THE UNITED STATES PATENT LAWS 381 



Joseph Jenckes, of Ljmn, for a scythe. In his petition or 

 praj^er, he prayed for protection for "Fowerteen yeeres, 

 without disturbance by anj^ other setting up the Uke inven- 

 tions, so that his study and cost may not bo in vayne or lost." 



Before proceeding to a discussion of the laws relating 

 to patents which have been enacted by the United States 

 government, I desire to call attention briefly to some of the 

 objections which have been made to patents. The objec- 

 tion has been made that th re is no such thing as intellec- 

 tual property, and that ownership of such property restricts 

 common rights. Also that the granting of a patent is a 

 creation of a monopoly. Patents have been compared to 

 letters of marque, which allowed the holder to prey upon 

 honest industr>\ It has been urged that patents increase 

 the price of commodities, and that they encourage labor 

 saving inventions and take opportunities from the artisan. 



It is needless to say that the last objection is utterly 

 without foundation. Exactly the reverse has been proved 

 adequately. It has been urged that patented inventions 

 reduce or sink man to automata, and that the granting of 

 a patent enables one man to say to another that he shall 

 not cany on his business in the best way, and that by granting 

 a patent the idea involved in the patent is tied up, and the 

 course of thought in that direction is stayed. A Frenchman 

 has advanced a picturesque objection that patents give undue 

 advantage to their possessor by ''making a golden bridge for 

 him who enters the arena with arms more subtle and more 

 finely tempered than those of his adversaries." 



The foundation of all the patent law legislation in the 

 United States is the clause or phrase in the constitution 

 which vests in congress power "to promote the progress of 

 science and useful arts by securing for limited times to au- 

 thors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective 

 writings or discoveries." 



The first patent law of the United States was enacted in 

 the year 1790, April the 10th. It followed in a general 

 way the law then in existence in England authorizing the 

 grant of patents without an examination of the prior art, 

 as is now the case. The authority to grant patents was 



