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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[June i, 1908. 



It may be in order here to observe that the automo- 

 bile makers of the country have set a most commend- 

 able example during the past few months of so-called 

 business depression in continuing business "at the old 

 Stand." foreseeing with marked sagacity the actual state 

 of business and building machines for the demand that 

 is now so active. Had manufacturers in more lines 

 emulated their example the expose of a few rotten 

 banks in New York last October would never have re- 

 sulted in anything so nearly resembling a panic. 



All hail the automobile manufacturers, whose con- 

 sistent attention to business has proved so great a 

 godsend to the rubber industry of the country. 



INTERNATIONAL PATENT PRACTICE. 



THE new regulation in Great Britain, practically 

 restricting patent protection to inventions and 

 discoveries which shall be actually exploited in that 

 country, marks a new tendency which is not unlikely 

 to become general. Such a rule obtains already in 

 France, and its adoption is being considered in Ger- 

 many and the United States. And why not? 



The provision in the American constitution for se- 

 curing to inventors the sole control for a term of 

 years of their discoveries was intended primarily for 

 the encouragement of American invention and the 

 development of domestic industries. Without doubt 

 its application has tended enormously to the progress 

 which has so rapidly placed the country in the front 

 rank of industrial nations. But the liberality with 

 which the nation has welcomed foreign ideas as well 

 as men of foreign birth has placed us in the position to- 

 daj' of protecting many European industries which 

 profit on a large scale from the American patent laws 

 without contributing directly one penny to the rewards 

 of domestic labor. 



The new idea, first developed practically by France, 

 is that the nation shall not aid in any monopolv of an 

 invention unless the same shall be developed to some 

 extent in the country granting the patent. Else what 

 return does that country get for the protection thus 

 granted? What reason, in other words, exists for 

 granting the patent to a foreigner? 



These considerations a])ply with equal force to every 

 industrial Cduntry ; they might well be ignored by a 

 country such as Greece or Brazil which do not rank 

 to an important extent among manufacturing nations, 

 but where some protection to the author nf an imjior- 

 tant invention is only just and fair. Not that it is 

 less just and fair in .\merica or England or Germany. 

 but the diflference is that the people of one of these 

 countries, where facilities exist for every branch of 

 manufacture, should be permitted to benefit in some 

 direct way in return for the patent protection granted 

 to an alien. 



It occurs to us that the time has arrived for an inter- 



national patent bureau, the purposes of which should 

 be (1) to determine what actually are new inventions, 

 and therefore entitled to patents ; (2) to supervise the 

 carrying out of treaties relating to patents between 

 the countries in interest, and (3) to secure actual pro- 

 tection to inventors — something which is now the ex- 

 ception rather than the rule. xA.n inventor to-day, 

 wherever his home, in order to secure a patent in 

 whatever country must pay for a search in its archives 

 to determine its novelty in that country, involving a 

 heavy expense in case he should apply for protection 

 throughout the civilized world, ^^'hy should there be 

 more than one search of this kind? 



It long has been the practice in England for the 

 government, upon representation being made that a 

 patented invention, whether domestic or foreign, is 

 not being supplied sufficiently for the demand, to call 

 upon the patentee to show cause why a license should 

 not be granted to others to manufacture the article. 

 The idea does not obtain there that a patent monop- 

 oly should be absolute, but that it should be consid- 

 ered with regard to the greatest possible good to the 

 public, a reasonable regard being had to the interests 

 of the inventor. It is consonant with this theory that 

 a foreign inventor, protected by a patent on his dis- 

 covery against competition in the country granting 

 that patent, should be required to exploit it in some 

 such way as to share his profits with the people of 

 that country. 



The details of patent law have changed materially 

 of late years in many countries, and generally in the 

 same direction, which seems to render more practic- 

 able now than at any time in the past the idea of an 

 international patent system. 



FINE RUBBER FOR 12', CENTS. 



The cost of tapping eight-year-old Hcira trees and 

 curing the rubber, on an important plantation in the 

 Malay States, according to a report to the shareholders 

 in the company owning it, for the last half of 1907 av- 

 eraged 12;/ cents (gold) per poimd. The average yield 

 of the trees for the year was about 354 pounds, or just 

 twice th'^ average for the preceding year, and a still larger 

 yield is expected for 1908. 



The cost of extraction and preparing rubber for mar- 

 ket on this estate (one of the .A.nglo-Malay company's 

 pro])erties ) has been reduced steadily, due, it is to be in- 

 ferred, both to the increased productiveness of the tree — 

 doubling in one year the output per acre — and to the 

 increased experience of the operatives. Doubtless we 

 shall hear later of a still Iciwer production cost, but even 

 12;/> cents ])er pound allows a very handsome margin of 

 profit for a product which realizes 90 cents a pound or 

 more after deducting freight and selling charges. 



Of course, cost of administration and interest on the 

 investment have to be considered, but th? upkeep of 



