The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1849-10-05

Mons ia Ms Tinted Stote, of Amsyiea By George
Ticknor Curtis, Counsellor at Law. Boston
Charles Z. Little and James Brown, io4S
Many excellent works have been published within
a few years in England on the law OF Patents. Mr..
Spence has written very clever treatise ON the
principles relating 10 the specification; and Mr..
Carpmaels manual for the use of inventors and
patentees had reached a fourth edition in London
in 1916 In addition to his collection of patent cases,
Mr. Webster has given TO the profession valuable
work the subject, with the English statutes, prac
tical forms, and digest of reported Mr..
Godson's volume presents a clear and well-con-
sidered analysis of the and the principles
evolved from them and Mr.. Hindmarche by his
very complete and elaborate treatise, has supplied
all the wants of his brethren on the other side
of the water. These works, however, are of com
parativey little value 10 the profession or the public
in this country. Most of the old learning on this
subject has become obsolete in the United States
under the statute of 1885, and the decisions of
courts upon it, The otherwise excellent work of
Mr. Phillips was more than half printed before the
passage of that law; and TO answer the purposes OF
the profession requires to be entirely rewritten.
Mr. Curtis therefore in selecting the field of his la
bors has been especially fortunate; and thorough
examination of his work enables us to say that he
has accomplished it with Judgment, fidelity, and
success His treatise is well arranged, and he has
given the results of the recent decisions, such
they are, in a compendium that leaves US nothing
to desire.
i There is no branch of the law which illustrates SO
forcbly as the law of patents what different thing
the '.perfection of reason" is at different times.
Doctrines are now habitually laid down in patent
cases which are violent enough to startle the Judges
of half century ago from their graves. II is about
law, that it was laid down by Lord Kenyon or Mr..
Justice Butler to dispose of it as sheer nonsense
The same may be said even of the opinions of Chief
Justice Marshall or Mr. Justice Washington This
is measurably owing to the changes that have been
introduced by positive legislation-but partly also
to a wild spirit of innovation that seems to have ia
ken possession of the bench in this behalf, and
threatens the destruction of every thing like we'll
considered and conservative doctrine in this branch
of jurisprudence. The idea of we'll defined property
in patent is extinct; patent now IA days is not
what the positive terms of the grant make it, but
it is any thing and every thing which the caprice
of judge can impose on the conscences of twelve
gentlemen in box.
True enough it is that the old Judges were dis
posed to take a view of patent rights, and
to hold the inventor perhaps too strictly to his allie
cations and to his grant But the pendulum has
now taken swing to the other extremity, and is
more hopelessy remote from the perpendicular
than ever. 1t seems poor philosophy, in profess
sion that regards precedents so reverentially, to
sweep away with rude hand the doctrines, opn-
ions, and judgments of centuries-to overrun par.
ticuar province of Jurisprudence and obliterate all
the old monuments and landmarks-to set up an
entirely new perfection of reason in the place of
that which has been subverted-and to expect the
e. II i'll n r
ing true wisdom only at the antipodes of her an
cient seats. The revolution is too violent The
strcness of the old jurisprudence sought to guard
against frauds, and sometimes induced occasional
hardships; the looseness Of the new system seeks
to relieve hardships, and induces innumerable