198 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



LNo. 4 



4. It opens the door to frauds, which have al- 

 ready become extensive and serious. It is repre- 

 sented to the committee that it is not imcomnion 

 for persons to copy patented machines in the mo- 

 del-room; and, having made sonie sliijht immate- 

 rial alterations, they apply in the next room for 

 patents. There being no power given to refuse 

 them, patents are issued of course. Thus pre- 

 pared, they go Ibrth on a retailing expedition, sell- 

 ing out their patent rights for States, counties, 

 and townships, to those who have no means at 

 hand of detecting the imposition, and who find, 

 when it is too late, that they have purchased what 

 the venders had no right to sell, and which they 

 obtain thereby no right to use. This speculation 

 in patent rights has become arenrular business, and 

 several hundred thousand dollars, it is estimated, 

 are paid annually ft»r void [)atents, many of which 

 are thus fraudulenti}' obtained. 



In this collision and interference of patents, the 

 original and meritorious inventor sees his inven- 

 tion, to the perfection of which he has devoted 

 much tmie and expense, [)irated from him, and he 

 must forego tlie reward which the law was intend- 

 ed to secure to him in the exclusive right it grants; 

 or he must become involved in numerous and ex- 

 pensive lawsuits in distant and various sections of 

 the country, to protect and confirm his rights. If 

 he be wise, he will generally avoid the latter, and 

 submit to the former alternative ot injustice, to 

 which the Government, as the law now is, makes 

 itself accessary. The praciice is scarcely less rep- 

 rehensible, of takingout patents for what has been 

 long in public use, and what every one has there- 

 fore a right to use. The patentee in such cases 

 being armed with the apparent authoritv of the 

 Government, having the sanction of its highest 

 officers the seal of state, scours the country, and 

 by threats of prosecution, compels those who are 

 iound using the thing patented, to pay the patent 

 price or commutation tribute. This exaction, un- 

 just and iniquitous as it is, is usually submitted 

 to. 



The extent of the evils resulting from the unres- 

 tramed and promiscuous grants of privileges, may 

 be imagined, when it is considered that there are 

 now issued, since this year commenced, at the rate 

 of more than a thousand a year; a considerable 

 portion of which are doubtless void for want of 

 originality in the inventions patented, either in 

 whole or in some of the parts claimed as new. 



A necessary consequence is, that patents even 

 for new and meritorious inventions are so much 

 depreciated in general estimation, that they are of 

 but little value to the patentees, and the object ol' 

 the patent laws, that of promoting the arts by en- 

 couragement, is in a great measure defeated. 



To prevent these evds in future is the first and 

 most desirable object of a revision and alteration 

 of the existing laws on this subject. The most 

 obvious, if not the only mnans o(' affecting if, ap- 

 pears to be to establish a check upon the granting 

 of patents, allowing them to issue only fijr such 

 inventions as are in fact new and entitled, by the 

 merit of originality and utility, to be protected by- 

 law. The diirii-olty encountered in eflecting this, 

 is in determining what that check shall be; in 

 whom the power to juilge of inventions before 

 granting a patent can safely be reposed, and how 

 its exercise can be regulated and iruarded, to pre- 

 vent injustice through mistake of judgment or oth- 



erwise, by which honest and meritorious inventors 

 might sutler wroiio-. 



It is obvious that the power must, in the first in- 

 stance, be exercised by the department charged 

 with this branch of the public service. But as it 

 may not be thought proper to intrust its final ex- 

 ercise to the department, it is deemed advisable to 

 provide for an occasional tribunal to which an ap- 

 peal may be taken. And as a further security a- 

 gainst any possible injustice, it is thought proper 

 to give the applicant in certain cases, where there 

 may be an adverse parly to contest his right, an 

 opportunity to have the decision revised in a 

 court of \i\w. 



The duty of examination and investigation ne- 

 cessary to a first decision at the Patent OlTice is 

 an imt)orlant one, and will call ti)rthe exercise and 

 application of much scientific acquirement and 

 knowledge of the existing state of the arts in all 

 their branches, not only in our own, but in other 

 countries. Such qualifications in the officers 

 charged with the duly, will be the more necessary 

 and desirable, because the information upon which 

 a rejection is made at the office, will be available 

 in the final decision. It becomes necessary, then, 

 to give the Patent Office a new organization, and 

 to secure to it a character altogether above a mere 

 clerkship. The competency and efficiency of its 

 olficers should correspond with their responsabili- 

 ty, and with the nature and importance of the du- 

 ties required of them. When the existing organ- 

 ization was adopted, the granting of patents was 

 a matter of little importance, compared with what; 

 it now is. The arts in this country were but little 

 understood, and but little cultivated. Agriculture 

 and commerce constituted our principal business. 

 We had fl^.w manufactures, except those of a do- 

 mestic character, adapted to ordinary domestic 

 wants. Our work-shops were in Europe. .En- 

 terprise, in this country, ran in other channels. 

 The war of 1812 gave it a new diiectfon, and a 

 new impulse, by creating an occasion for work- 

 shops of our own. Necessity became the mother 

 of invention, and American manulactures sprang 

 into existence as by enchantment. Their rise and 

 progress may be dated from that period; and a 

 more rapid advancement in the arts, and a more 

 astonishing development of human ingenuity, have 

 never taken place in any other age or country. 

 This remark will appear far from extravagant to 

 every one who will take the trouble to examine the 

 subject. This awakening of dormant genius to a 

 practical and active existence, next to the arousing 

 of the political and patriotic energies of the Union, 

 was one of the great results of that contest. — It 

 opened to the country a new era. The nation en- 

 tered upon a new existence. And since that pe- 

 riod, American iu'lustry and enterprise, guided by 

 American ingenuity and intellect, have achieved 

 what would have taken Europe a century to ac- 

 complish. She has become all at once a manulac- 

 turing, as well as an agricultural and commercial 

 nation. The useful arts have been cultivated with 

 a success before unexampled, and have contribu- 

 ted, in no small degree, to the wonderdd improve- 

 ments which have spread themselves over our 

 whole country. Who can predict the results, even 

 in a li'w years, of that spirit of enterprise which 

 pervades the Union, when, aided by the Genius of 

 Invention, and propelled onward by powers which 

 she alone can bring into exercise? The very el- 



