FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 233 



use. What can \xe do? Our swindler is not liable for prosecution, or, at least, 

 cannot be criminally convicted, and to resist his demands is more costly than 

 to submit to them. This fact should also influence us to demand of congress 

 that manufacturers alone be made liable for infrinsrement. 



o 



REISSUES. 



The granting of reissues is another source to which can be traced many un- 

 just demands. The reissue as a matter of fact is a restatement of the original 

 specifications of the patent. It is supposed to be allowed only in those cases, 

 in which, the specification was so stated as to deprive the inventor of a portiou 

 of his actual improvement. As a matter of fact the reissue is granted when it 

 can be shown that any device appears in the model which does not appear in 

 the specifications. This may appear as necessary to secure to the inventor his 

 whole invention. It simply looks like giving him power to correct errors made 

 in describing the original patent. From another standpoint this appears in a 

 dififerent light. It looks as though the inventor had found out after receiving 

 his patent that he could make more money, or at least could prevent the pat- 

 enting of some great invention had he worded his specifications differently. In 

 most cases this latter view is the correct one, and it is a fact that most of the 

 patent litigation comes from reissued and not original patents. This was the 

 case with the Teel gate patent. It is extremely doubtful if the original patent 

 in that case would have covered the ordinary slide gate. The reissue, however, 

 leaves us no room for doubt. The reissue of worthless patents has often been 

 a source of trouble to honest and conscientious inventors. As an illustration 

 we will cite a case familiar enough to inventors. A man, we will suppose, after 

 many years work has produced a machine which is in every way a success. 

 Before applying for his patent he searches the patent record and finds that the 

 only patent recorded is on a worthless machine. He secures his patent, pur- 

 chases costly machinery, and commences the manufacture of his invention. 

 The successful machine comes to the notice of the inventor of the machine 

 that was a failure. Although his machine would not work and the machine of 

 the other inventor does work, yet he can see some points in the two machines 

 in common. These points were not put in his original specifications, as he did 

 not consider them of any importance, although tliey were shown in his model. 

 These points may be nothing more or less than arrangement of machinery or 

 details in the frame. In a case like this referring to a planing machine, it was 

 a square bar in the frame. He obtains a reissue including all the points of his 

 old model that are common to the successful machine. He then commences 

 suit against the successful inventor for infringement, and demands damage, 

 not only for such machines as are in process of manufacture, but for all those 

 that have been made. More than that, he sends his agents over the whole 

 country, collecting royalty whenever and wherever they can find a machine in 

 use, for our patent law makes the users of a patented invention liable to equal 

 damages with the manufacturer. This is the pruicipal service to the country 

 that is rendered by the right of reissue in the patent cases; and the question 

 before the public is whether or not tliis privilege of reissue should be extended 

 to future patents, or whether, in view of its effect in the past, it should be de- 

 nied altogether. From one point of view it certainly is not an injustice to say 

 that if an inventor does not know what his invention really is at the time of 

 receiving his patent, he should be debarred from all privileges not claimed. 

 This it seems to me, is the only business way that can be adopted. In rare 

 cases it may act unjustly, but under such a rule, the great mass of the people 

 will be protected from unjust demands, and the reverse of this is true now. 



