-'^I 



PATENTS AND PATENT LAWS. 241 



PATENTS AND PATENT LAWS. 



"History informs us that from time immemorial it has been 

 the custom of monarchs possessed of absolute power, to grant 

 monopolies of certain branches of trade. The abuse of this 

 privilege, by reason of grants to favorites or unworthy persons, 

 added to considerations arising from the intrinsic inconvenience 

 and impolicy of such limitations of trade and industry, has ren- 

 dered monopohes odious throughout the civilized world, and has 

 led to the gradual diminution and final abolition of the custom 

 wherever constitutions and equitable laws have prevailed. " 



"Patents for inventions are frequently, but erroneously, con- 

 founded with monopolies. A monopoly is a grant of an exclu- 

 sive right to buy, sell or trade, in some previously existing branch 

 of human industry. It is unjust and odious, because it takes 

 away from the public, rights which they had, before such exclu- 

 sive grant or monopoly existed. A patent is a temporary exclu- 

 sive right granted to an inventor, to manufacture, use and vend 

 his inventions, provided that he will first deposit in a public office 

 a full and faithful description of every thing claimed by him as 

 his invention. It is not liable to the accusation of injustice, 

 because it does not take avjay from the public any right ivhich 

 the public possessed before, for it is evident that no such right 

 could be claimed as part of an invention. Herein consists the 

 essential difference between a monopoly and a patent; a monop- 

 oly deprives the public of previously existing rights, a patent 

 purchases for the public new rights which it did not possess 

 before, for a patent is a contract of purchase between the public 

 and an inventor ; the consideration given by the inventor is a 

 full and faithful description of his, before secret, property or 

 invention, with the public right to use it after a certain limited 

 time ; the consideration given by the public is an exclusive 

 right to the inventor to use his invention for a limited time as a 



