PATENTS AND PATENT LAWS. 243 



the adverse claimant, the prima facie trespasser ! Is not this a 

 perversion of the natural order of justice ? Ought not the 

 inventor, who has received a patent only after severe adverse 

 examination of his claitns, by the patent office ; to be secured in 

 his exclusive right until his patent shall have been legally set 

 aside, and declared null and void ? 



The English patent laws grant a patent to the man who first 

 introduces or publishes the invention in England, without regard 

 to the claims of the real inventor. This obliges the inventor to 

 proceed with a great deal of secrecy in all his experiments, to 

 avoid the danger of losing the invention by piracy ; and often- 

 times the law operates harshly, especially upon inventors in 

 other countries, who desire to secure patents in England ; but it 

 makes a patent more valuable when obtained, and it enables the 

 court to malce decisions according to law, in which respect the 

 English patent laws have unquestionably an advantage over 

 those of the United, States ; for in general it is much easier to 

 decide who first made a thing public, than v^ho first conceived 

 it, and performed the work necessary to constitute an invention. 



For some years past a bill has been before Congress for the 

 amendment of our patent laws, and it is to be hoped that ere 

 long they will be so improved as to protect inventors more than 

 they do at present, and give to their hardly earned rights a 

 definiteness and security which are at present enjoyed by the 

 more tangible forms of property. 



Here are presented to the reader some just and forcible remarks 

 of the Commissioner of Patents, Edmund Burke, Esq., upon the 

 patent laws of the United States, found in his reports to Congress 

 for the year 184- 



" In my former reports I have recommended a change in some 

 of the features of the patent law as it now exists. For the 

 nature of those recommendations, and the reasons on which 

 they are founded, I would respectfully refer to the annual reports 

 of this office for 1845 and 1846. In my judgment, the changes 

 proposed are necessary to give adequate security to that valua- 

 ble and meritorious class of our citizens engaged in inventive 



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