238 GOODYEAR ON GUM- ELASTIC. 



market with the improvement himself, and of preventing others 

 from doing it by encroaching on his patent. If his object is to 

 derive a profit by disposing of his patents for his inventions, it is 

 well known that patents are so commonly evaded in some way, 

 and that the patent law is so ineffectual for their protection, that 

 the public will not value them highly, if at all ; nor can they be 

 expected to do so, for in too many cases the purchase of a patent 

 is only equivalent to the purchase of a law-suit. If it be a dis- 

 covery of unlimited importance and universal application, a 

 thing of necessity in the community, the danger of the inventors 

 losing the invention is increased in proportion to its utility and 

 importance. There will be found persons in every community, 

 unprincipled, and irresponsible enough to pirate the invention, 

 especially if they can make some slight alteration and evasion 

 of it. The community, especially at a distance, cannot always be 

 expected to understand the merits of the case, or if they do, since 

 competition gives them the thing they want at less cost, are apt 

 to encourage encroachments for that reason : The thing, say they, 

 is so simple that any one could have thought of it, and no one 

 is entitled to the monopoly of thought. It would be far better 

 reasoning, and certainly more just, to say that the inventor 

 should be rewarded on that very account ; because his improve- 

 ment is simple, and therefore practicable ; because he has 

 avoided the great error in most attempts at improvements, that 

 of complication and mystery. 



Such is the inadequate security afforded to inventors for their 

 rights, under the present patent laws, that unless the public are 

 permitted, on reasonable terms, to participate in the advantages 

 of an improvement, and above all, if it is one that brings about 

 a great change in pre-existing manufactures, they will break into 

 it, urging that no one has a right to supersede and thereby stop 

 the progress of others, in their legitimate business, either by 

 labor-saving machinery or other improvements. This reasoning 

 is the more likely to be made use of, if the inventor is considered 

 an innovator from another line of business. Every one is 

 familiar with the feelings of operatives, when they are deprived 





