Inventors & Inventions

Incredible, yet it is true, that if a patent is infringed upon, and for some reason the inventor, though cognizant of it, does not commence suit, it is held that he acquiesced in the same, and the parties who are stealing his invention, as well as others, can go on robbing him with impunity.

The "INTERFERENCE" trick is usually resorted to, to transfer a valuable invention from a poor but rightful owner to those who want it, and have the money to make profitable use of it and pay for the trick. The most surprising part of it is that it is done quite legally and generally successfully and with no "comeback." It is also very remarkable for its simplicity of procedure, which is usually as follows:

In due course he gets the return of his patent application from the patent office with the citation against it of the other man's patent that he is copying. He then promptly notes the date of the patent application of the other man's patent and files what is called in the patent office as "INTERFERENCE," simply claiming that he invented his invention or thought about it, or dreamed about it at a previous time, allowing himself a sufficient margin of a year or two before the date of application of the other man's patent, and thereby claiming himself the rightful inventor of the same, boosting up his own false affidavit by one or two lying witnesses, which experience has demonstrated is a commercial commodity. Having done that, it is necessary for the right inventor, who has received due notice from the Patent Office, to come and defend his title to his patent, in spite of the fact that the patent has been issued to him after the customary and usual formalities in due legal form, and payment of all legal fees. In order to defend the same now, he is obliged to engage attorneys who require the usual and indispensable retainers, fees, etc., without any certainty at all of being able to retain his just claim to his patent, for the very simple reason that the time of the filing of his patent was probably within a reasonable time of the making of his invention, and he has to combat the sworn testimony of his adversaries, who have given themselves ample latitude in insuring their priority claim. While they are swearing falsely, they reason, and rightly so, that it is no more criminal to lie by the year than by the month, and consequently they make sure of it, and give themselves plenty of rope, with the result that the rightful inventor, after paying his original fees for the obtaining of the patents and the second fees for defending it, usually loses the same and his invention, simply because circumstances and his conscience do not permit him to defend himself against his adversaries with the same weapons he is attacked with, namely, perjury; thus he remains by force of circumstances an honest man considerably poorer, and a whole lot wiser by his experience.

Another method in vogue for appropriating other people's inventions, is to copy it, making some slight minor change in it, and defend it in court, if need be, on technicalities.

There are still other ways, by which inventors often lose their just dues, which is generally the fault of their own inexperience, as for instance, by giving exclusive manufacturing privileges to somebody without a reasonable guarantee, for the making of a certain quantity per stipulated period. The possessor of the privilege will then only have to make one in the whole life of the contract, and thereby rid himself of a competitive article from the market, at the inventor's expense.

Then there are various methods of avoiding the payment of royalties on all that's made, by getting them made at different places, unknown to the inventor, and by keeping two sets of books. If the invention forms the basis of a Stock Company, by allowing the inventor only a minority of the stock, and taking all of the earnings of the invention in large salaries by the controlling parties, thus leaving the inventor out in the cold.

The different ways of appropriating other people's invention without giving any equivalent for it, are made possible by our existing laws which are notoriously defective for insuring justice and equity to those who labor with their brains, who, in the opinion of most people, are as deserving of protection, in the enjoyment of the fruits of their labor, as they who work with their hands.

If the man who cultivates the soil, raises a crop and when the same is ripe, some one should come and boldly reap and harvest the same, and carry it off to his barn and enjoy the proceeds thereof, the law would immediately lay its hands on that person, deprive him of his stolen goods, to return the same to the rightful owner. The community would also be wrought up in righteous indignation and add its ostracism of the malefactor, even after he has been deprived of his stealings, suffered the penalty, and is probably penitent.

But it is different, oh! how different, if the stolen property is a mental instead of a hand product. It ought to be apparent that there is a defect somewhere in the profound reasoning of our august law-makers and honorable jurists in framing and interpreting our laws for protection of property that makes it possible for a man to arrest another man that he has found in possession of his plow, while allowing a man to steal another man's invention, for the improvement of all plows, and to throw the inventor out of his office for attempting to remonstrate with him for appropriating his property.

The law is very partial in protecting the rightful owner in possession of that which to produce requires but manual labor and very little preparation, but it gives no practical protection to the rightful owner in securing to him even a part of the benefits of his production, if the same is the result of the labors of the brain, after spending many years in hard and careful study in making it possible for him to accomplish it.

