436 



NA TURE 



[September i, 1904 



and a light applied to the neck? Surely no fundamental 

 patent could have been granted under the existing patent 

 laws for so obvious an application of known forces. Con- 

 sequently, patent protection was sought in cotnparative 

 details, details in some cases essential to success which were 

 evolved or invented in the process of working out the 

 invention. In this extended field of operations a slight 

 protection was in some instances obtained. But in answer 

 to the question whether such protection was commensurate 

 with the benelits received by the community at large, there 

 can, 1 think, be only one reply. Generally, those who did 

 most got nothing, some few received insufficient returns, 

 and in very few cases indeed can the return be said to have 

 been adequate. The second important consideration is that 

 of the methods of procedure of the patentees, for it appears 

 that very few of them had studied what had been suggested 

 or done before by others before taking out their own patent. 

 We are also struck by the number of really important 

 advances that have been suggested and have failed to 

 fructify, either from want of funds or other causes, to be 

 forgotten for the time and to be re-invented later on by 

 subsequent workers. 



What a waste of time, expense, and disappointment would 

 be avoided if we in England helped the patentee to find out 

 easily what had been done previously, on the lines adopted 

 by the United States and German Patent Offices, who advise 

 the patentee after the receipt of his provisional specification 

 of the chief anticipatory patents, dead or alive ! And ought 

 we in England to rest content to see our patentees awaiting 

 the report of the L'nited States and German Patent Offices 

 on their foreign equivalent specifications before filing their 

 English patent claims? Ought not our Patent Office to 

 give more facilities and assistance to the patentee? 



Before proceeding further to discuss some of the possible 

 improvements for the encouragement and protection of re- 

 search and invention, I ask you further to consider the 

 position of the inventor — the man anxious to achieve success 

 where others have hitherto failed. To be successful he must 

 be something of an enthusiast ; and usually he is a poor 

 man, or a man of moderate means, and dependent on others 

 for financial assistance. Generally the problem to be 

 attacked involves a considerable expenditure of money : some 

 problems require great expenditure before any return can 

 thereby accrue, even in the most favourable circumstances. 

 In the very few cases where the inventor has some means 

 of his own they are generally insufficient to carry him 

 through, and there have unfortunately been manv who have 

 lost everything in the attempt. In nearly all cases the 

 inventor has to co-operate with capital : the capitalist may 

 be a sleeping partner, or the capital may be held by a firm 

 or syndicate, the inventor in such cases being a partner — 

 a junior partner— or a member of the staff. The combin- 

 ation may be successful and lasting, but unfortunately the 

 best inventors are often bad men of business. The elements 

 of the combination are often unstable, and the disturbing 

 forces are many and active ; especially is this so when the 

 problem to be attacked is one of difficulty, necessitating 

 various and successive schemes involving considerable 

 expenditure, generally many times greater than that fore- 

 shadowed at the commencement of the undertaking. In 

 such circumstances, unless the capitalist or the senior partner 

 or board be in entire sympathy with the inventor or exercise 

 great forbearance, stimulated by the hope of ultimate success 

 and adequate returns, the case becomes hopeless, disruption 

 takes place, and the situation is abandoned. Further, in 

 the majority of cases, after some substantial prosjress has 

 been made it is found that under the existing patent laws 

 insufficient protection can be secured, and the prospect of 

 a reasonable return for the expenditure becomes doubtful. 

 In such circumstances the capitalist will generally refuse to 

 proceed further unless the prospect of being first in the field 

 may tempt him to continue. 



