at low temperatures, using water, and discovered that working fat and milk together gave the result a flavor similar to butter. His process resulted in a cheap but qualitatively good substitute for butter for the working class and incidentally the French Navy. Mège-Mouriès received a prize in 1870 from the French government, formally led by Emperor Louis Napoleon III. He attempted to start a manufacturing facility at Poissy, but the enterprise floundered because of the Franco-Prussian War. Mège-Mouriès applied for a number of patents for the process of making margarine. French patent (brevet) No. 86,480 for "production de certains corps gras d'origine animale" was filed on 15 July 1869. It was granted on 2 October 1869 for a period of fifteen years. Mège-Mouriès also received an English patent on July 17, 1869, and one for Austria on October 31, 1869. Patents were obtained for Bavaria on April 8, 1873, and Patent 146012 for the United States on December 30, 1873. This did not protect him from competitors in all countries. In 1869, the Netherlands repealed its Patent Act of 1817. In 1883, the Paris Convention attempted to regularize the rights of all signatory countries, but the Dutch did not pass a new patent act until 1910. From 1869 to 1912 the Netherlands effectively lacked patent agreements. In the absence of a Dutch legal framework that defined patent rights, Mège-Mouriès could not claim, assert or sell such rights. He could not apply for a patent, establish a monopoly, or license others to do so in the Netherlands. Accounts differ as to exactly how Mège-Mouriès' process was acquired by the Dutch. Butter suppliers such as Jurgens and van den Bergh had been exporting large amounts of butter to England and other countries for decades. Now, they were no longer required by reciprocal agreements to respect the margarine patents granted to Mège-Mouriès in other countries. Mège-Mouriès showed his invention to Dutch butter exporter Antoon Jurgens in 1871. He may have been paid a compensatory fee. Mège-Mouriès may not have realized that his patent was not protected in the Netherlands by patent agreements when he demonstrated his techniques to Jurgens. Alternatively he may have understood the difficulty of maintaining control of his invention given the lack of a Dutch patent law, and decided to accept a compensatory fee for sharing his knowledge. A number of sources state that he sold his patent rights to