be reported to the Admiralty without delay by the senior officer so acting.

2. Surveying ships, when not diverted from their special duties, are not. to be required to follow the senior officer's evolutions for exercise.

410. Signals to Foreigners and Merchant Ships.- The commercial code of international signals, being now recognised by the principal maritime States of the world, is to be made use of when communicating by signal with foreign men-of-war and merchant ships. When communicating with British merchant ships the British signal manual is to be used in addition to the international code.

411. Confidential Reports.- All officers and others belonging to the Fleet, having any communication to make containing professional and political information concerning foreign countries, or their naval and military preparations, are invariably to mark such reports " Confidential," and they are distinctly to understand that it will be considered a breach of confidence on their part to communicate a copy, an extract from, or the substance of, a " Confidential "

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document to any one other than their superior naval authority without the permission of the Admiralty. See 1866 (a) (Method of despatch).

412. Addresses of Officers.- Every officer discharged abroad for any cause, except a commissioned warrant or a warrant officer, on arrival in England, is to report by letter, addressed to the Secretary of the Admiralty, Whitehall, London, the date of his arrival and his address.

2. When commissioned officers are discharged to half-pay or to full-pay leave from His Majesty's ships either at home or abroad, their addresses are to be reported, on form S. 227, to the Secretary of the Admiralty.

The only exceptions to the foregoing rule are as follows :

1. Medical officers are to be dealt with under Article 1319.
2. The addresses of the officers enumerated in Article 229, clause 1, need not be reported from their ships to the Admiralty in the circumstances stated.

The addresses of officers who are to be placed on ship's books on arrival in England, and also of officers discharged to full-pay leave on paying off at home, are to be noted on form S. 48.

3. Any change in the permanent address of an officer on half-pay or full-pay leave is to be at once reported to the Secretary of the Admiralty, and an officer when absent from his recognised address is to take care that provision is made for any Admiralty communication to be forwarded to him without delay.

In the case of an officer on full-pay leave the change of address is also to be reported to the Commanding Officer of the depôt or ship on the books of which the officer is borne.

4. When officers are discharged to a flag-ship or general depot for any purpose, and are granted leave without joining such flag-ship or depart, their addresses are to be noted on their transfer lists.

413. Illness of Officers not serving.- When, owing to illness, an officer on half pay or foreign service leave is not immediately available for appointment, a report to that effect is to be made to the Secretary of the Admiralty, accompanied by a medical certificate stating the nature of the illness and its probable duration.

414. Care of Machinery or Articles.- Officers in charge of or responsible for the proper use of machinery or articles of store are to be careful to make themselves masters of the purposes for which they are respectively fitted or furnished, and are to take care that they are kept in efficient working order and in a proper state of preservation, and when necessary, properly packed, that as a general rule the articles are not used for purposes other than those for which they were intended, and that no alterations are made in them without the sanction of the Senior Officer ; this injunction is specially applicable to labels on shells and other naval ordnance stores of a combustible character.

415. Applications for Patents.- No officer, or other person employed under the Admiralty, is permitted to apply for, or obtain, a patent, except in the manner laid down in these Regulations.

2. Should permission to apply for, or obtain, a patent be granted, it will be subject to these Regulations, from which there will be no appeal by the patentee either to the Treasury under Section 29 of the Patents and Designs- Act, 1907, or otherwise.

3. British Patents.- In the case of British patents the inventor must, in the first instance, apply to his Commanding Officer, or the head of his establishment or department, for permission to apply for a patent and to lodge at the Patent Office a provisional specification for his invention. In no case will he

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be allowed to lodge a complete specification with the Patent Office in the first instance.

Application for permission is to be made on the form prescribed in clause 6, which gives the conditions on which such permission is granted and the further steps it is obligatory on the patentee to take before finally obtaining a patent. At this stage the inventor will not be required to give more than the title of his invention.

Such application may be made confidentially direct to the inventor's Commanding Officer or the head of the establishment or department, who will take steps to see that the application and all subsequent proceedings in the matter are dealt with confidentially, so as to safeguard the inventor's interests as well as those of the Crown.

4. Provisional Protection.- In order that an inventor may not be prejudiced in any way by delay in obtaining provisional protection, Commanding Officers of H.M. ships and heads of H.M.. naval establishments and Admiralty departments are authorised to approve of applications made by those serving under them in the form prescribed in clause 6 unless they have reason to doubt that the applicant is the true inventor, and they are at once to forward the original form approved by them to the Secretary of the Admiralty (C.P. Department), a copy of which should be given to the inventor for his retention.

5. Secret Patent.- If the officer authorised to approve such applications is of opinion that the invention is one which should be kept permanently secret, he is to forward at once to the Admiralty the provisional specification, accompanied by the agreement referred to in clause 6 duly signed by the inventor, and is to withhold permission from the inventor to apply to the Patent Office until the Admiralty has decided whether a secret patent shall be obtained.

6. Form of Agreement.- The following is the form of agreement referred to in the preceding clauses. It is to be prepared locally, and must be signed and approved before any application to patent is made.

AGREEMENT.