Dame Justice with unsheathed sword stands guard over the cellar of potatoes that took three months for the ox and his owner to produce, but she is entirely indifferent if an intelligent and educated engineer is robbed of the results of his labors of several years, after collecting a fee from him for doing that which it does not do, and which it ought to do freely. It is manifestly a peculiar logic, entirely at variance with the rules, that govern the ideas of equity.

The man who produces a field of corn that will feed a dozen cows is directly protected in the possession thereof by the paid officers of the law of the community, while the man who, by his exertions, lightens the burdens of millions of human beings has no claim upon the services of the community's enforcers of the law of property rights.

It is confessedly an enigma to many a man, why if an inventor is so unlucky as not to possess the large sums of money required to engage the services of competent attorneys, he must be content to see the despoiler of the fruits of his labor enjoy it. And should he, the inventor, be so indecorous as to accuse him of it, the law will immediately fly to the assistance of his despoiler, and clap the unlucky inventor in jail for libel.

Again, if a man, as member of a corporation, appropriates another man's property the law does not permit him to retain it, or exempt him from the consequences of this unlawful action by reason of any limitation of responsibility as a member of a corporation. But, should the corporation appropriate another man's invention, and after expensive and long drawn-out litigations, the inventor should be awarded damages from the company for exploiting his invention, all the company has to do to avoid paying the award is to fail, and the same individuals can re-organize to do the same business under a new charter and name, and may steal the same inventor's patent again, providing it pays it to do so, and the inventor would have to commence to fight again in court.

Good people will justly gather up their coat-tails in holy horror, when perchance they come in contact with a man convicted of highway robbery, but when has a man been expelled from Church membership, or from fashionable clubs, who has lost a patent suit by a clear case of intentional infringement being proven against him?

At present it would seem that many inventors have a special reason for deploring the decadence of the Eternal Brimstone-Doctrine, as punishment for wrong-doing, especially for the breaking of the Eighth and Tenth Commandments, as its modern substitute of "Thou shalt not steal, less-than-necessary-for-lawyers'-fees-to-absolve-you-and-a-reasonable-margin-of-profit," manifestly is broad enough to include the stealing of inventive production.

To protect an invention is indeed a very serious problem, under any and all circumstances, yet there are certain conditions that will protect it in a measure.

The first and most potent is to have a good deal of money to fight infringements with, for money not only has the famed virtue of "covering a multitude of sins," but of keeping others from sinning against you.

Second: Good and careful invention and designing by making the mechanical contrivance as nearly basic as the circumstances will permit, and to design and invent contrivances for the same purpose in as many other ways from the one to be used as possible, and by patenting the same, making it harder for anybody else to get around it.

Third: To so develop your means of producing your invention, that they will enable you to hold your own in competition in the market should it come.

Fourth: To have a good patent lawyer draw your patent claims.

Fifth: If possible have that lawyer interested in your invention.

Sixth: Never give it out to be worked on a royalty, unless it is to some party with whose ability and integrity you are satisfied, and even then have a clearly defined contract in writing as to quantities and conditions.

Seventh: If the invention is assigned to a corporation, do not leave yourself with a minority of stock if you can at all help it, but if you cannot possibly avoid parting with a majority of the stock, identify and amalgamate your interests with some other stockholder in your company, that in combination with him will give you a majority and control; and arrange if possible for your services to be indispensable and profitable to the company.

Last, never sign an agreement with anybody assigning to them all of your future improvements and inventions you may make for the same purpose. You will be reasonably protected if you can keep that "up your sleeve." For the world is usually more mindful of the man with the "Big Stick" than with the "Big Grievance."

Laws are framed and a great deal of money spent by our Government for the encouragement of useful production by its people. For illustration, it is considered that the best way to produce sugar, is the raising of the sugar cane which is raised in the world in sufficient quantities to meet all possible demands, and naturally enough in places where it can be raised to the best advantage. Many of those places are under the Stars and Stripes, namely, Louisiana, Hawaii, Porto Rico, and the Philippine Islands. Yet if a citizen who, on his farm, could produce many diverse articles and sell the same to advantage, chooses instead to raise a vegetable (beets), from which sugar can be manufactured at a disadvantage, expects and receives from the Government not only absolute protection of his production, and also the securing of an enhanced price for the same, through a high tariff, but an actual bonus of money known as a "bounty." But the inventor who bestows great benefits on his fellow citizens and the world at large, and gives it that which can not be had at all elsewhere at the time, is evidently not deemed by our law-makers of sufficient importance to receive any encouragement or justice.

