234 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[April i, igog. 



prospered without so-called patent "protection." But the 

 Dunlop tire company were not the only people concerned. 

 The hotl\- contested litigation over their tire is recognized 

 as having led to the rewriting of British patent law, on 

 account of the many new points raised by eminent op- 

 posing counsel in the suits referred to. 



No less has the noiseless, smooth running, resilient 

 rubber tire affected patent litigation in America, though 

 in a difterent way. At least there is pending at Washing- 

 ton a bill, likely to be passed, to reform the practice in 

 the courts having jurisdiction in patent cases. To relieve 

 the United States supreme court of the interminable mass 

 of litigation over patents and some other things, courts 

 of appeals were established in different parts of the coun- 

 try for reviewing cases in which the inferior federal 

 courts had original jurisdiction. In other classes of litiga- 

 tion the new system has worked satisfactorily, but not in 

 the matter of patents. 



In the case of an American tire which attained popular- 

 ity the owners of the patent brought action against alleged 

 infringers in the federal courts of first instance in more 

 than one "circuit," and with varying results. The patent 

 would be declared valid by the court of appeals of one 

 circuit and not in another. It would appear that now 

 anyone can manufacture the tire in a circuit where the 

 patent was held invalid and send his goods into all of the 

 other circuits. Even if the United States supreme court 

 should take up the case and declare the patent valid, an 

 infringer who won in a single circuit where the patent 

 was declared invalid may still send his goods all over the 

 United States as if he were a licensee under the patent. 

 As we have said, the localized federal courts have worked 

 successfully otherwise, as usually cases come before them 

 involving questions between two individuals or corpora- 

 tions with purely local interests. But patent rights extend 

 all over the country, with the continual possibility of such 

 trouble as has been pointed out in the case of a certain 

 tire, and it appears that a special Court of Patent Appeals, 

 with jurisdiction throughout the United States, is to be 

 the result. 



But patent troubles do not end the list. The importer 

 at Kew York of an automobile and of four unmounted 

 tires of the proper size for it protested against paying 

 duties on the tires as "automobile parts" on the ground 

 that they were "manufactures of india-rubber," on which 

 the tariff is lower. (1) The port collector insisted that 

 the whole importation constituted one complete automo- 

 bile, and was dutiable as such. (2) The customs ap- 

 praisers, appealed to, supported the collector. (3) The 

 local federal court took a different view. (4) The court 

 of appeals for such cases provided reversed the lower 

 court, one judge of the three dissenting. 



For the time being it is law that whoever imports an un- 

 tired automobile, but in the same invoice receives four 

 tires adapted to that automobile, must pay duty on one 

 complete machine, even though the whole had never been 

 assembled before shipment. This is law at New York, at 



least, but suppose the importation should be at Boston, 

 or Savannah, or San Francisco, then there would have 

 to be new decisions ; they are in different federal court 

 jurisdictions. Of course, the matter might be carried to 

 the United States supreme court, whose jurisdiction 

 would apply alike all over the land, but this is onlv pro- 

 longing trouble. 



It will not be disputed, we believe, that there are 

 serious tire troubles beyond punctures and blow'-outs. 



PLANTATION RUBBER CONDITIONS. 



THE system of selling plantation rubber ahead under 

 contract, which was introduced in Ceylon last year, 

 proved so satisfactory that no fewer than sixteen 

 planting companies are reported to have contracted to 

 deliver their 19C9 product of rubber to local merchants 

 at a fixed price. The planter therefore need have no con- 

 cern about fluctuations in the market for a year to come ; 

 it is only necessary to deliver his rubber to responsible 

 houses, who undertake to pay a stipulated price without 

 regard to London or New York market conditions. The 

 fact that such a system obtains is evidence that rubber 

 cultivation is regarded in the Far East as having reached 

 a firm stage. The producer knows in advance about 

 what his rubber will cost him, and the buyer trusts his 

 own judgment as to the market for a year to come. It is 

 worth while to note that the contract price for plantation 

 rubber (exclusive of scrap) laid down at Colombo is 

 equivalent to $1.20, gold, per pound. This is about the 

 prevailing price for new Islands fine Para, and it may 

 be inferred that the Colombo merchants count on some- 

 thing like $1.30 as the ruling London price for plantation 

 grades. 



The total exports of plantation rubber from Ceylon 

 and Malaya during 1908 appear to have reached 

 4,583,560 pounds, or 2,078 metric tons, and all indications 

 point to a much larger production this year. It is 

 scarcely more than a year since a gentleman widely re- 

 garded as an authority on rubber from every standpoint, 

 writing on the subject at the invitation of a leading 

 American magazine, fixed about lOO tons as the produc- 

 tive capacity of the Eastern plantations. This gentleman, 

 by the way, is now busy reforming the city charter of 

 New York, with a view to fitting it for future needs, and 

 it is to be hoped that he will be more successful in fore- 

 casting municipal conditions than in the case of his 

 rubber estimates. 



All the large rubber planting companies may not show- 

 profits for the last business year comparable with some 

 former periods. This is due to the fact that the rubber 

 collected is not always sold within the business year 

 during which it is produced. The reports for the past 

 year, therefore, are based in part upon sales during the 

 period of financial depression, while rubber produced 

 later, and sold at much better prices, did not yield an 

 income in time to be included in last year's reports. 