Address

Date

I hereby request permission to apply to the Patent Office for a patent

for(here give title of Invention) on the following

conditions :-

1. I will not leave a complete specification with .the application nor will I subsequently leave a complete specification or take any further steps in the matter after applying for provisional protection, without the direction or permission of the Admiralty.
2. Within 48 hours of the despatch by me to the Patent Office of my application I will inform the Admiralty through my Commanding Officer or head of department of the application, and forward such a description of the invention as may enable their Lordships to judge of the course to be pursued and will subsequently give any further information as to my invention and forward the provisional specification if required.
3. I will, if so ordered, assign to the Admiralty or the Secretary of State for War on behalf of His Majesty as may be required the benefit of the invention and any patent that may be granted, or enter into such agreement for its use by the Government and its contractors as may be directed by their Lordships.

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---

4. (iv) I will not assign or deal with the invention or patent, or grant any licences or rights to the use of it, to anyone except with the previous authority of their Lordships, or under the terms of my agreement (if any) with the Admiralty.
5. (v) I fully understand that the terms of payment (if any) for the assignment of the invention or patent to the Admiralty, or for its use in His Majesty's Service, will be decided by the Admiralty, and that regard will be paid to any facilities in originating, working out, and perfecting the invention, which I may have enjoyed by reason of my official position and that all payments will be made subject to the approval of the Treasury.
6. (vi) I will not apply for a patent in any foreign country, or in any British colony or dependency, without the authority of the Admiralty.

Signature._________

Rank__________

Approved_________________

I have informed the inventor by_____________-

Dated _____, that he may apply for provisional protection

for a British patent and have furnished him with a copy of this agreement.

Signature___________________

Rank_________________

Date________________

The original agreement when approved is to be sent to the Secretary of the Admiralty (C.P. Department), London, S.W.

7. Foreign and Colonial Patents.- Applications for permission to obtain patents or similar rights in any foreign country or in any British colony or dependency, must be forwarded to the Admiralty for approval accompanied by a general description of the invention. When, however, permission has already been given to lodge a complete specification and obtain a British patent for the same such description need not accompany the application.

8. General Information.- It may be useful for the information of inventors to state that generally there are three alternative courses which are adopted by the Admiralty in dealing with an invention or patent, viz. :

1. Where the Admiralty, or War Office, desires to retain complete control of the invention or patent. In this case assignment to the Admiralty or Secretary of State for War will be ordered, and the inventor will not be allowed to dispose of the commercial uses of his patent, if it has any.
2. Where the Admiralty, or War Office, requires only partial control. In this case their Lordships would ordinarily be satisfied with an agreement giving the Government and its contractors a right to use the invention or patent, but otherwise leaving the inventor free to dispose of his invention or patent for commercial purposes.
3. Where their Lordships do not consider that they have any interest in the invention or patent. In this case they would leave it to be dealt with entirely by the inventor, and release him from the obligations he had entered into.

If an inventor wishes his invention or patent to be dealt with under heads (ii) or (iii) above, he must make a written application

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through the usual channel for that purpose. It must be understood that the matter is entirely in the discretion of their Lordships, and that they cannot undertake to deal with any particular invention or patent according to any one of the above-mentioned methods, but may adopt some different course in the matter.

9. An applicant for remuneration will be required to give full detailed particulars of any out-of-pocket expenses on experiments, &c., incurred by him personally, as well as of any consideration he may have received directly or indirectly in respect of the invention.

416. Inventions, Improvements by Officers.- Whenever it happens in the course of a trial of the invention of any person outside the Service, or during discussion between officers and inventors, that improvements are suggested by officers conjointly, a careful record should be kept of the trial and of the suggestions made, which should at once be reported to the Admiralty, so that in case of an outside patent and a dispute as to price, the Treasury may have before it all the circumstances, supposing appeal be made to it under Section 29 of the Patents and Designs Act, 1907 (7 Edw. VIL, cap. 29). If it is discovered by any means that there is any intention on the part of inventors to apply for a patent for an invention to which officers have contributed, the Admiralty should at once be informed.

417. Official Residences.- All King's taxes, with the exception of the land tax due in respect of houses or premises occupied in their official capacities or permitted to be occupied by naval officers, are to be paid by the occupiers; and all the Regulations of the establishment within which the residences may be situated, or to which they may be attached as to furniture, coal, repairs, and other matters of detail, are to be observed by the occupants.

418. Notification of Marriage.- Every officer, whether on full, half, or retired pay, shall, in order to facilitate the decision upon the claim of his family after his decease, to the benefit of these Regulations, notify his marriage, within one month of its taking place, to the Admiralty, according to the form shown in the Quarterly Navy List.

2. With respect to marriages contracted in Scotland, none will be admitted for the purposes of these Regulations, which cannot be proved either by an extract of the Register of the Kirk Session, or other legal record of the place in which the marriage shall have been celebrated, or by an acknowledgement of a marriage to be transmitted to the Admiralty, made and subscribed by the parties themselves in Scotland, in presence of a magistrate, according to the form given in the Quarterly Navy List, or a decreet of Declaration of Marriage.

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