The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1850-04-18
To TIKI EDITOR
on 1ptr NRw YORK HERArn

OF THE NRw YORK HERALD
In all civilized countries, when theft breaks a
night into another's enclosure and appropnates TO
himself the property, there are laws affording re-
| dress and restoration, but by the United States
patent laws, man may, BY false oath, and other
foul means (applications are secret and ca parte
possession of the public, and then rob, plumber, or
| harrass, with impunity. The present laws of the
| United States afford no means by which patent
obtained under circumstances OF fraud, collision
or oherwise-can be brought before the courts for
its repeal, by parties whose rights are invaded |;
hence as long this continues and dishonest men
take advantage of it, no business is safe from the
encroachments OF INSCRIPTIONS plunderers. The
branch of business in which the writer is engaged
has suffered in no measured degree from this great
defect in the law. The following extracts from
some of the petitions OF Rubber manufacturers and
workmen, now before Congress, will place this
question in its proper light, and show few of the
many who are disposed to indicate their long
established rights.
Respectfully, HORACE III. DAY.
To the Hon. Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of Ame;ica, IN Congress
The petition of the undersigned, Manufacturers,
Workmen and Merchants, engaged in the manu-
facture and sale Of Indian Rubber fabrics, respect
That your petitioners have for many years past
been in the common and undisputed habit of curing
India Ruber for use in manufactures, by the aPpli-
cation of heat; That the discovery of this mode of
curing India Rubber is coeval with the introduce
ton Of the fabric to public in 175l, and the vul
canizing curing compounds OF Rubber by steam,
was discovered in England many years since, Gas
early as 1887 and thence introduced into this
country in 1916, and became the common property
of the public, the foreign inventors did not
secure the principle in this country by letters
That on the 18th day of january, in the year
| 1914, Charles Goodyear, then of New-Haven in
Connecticut applied for and obtained letters patent
on the 18th day of June, 1874 for what he called a
triple compound, being Rubber, white lead and
| sulphur, and for curing said compound by the ex-
posture in open stove oven to an atmosphere heat
ed to a regulated temperature, as will more part-
culary appear by copy of said letters patent here to
Your petitioners further show that the right of
said Goodyear to his patent has never been general
y acknowledged, and that, although several suits
| have been commenced for infringement thereof,
| place.
Your partitoners further show, that as appears
on the face thereof said patent did not seek TO, and
did not cover the principle or Improvement OF cur
ing Rubber by heat, but merely of curing the said
triple compound by heat That some of your petit-
| oners, as Manufacturers, Merchants and Artisans,
have from period anterior TO the date OF said
letters patent and all of them subsequently there
| to, have made, manufactured, or vended to be
used, India Rubber in various forms, cured by
| the application of heat, as they had and have a
1 right so 10 do.
| Your petitioners further show, that on the 18th
| December, 1919, the Commissioner of Patents
issued to the said Goodyear, on his ex PaIte APP
| plication, and on his surrender OF SAID letters
patent of 1874, new letters patent IN lieu thereof,
in which the said Goodyear has been allowed the
exclusive right to the improvement or discovery oil
curing India Rubber by the application OF high de-
gree of hea,-whereby your petitioners ana M, me
ed and well vested right to use said principle,
and are liable to vexatious and expensive law
suits
| Your petitioners further show, that shielded by
| IA law nd
said Patentee, Charles Goodyear, or his asslgnees,
| has or have entered into combination and associa-
ton with few individuals, who have agreed
| 10 prosecute all who infringe their illegal pa
tent, and exclude all but the favored few
| from any participation in the Rubber business,
| and that the inevitable result must be TO erect
monopoly thereof among such favored few, and UNI
justly break up and destroy the large vested inter-
| ests Of your petitioners and others.
Your petitioners would remark that as they are
| advised and believe, the present laws OF Congress
| in force provide no manner in tchich an illegal or
| fraudulent yafent can be assaiied by third party,
and the letters repealed and they are convinced
that the latitude and impunity allowed to the Com
| missioner in the reissue OF patents, Is dangerous
| and unjust in the extreme.
| Your petitioners represent, that they have the
best reasons for believing that the inventions set out
in both the old and reissned patent were truly the
invention of persons other than the said Goodyear
and this they feel assured they could prove and
establish if the law allowed them any way il
which TO ask for and obtain the repeal Of irauda
lent or illegal PATENT
Many Of your petitioners have large interest, il
various ways, under the patent Laws and all O
them have an interest in securing TO inventors thu
Just reward of their ingenuity, but they canno
refrain from the expression of their conviction, tina
the present laws on the subject OF Patents are II
many respects unwise and unjust, and they hope
Congress will speedily revise and adjust the same
on truer and fairer basis securing TO the honest
inventor, beyond deprivation, the fruit OF his labor
but enabling any party aggrieved to strip his legal
| shield from the pretender and secure to himself
the gains Of his honest industry
But your petitioners expressly ask your honora-
bic body, to amend the laws relating TO Patents,
that any party feeling aggreved by the issue or ex-
istence OF letters patent, may by suit nj law, or
bill in Chancery or scire facias, have the question
of their validity and legality determined and also
that some check should be interposed, or some
safeguard provided, against the erroneous or m
| judicious reissue or amendment Of Letters Pa
| tent by the Commissioner