The Portland daily press., 1872-12-18

ALL kinds Clothing for Men and Boys a
BuRLEIaH's, 80 Middle Street. t
An Important Decision Relating TO The
Future of the Fine Arts.
In the decision of the suit of the Gorham
Manufacturing Company VS.. White, the Su-
preme Court of the United States has rendered
signal and important service to the progress of
the fine arts BY the statute of 1912, Congress
authorized the commissioner to grant letters
patent to those ''whose industry genius, efforts,
and expense should produce new designs for
printing, statues, bas relieves; in short, for all
forms of ornamentation 1t was the intent of
this act that the art of decoration should should
enjoy the fostering care and protection which
has conferred such conspicuous benefits upon
the American inventions in the mechanic arts;
and in constituting this law in such manner as
to give practical protection to the designer, the
Court has, doubtless, lent valuable impulse to
the artistic culture of the country.
Although passed twenty years ago, this act
has remained almost dead letter. Very few
suits were brought underit at the Circuit and,
until the present, none have been carried to the
Supreme Court.
The result has been that infringements of
design patents have become almost universal.
No sooner did pattern, devised and introduced
at great expense, become popular in the mar
ket, than it was copied by other manufacturers,
who thus, without risk, and almost without loss
of business consideration, enjoyed the fruits of
came at last a serious evil, which seemed to
threaten the very existence of American de-
sign for no one could afford to employ corps
of artists, and incur the cost of bringing new
goods into the market, if his property in the
result was open to be shared by all the world.
This was the state of the business which the
Gorham manufacturing Company undertook to
remedy. They were, as every one knows,
foremost among American silyer-smiths for the
beauty and novelty of their goods. Undis-
mayed by the growing practice of infringement
which disgraced the trade. they kept large
corps of artists in their employ, whose bust
ness it was TO devise new and beautiful forms
and decorations. These were, as general rule,
copied by Others and the Gorham Company re-
solved to see whether the law which had prom
ised them protection was adequate to furnish
them relief against this great and serious mis-
chief. They have carried on this good fight for
art and their rights for six years, unaided save
by the moral support of the trade, and the de-
cision of the Supreme Court has at last crown
ed their courage and endurance with brilliant
triumph. They selected, as the ground on
which to make their fight, the patent for the
design of the well-known Cottage Pattern of
spoons and forks. The infringers called their
goods the Gothic Pattern, and had, also a pa
tent, but the Gorham Company charged that
this was an evident copy OF their design, varied
only for the purpose OF escaping the law 1t
was an additional grievance in this case that
the cottage goods were in silver, while the imi-
tati0n was in base metal.
They proved, by nearly all the leading silver
smiths of New York, Philadelphia, Boston,
so nearly like the plaintiffs that ordinary pur-
chasers would mistake the one for the other.
They further showed the great value of their
design, which was pronounced by an eminent
dealer the best plain patterns he had ever seen,
and which was estimated by another leading
silver-smith to be, in his Judgment worth $780,
900 at least. And they called witnesses in the
trade who narrated &C asions when they had
actually mistaken one pattern for the other.
None of these facts were denied by the de-
PENDANTS, who rested their case solely upon the
fact, not controverted by the Gorham Com
pany that there were certain differences in the
details of the two designs, which experts and
persons accustomed to look at silver ware
was thus fairly raised whether patent for a
design was infringed if the infringer was clever
enough to produce upon the eye the same artis-
tic effect, and yet vary from the details shown
and described in the patent. The plaintiffs
claimed chat if, to the eye of the purchaser,
the resemblance was so close that the patterns
were the same, then that, in law, they must be
daemed the same; while the defendants urged
that it was for experts and designers to deter
mine the identity of the patterns
The cause was heard in Newport in the sum-
mersof 1870, and the views of the defendants
were sustained by the opinion of the Court.
This doctrine went to the root of the matter
If it were sound, design patents were of no
value. for it is always easy to vary the details
of work of art, and yet preserve the same ar
tistic effect and the same result on the eye of
the observer. To such rule the Gorham Com
pany, and, indeed the fine arts of the country,
could not submit. And they therefore appeal
ed their cause to the Supreme Court, which has
just decided it il their favor, aud has reversed
the doctrine of the Court below.
The value of the doctrine of this decision to
the artistic progress of the country can-scarcely
be overrated. Inventors of designs now stand
ON the same level with inventors of machines.
The beautiful arts may now go into business
and vie with their mechanical sisters in the sue
cessful pursuits of wealth. 1t will now become
more than ever for the interests of the great
silversmiths to aim at the production of new and
varied compositions, and to engage corps Of
trained artists to aid them in their COMPETE
ton. Fostered and sustained by the strong
arm of the law, we may at length expect to see
American manufactures as admirable for their
beauty as for their ingenuity.
For this important result the country must
thank the sGorham Manufacturing Company
whose courage and resolution have brought it