The Sun.
London, England, 1837-03-25 00:00:00

LAW OF PATENTS

TO THE EDITOR 01 THE SUN.

SIR,—A short time since an Hon. Gentleman in the Com-
mons asked and obtained leave to bring in a Bill to Alter and
Amend the Law of Patents. In my humble opinion, Mr.
Editor, it will only occupy the time of the House uselessly.
The law ought to to?, abropted, and the same protection given
to an inventor as is given to the author of a book. Or, why
not allow the common law to take effect against those who
have the unblushing effrontery to appropriate the mental exer-
tions of others ? What is the difference between a thief that
robs you on the high-way, and one that steals an invention,
that has only been brought to maturity by the deepest study,
and the most persevering research ? I conceive the latter to be
the greater thief of the two. Surely, then, the law cannot be,
or rather ought not to be, more lenient to the one than to the
other. But we find it very different; the law punishes with
its utmost rigour in the one case, and unless you pay a sum of
nearly 500/. it takes no notice whatever of the other. This is
a free country with a vengeance This is %%hat is called jus-
tice ! In this handsome manner is talent rewarded, and anxiety
of mind repaid I Let us suppose, Sir, for example, a person
with an inventive mind, but limited in his means, turning his
attention to the steam-engine, and, after much mental anxiety
and pecuniary expense (which last he can with difficulty spare),
makes some important discovery ; it certainly would be but
common-place justice that this individual should have, for some
time at least, the benefit of his improvement. Such, however,
is not the case in our boasted land of liberty. He must take
a patent for the three Kingdoms. Should he not be able to
do so, his invention must either remain in secrecy with himself,
or it will be adopted, and he will then, in all probability, not
even have the credit of inventing it. Where, I would ask, Mr.
Editor, is the stimulant ? Where is the spur to improvement ?
It cannot be in heaping upon a person's self an enormous bur-
I then, which every one that invents does, as the Law of Patents
now stands. I sincerely hope the Hon. Gentleman will see
the absolute necessity of advocating most strenuously the re-
moval of this detestable tax upon knowledge and drag-chain to
improvement. When knowledge and education are freed from
every kind of obnoxious impost (and I hope the time is not far
distant when such will be the case), we will then neither re-
quire stimulants nor spurs, nor fine spun, high sounding
speeches of Hon. Baronets or Lord Rectors, to harangue us on
to eminence. They are, at 'the best, but words of course—
empty sound—the mere shadow without the substance. I really
wonder, Mr. Editor, if the framers of this praiseworthy Patent
Protection ever had any other object in view than that it should
be the means of fostering talent among the monied ranks (a
place of all others, by the bye, where such a commodity is sel-
dom or never to be met with), and excluding the inffenious,
though poorer, class of people from rising to that pitch in so-
ciety to which their ingenuity so justly entitles them. Let
this law be repealed, and a simple protection given, without
fee or reward, and we will have ten times the number of im-
provements—let it be continued, and we damp the zeal and
energy with which our countrymen enter into, and carry into
effect, improvements, the most gigantic in themselves, and of
the last importance to the community at large.
Sincerely yours,
A CONSTANT READER.
South Queensferry, March 21, 1837.