242 GOODYEAR ON GUM -ELASTIC. 



compensation for giving a full and faithful description of his 

 invention, so that it may be enjoyed freely, by the public, after 

 the expiration of that limited time. 



" The letters patent are granted upon the condition that the 

 thing patented shall be new and useful. This puts the burden 

 of the proof of novelty upon the inventor, and the expense 

 attendant upon the production of the necessary evidence in a 

 court of law, commonly renders the patent of little value to the 

 inventor." 



The imperfections and abuses, as well as the difficulties of 

 administering the patent laws of most countries, so as to do jus- 

 tice to inventors, without doing injustice to the public, is a sub- 

 ject not sufficiently considered. The patent law is designed to 

 reward the inventor or discoverer of an improvement by giving 

 to him an exclusive temporary right to manufacture and sell all 

 articles made according to the principles of his invention. The 

 legislators who formed the laws, presumed that if the thing im- 

 proved were a good one, it would always be patronized and paid 

 for by the public, according to its merits ; and that, therefore, 

 by granting a patent, the laws themselves would give to the 

 inventor the most equitable compensation for his labors. But 

 the reverse of what was intended commonly happens. 



The law guaranties to the inventor the exclusive right to 

 manufacture, use and vend his improvements ; which is the very 

 thing, perhaps, that he has neither the means, the capacity, 

 nor the inclination to do ; and if he had all these in order to 

 enjoy the apparent privilege, he is obliged to prove his title suc- 

 cessively, in every judicial district, by a tedious course of law, 

 against every infringer who chooses to challenge him by tres- 

 passing upon his patents, and who frequently, if not generally, 

 derives the very means necessary to sustain litigation fj-om the 

 profits of infringejnent, thus, as it were, at the outset, unfairly 

 disar?ning the inventor and fighting him with his own loeapons ! 

 This is, to the inventor, a grievous hardship and wrong, and has 

 no parallel in any other species of property. Possession of the 

 field, and right to work in it, are given by law to the infringer, 



