Consumer Protection Act (Quebec) this (similarly to, say, the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 in the United Kingdom). In the 1960s, consumerism became prominent in the United States, after its industrialisation. Market economies flourished. The consumer movement was a response in Europe, and in Canada, to what was perceived as overwhelming market forces to the detriment of the consumer. In Quebec, the emergence of a consumerist movement cast a light on the absence of consumer protection laws, notably the lack of legal obligations for businesses: the law was "caveat emptor", let the buyer beware. But slowly, laws were introduced, culminating in the
Patent caveat as the proposed patent, the Patent Office notified the holder of the caveat, who then had three months to submit a formal patent application with claims. If the two patent applications claimed the same invention, an interference would then be declared and neither patent could be issued until it was determined which was the first to invent. Perhaps the most famous example of such a conflict was on 14 February 1876, when Elisha Gray filed a patent caveat and Alexander Graham Bell filed a patent application on the same day, both relating to the telephone. Gray ended up abandoning his