I have wondered about the possibility of a satellite Use Number Station, too. I guess Germany and Belgium were not too far for a Westley Richards rep. to travel, or for that matter, with the relatively good transportation networks back then, maybe guns shipped by rail and boat were easy to get to W R from the continent.
Daryl,
as far as Germany is concerned: currently, I found no evidence about existence of a German patent for WR (A&D, respectively). If this should be confirmed (takes some days until I will have the time to make a “dusty paper” search in a library): no patent – no license needed, no license agreement. But let’s see.
Dearly,
Not sure if I have the right end of the stick here, but 'marking' i.e. stamping patent numbers on patented goods, is a requirement under many patent laws.
Nigel.
Nigel,
sorry, but under most Patent Laws there’s no requirement for using patent numbers, indications like “Patented”, “patent pending” or the like. As mentioned earlier in connection with British Patent Act of 1883:
"So it is immaterial whether the defendant was aware that the thing was patented or not, since in law every person in the realm is taken to have notice of a patent in the same way that he is taken to be aware of the law".
This is true for most Patent Laws. The US provisions regarding usage of patent numbers or other appropriate indications to inform competitors about the existence of a patent are an exemption, but not the rule.
Regards
Martin