From what has been said here, it ought to be very evident that there is a wide difference in the treatment meted out by our Government to him who renders services to society by digging in the dirt, and to him who digs in the brain.

It is certainly good and just public policy that the Government should spend a good deal of money for the benefit of the farmers, but where is the justice and the good public policy in making money out of the inventors? (See statistics of the fiscal returns from the Patent Office.) Is the former more indispensable to society than the latter? Has not the ingenuity of the inventor enabled even the farmer, the special protegé of the Government, to get greater returns from his labor than ever in the history of the world? Has he not made his task lighter, and has he not enabled him to get more of the good things of the world for the earnings of his labor? And is it not in a great measure through the inventor's ingenuity and industry that this country has attained its unprecedented prosperity in Peace and mighty potency in War?

Our formidable warships are always ready to race to the furthest end of the world to protect our merchants and their wares. Even our missionaries have the "moral" support of our "strong arm," in forcing on the so-called heathens the barter of "cozy corners in Heaven" for "cash down," but it is a notorious fact that certain so-called civilized countries are making it their habit and custom quite openly to appropriate every invention that is worth appropriating, providing the inventor is a foreigner, and the unfortunate inventor has not even got a cause of action at law, nor would the inventor's complaint at the State Department be productive of anything more substantial than polite regrets. These modern Barbary Pirates need not fear another Commodore Perry, so long as they devote their depredations solely to the comparatively more valuable production of the brains instead of the hands.

Evidently the law's definitions of "Industry and Property" are only that which were known and accepted as such before the Era of Mechanical Inventions. And while the law is sufficiently modern in exacting a fee from this modern class of toilers, yet it has not modernized sufficiently to extend to them the encouragement and protection that in all reason and justice they are entitled to, even without additional exaction from them, and it is also against public policy.

"Full many a gem of purest ray serene the dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear."

"Full many a flower is born to blush unseen and waste its sweetness on the desert air."

Many a great invention to increase human comfort and happiness would be given to the world, if inventors were given that encouragement and protection which their genius, industry and usefulness deserve.

One has indeed to be more than ordinarily gifted, and most carefully trained in many directions, spiritual, mental and physical, to be a successful inventor. To improve by one's own ability and efforts the results of any phase of human activities; to conceive, execute and adopt and introduce a new and improved method for the carrying out of certain human exertions without infringing upon, or appropriating the efforts of others; to secure a fair and just share of its benefits, to be translated to higher planes of life, without becoming over-conscious of it; to be called to the management of affairs involving the interests, and welfare of others; to be able to do so, not only profitably, but in a manner to gain, hold and preserve the esteem of our fellow-beings, is indeed a creditable achievement. Well worth the ambition of every high-minded person extraordinarily gifted. It requires the proverbial wisdom of an owl, the cunning of a fox, and the courage and strength of a lion.

If the true history of all the pre-eminent inventors should be written, it would be a record of "Making" the most of oneself, painstaking labor, and of constant devotion to duty, of as brave and as true men as ever wore brass buttons and gold lace; who, without martial glamour and loud acclaim, quietly solve and overcome great difficulties, against discouraging odds, and attain good results.

The world pays no heed to the efforts and struggles of such men, often neglects to reward their good achievements, yet it never fails to avail itself of their benefits.

The Monetary reward meted out by the world to even the most successful inventors is insignificant, compared to the benefits bestowed upon it by the beneficiary of its gratitude.

The world is full of monuments and statues to them who have or have tried to benefit it by destruction and slaughter, and by the making of widows and orphans, but one would have to use "Diogenes' Candle," to find the monuments to them who have benefited the world, by giving it untold wealth and happiness, without sorrow or suffering, except to themselves, through scientific and mechanical research and invention.

The feeling of having benefited our fellows, of having helped to improve the world for others, as others have done for us, the sweet consciousness of having given the world "What was best in us," is the true and only adequate reward to him who has given his best efforts to lighten human burdens and increase their happiness.