THE PATENT QUESTION. 339 



greatest interest in public affairs. One question, to 

 which I had long before paid particular attention, was 

 that of patent - right. It had long become clear to 

 me that one of the greatest obstacles to the free 

 and independent development of German industry lay 

 in the lack of protection for inventions. It is true 

 that in Prussia, as also in the other large states of 



7 O 



Germany, patents were granted for inventions, but the 

 grant entirely depended on the good pleasure of the 

 authorities and lasted at the most only for three years. 

 Even for this short time they afforded only a very 

 unsatisfactory protection against imitation, for it rarely 

 paid to take out patents in all the states belonging to 

 the Zollverein, since every state applied its own test 

 of originality, and indeed strictly speaking it was im- 

 possible, as many of the smaller states did not grant 

 patents at all. The consequence was that inventors, as 

 a matter of course, sought in the first instance to turn 

 their inventions to account in foreign countries, espe- 

 cially England, France, and the United States. The 

 youthful German industry was therefore altogether 

 thrown upon the imitation of foreign productions, and 

 thereby indirectly still more strengthened the preference 

 of the German public for foreign manufactures by 

 only dealing in imitations, and these for the most part 

 also under a foreign flag. 



As to the worthlessness of the old Prussian patents 

 there could not be two opinions. Indeed they were 

 as a rule only applied for in order to obtain a certifi- 

 cate that an invention had actually been made. Further- 



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