The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1865-02-23
The Pstent Office.

i lie Uestmtfttsfer IesIe10 Tor october,
in an able and well considered article
on Patent Laws pays the following
handsome and merited compliment to
the last report Of the present United
States Commissioner of Patents
We may add that some Of the informa-
ton embodied in our article is borrowed
from that most lucid and comprehensive
report, which in truth is model docu-
ment of its kind, and is one which we
heartily recommend to the perusal of all
who care about the spread and progress
Of invention. 1t has been reprinted in
our commissioners of Patents journal
for June, 1864"
The Westminster gives the decided
preference to our patent system over
that of Great Britain in two particulars.
The first is the preliminary examination
as 10 the novelty Of an invention by the
office previous to the issuing of the pat
ent This is obviously on the ground
that the office can perform this work
much better than the inventor, especial
ly where, as in this country, according
to the Rep,eU, the examiners "are men of
exceptional talent" He is thus saved
the expense of taking out a patent which
has been anticipated, or from the greater
expense, besides the loss Of time inyolv
cd, of having this examination made for
him. The records Of the English courts
show vast amount of litigation which
j. thereby avoided. Instances are cited
in which patents have been litigated for
years at cost ranging from Gl5,000 to
f25 200, when at last it has been dis
covered that the invention was not novel.
The writer sums up the argument on this
point by saying: Moreover, it (this ex-
amination) prevails in a country which is
more worthy to instruct us in patent mat
ters than all European countries combin-
ed--thc United States of America"
The other respect in which the pref
erence is given to our system is the rela-
tive cheapness of patents. This, evil
IDENTIFY, is wonderful stimulus to inven-
ton. 1t may be said, it is true, that worth
less patents are multiplied by their being
comparatively inexpensive. But who
can tell what is worthless patent? In
ventions are emincntly suggestive and
cumulative The failure of one inventor
il the success of another the mistakes
Of one suggest their remedy to another.
In the subtle operations Of the human
mind, any fact, any process, any sug-
gestion, however simple and seemingly
unimportant, like the fall of the apple
to Newton, may develop a central princi-
pie. Inventions should, evidently, be
considered in the aggregate, and not in
their individual significance. To borrow
the striking and beautiful illustrations of
our own report 1.-The fields of inven-
ton and practical knowledge have been
extended by accretions as insensible as
those which have formed the delta Of the
Mississippi Every new fact of science,
every conception of ingenuity, no mat
ter how trivial, has added something to
their area The noblest inventions which
now astonish the world-the steam en-
CINE, the railroad-have been as truly
built up, block by block, layer by layer,
rs the Pyramids
The discussion of patent systems, how
ever, is not to our present purpose, which
Is rather 20 call attention TO the fact tina,
our Patent Report, with its luminous ex-
hibit of our industrial energies and re
sources as a people, has been published
in its entirety in an English journal, and
thus laid before the English reader. W.
venture to predict that it will have i
greater effect upon public opinion abroad
- 70 the relative character and strength
Of the two sections OF this country, now
in hostile array against each other, thar
would any single achievement of our ma
tional arms, however brilliant
The Patent Office OF nation is on,
Of the truest indices, perhaps the mos
certain, of its civilization and advance
ment in the industrial arts What woule
be thought Of the South, II il could pre-
sent record 90 clean and satisfactory
OF its internal condition, as that furnish
cd by our own Report And ye: I
seeded with les State governments com
plcte, and the machinery Of in coufeder
ate government easily arranged and &C.
in motion. The entire failure Of its pa,
ent system, II il deserves the name. To-