New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-04-15
shouls all Patent Law. be Repcalcie

To tie Edtscr Of The ". Y. Tribune;
The caption which have given this COM
municuton sufficiently explains its object. The
proposition is important one, and in order to be
determined inteligently We should recur to the
end intended to be achieved by the framers of the
Constitution in vcstng Congress with the power
to grant monopolies of this kind, which all expert
ence has shown IS in derogation Of the rights Of
the community at large.
The 9Th Section of the ls Article Of the Constitution
Of the United States fully explains the policy its trainers
had in contemplation in authorizing the granting of Pat
ents To employ its own language, it "so promote
the progress Of science and useful arts BY securing for
LIMITED TINES authors and isrea;ors the ercHsre
right to their re.pectire rrtiRgs and discoveries"
Under this provision of the Constitution the first act
was passed il l90 by Congress- by virtue Of which the
Secretary of State, Secretary of War, and Attorney
General were vested with the power to hear and deter
mine all applications for Patents and when a merto
ous inventor presented himself to grant hia letters
patent for term not exceeding fourteen years. As
this the fra Patent law enacted by Congress after
the adoption of the Constitution II is important in sov
ing the problem have proposed TO bear in mind that
assignment Of Paea, prorided aiostd By The
provisions Of this G any reaerdl Of Pcteat
contemplated The absence Of both these material ee-
ments, which at the present day enter so largely into
Patent system, and under which the vast and stu
pendous abuses prsctced the detriment of the
public good and the injustice and oppression of ndvid
uals and corporations conclusvey show that the prvi
lege intended by the trainers of the Constitution to be
granted to inventors strictly persona! one; and
secondly that in the earliest infancy Of gov
eminent, when the arts scarcely had an existence
among us al all fourteen years monopoly was consid
cred as sufficient compensation TO the inventor tor MS
discovery and that after that period the benefits of such
invention should inure 10 the public good and I've liable
to appropriation by all persons without limitation or re-
stTiction whatever II such the reasoning OF our
lawmakers at that early day in history, with how
much greater force does apply % the present cOnd
ton OF the country it. in fact the necessity for such en-
couragemen and protection Is not entirely abrogated
By the subsequent legislation OF Congress- the restrc
tons of the act of 1920 from time time modified
first by doing away with the commission of three mem
bers the Cabinet essential 70 granting letters Patent
and vestng that power in the Secretary of State alone
next by allowing the assignment OF Patents and lastly by
permitting the most pernicous of all its notifications
the renewal of Patents for the term of seven years
under certain restrictions and limitations. This last
exercise of power not allowed however, until the
year 1885, when embodied in the act of the 4th
July 1885, creating the Office of Commissioner of
Patents and only then after such application for
tension had been submitted to and determined by
board consisting of the Secretary of State, Commissioner
OF Patents and Solicitor of the Treasury. The specua
tors and gamblers in Patent rights however finding it
difficult to secure an extension OF their monopoes where
their applications had TO pass the ordeal OF such com
mission succeeded in procuring in May, 1873 repeal
of that sautary provision of the act of 1896 and the
substitution of this arbitrary power in the Commissioner
of Patents alone And here may be improper 10
notice the fact that of the odious and obnoN
Of these extended Patents not only secured after
the repeal of that part of the act of 1896 but
suina,ed By the Chit Clerk Of he Patent Office who, in
the absence OF the Commissioner of Patents is eroco
vested with all the powers OF mis- principal Thus have
the great rights of twenty-five millions OF people been
frttered away by nconsiderate and hasy legislation,
until those rights placed at the disposal and under
the control OF chief clerk a subordinate Bureau of
Government Ii Is not therefore much to be won
dered Mt that spectators who have purchased from the
meritoriOus inventive genius of the country for
song the production OF their mind and labor, have by
outside and not unrequently corrupt appliances sue
ceeded IN procuring the extension OF Patents that have
not only crippled the industry of the country but placed
the public al large at the mercy OF combinations of
people tributary to their Vaccinations the amount OF
millions and millions OF dollars
set out them in the discussion Of this important prop
oson that under our present system OF Patent Laws,
the evils they entail upon community are infinitely
greater than all the real imaginary benefits TO be de-
rived from their continuation and that for this growing
and stupendous evil there is but remedy-d total
repeal Of all Patent Lars assert further that original
inventors very little benefited by this system OF
Patent Laws, and that such few where
they the benefciares, that they form the exception
the public seldom incur the risk of injustice or
extorton, and consequently never become FESTIVE under
the action OF the Paentee himself IL Is the specializing
and heartess assignee, who purchases the Patent and
embarks In as he would III any other gambling opera
hon that causes the oppression and ncts the injury of
which the public are beginning loudly TO complain.
But oil this VIII treat in my next ANTI-MoNoPoLY.