Very many inventors, as I have said, avoid the expense 

 of searching the patent records to see how far their problem 

 has been attacked by others. In some cases the cost of a 

 thorough search is very great indeed : sometimes it is greater 

 than the cost of a trial attack on the problem. In the case 

 of younir and inexperienced inventors there sometimes exists 

 a dismclination to enter on an expensive search ; they prefer 

 to spend their money on the attack itself. There are some, 

 it is true, who have a foolish aversion to take steps to 



NO. 1818, VOL. 70] 



ascertain if others have been before them, and who prefer 

 to remain in ignorance and trust to chance. It will, how- 

 ever, be said that the United States and German Patent 

 Office reports ought to suffice to warn or protect the English 

 patentee ; but my own experience has been that such pro- 

 tection is not entirely satisfactory. There is, firstly, a con- 

 siderable interval before such reports are received, and the 

 life of a patent is short. Then, if the patent is upon an 

 important subject, attracting general attention, the search 

 is vigorous and sometimes overwrought, and the patent 

 unjustly damaged or refused altogether. If, however, the 

 patent is on some subject not attracting general attention, 

 it receives too little attention and is granted without 

 comment. 



In some few instances it may be said that ignorance has 

 been a positive advantage, and that if the patentee had 

 realised how much of his patentable work was honeycombed 

 by previous publications and patents, he would have lost 

 heart and given up the task. It is, I think, a case of the 

 exception proving the rule; and the patentee ought, as far 

 as possible, in all cases to know his true position, and 

 make his choice accordingly. The present patent law has 

 some curious anomalies. Let us suppose some inventor has 

 the good fortune to place the keystone in the arch of an 

 invention, to add some finishing touch which makes the 

 whole invention a complete success, and valuable. Then, 

 success having been proved possible, others try to reap the 

 results of his labour and good fortune, and, as often happens, 

 it is discovered after laborious search that someone else first 

 suggested the same keystone in some long-forgotten patent 

 or obscure publication, but for some reason or other the 

 public were none the better for his having done so. What 

 does the law do? It says this is an anticipation, and 

 instead of apportioning to all parties reasonable and equit- 

 able shares in the perfected invention, to which no one could 

 object, it says that the patent is injured or perhaps rendered 

 useless by the anticipation, and that its value to everyone 

 concerned is thereby diminished or destroyed, as the case 

 may be, and thrown open to the public. Until a few years 

 ago, any anticipations, however old, might be cited ; but 

 recently the law has been amended, and at present none 

 rank as anticipations which are more than fifty years old. 



The perfecting of inventions and their introduction into 

 general use require capital, as we have seen — sometimes 

 a considerable amount, as in the introduction of the 

 Bessemer process for steel, or the linotype system of print- 

 ing — before any commercial success can be realised. 



Capital having been found, the next difficulty is in the 

 conservatism of persons and communities who are the buyers 

 of the invention. There is alwavs present in their minds 

 the risk of failure and its consequent loss and worry to 

 themselves, and in the event of success the advantage, in 

 their estimation, may not be sufficient to counterbalance 

 the risk. In large departments and companies the manage- 

 ment of which is conducted by officials receiving fixed 

 salaries, acting under non-technical supervision, there is a 

 strong tendency among the officials to leave well alone, the 

 organisation being such that the risk of failure, even though 

 it be remote, more than counterbalances, in their estimation, 

 the advantages that would result in the event of success. 

 Next is the opposition of those who are financiallv interested 

 in competing trades or older inventions ; and if the invention 

 is a labour-saving appliance, then the active opposition of 

 the displaced labour is a serious, though generally only a 

 temporary, barrier. 



Fortunately, however, for the community, for research, 

 and for invention, there is always to be found a consider- 

 able percentage of persons who, apart from the inventor, 

 are able and willing to risk, and indeed to sacrifice, their 

 personal interests in the cause of progress for the benefit 

 of the community at large ; and were it not for such persons 

 the task of the introduction of most inventions would be an 

 impossible one. 



There are many problems of the highest importance in 

 physics, engineering, chemistry, geology, and the arts, of 

 which the investigation might probably prove of great 

 benefit to the human race, and of which the probable 

 monetary cost of the attack would be considerable, and of 

 some very great indeed. Let us, then, inquire how the 

 necessary funds could be raised. It is possible in the case 

 of some of the more attractive problems that a group of 



