The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1874-05-16
The Patent SwindIe.

Is there to be no end to the swindles
perpetrated on the gullible people of
the west, if not of the whole country,
by host of travelling sharpers, in the
sale of patent territory to thousands
upon thousands of victims to these
patent territory Jeremy DiddSrs ?'
Among the generally intelligent of the
commercial world there is hardly con-
ception of even a tithing of these swim
dies. OF course the sufferers are of the
comparatively ignorant class, or at least
ignorant of the force AMI scope of our
patent laws otherwise the "occupa-
ton" OF these patent right thieves
would be % gone" Probably many of
your general readers will not do less
than believe me guilty of gross exag-
geration when I say that the aggregate
of the swindles OF frauds upon the com
paTatiyely poor purchasers of patent
right territory - in the northwestern
states alone amounts to one million dol
lars yearly, yet this estimate is very far
too small rather than exaggerated. One
of these patentright chaps, or some
tonguey and of course INSCRIPTIONS
agent, comes along generally in pairs)
with letters patent" to some Peter
Funk, giving EXCLUSIVE right to manu-
facture, use and sell" said Funk's pa
tent felloe expander, or Buncombe's
patent gate Isste1er, q may be Did
dler's patent - teher or moss attach
menf, and pi57fl s fo.se1I, not the psttcnt
article, but pagcels of territory-that is,
to divide his patent into little parcels,
from that of a state down to q county
or even township-pretendin to give
the purchasers Exclusive right to man
ufacture. use and sell" within his pur-
chased territory. The gudgeon Is hook
ed. Some five or ten others of his gull
lible neighbors have bought each one
or more county rights" the vender
has pocked from 81, 600 to s., 600, or, as
is often the case, has made haul from
a single neighborhood of $4,000 to
800 900. pocketed his cash, assigned TO
some innocent third party his notes and
mortgages, and is suddenly gone to some
other field of usefulness to the
swindling fraternity. The poor victims
within week or month, or at least ulti-
mately, find out that so far as the pur-
| chasing of a thing of practical use or
value to them-no matter how valuable
the patent as a whole-tbey might Just as
we'll have purchased one screw from an
engine or one boof from horse that
their neighbor victim who has bought
. the adjoining town or county caM sell
Sthe patent ware at his shop to be used
or resold anywhere in the United States,
and therefore that both are clearly
swindled out of every cent paid the
vender of moonshine; and then both
go to work wiser, but financially, half
or wholly ruined men. Many hun
/ drCds of these patent swindlers, with
their stool-pigeon accomplices, are now,
and long have been in every state, at
| least of the north and west, depredating
as stated; nor can bat rarely a town.
/ ship, and probably nowhere a county,
/ be found that has not suffered every
year, or at least within say five years,
| to the tune of many thousands at the
/ hands of these infanl Gus vendors of pa
| tent-right territory. Surely some means
/ should be sought and found to stay
| thsse depre darors from their infamous
work, if not to mete to them their Just
penal dues for past villRinies.- Western
Subscriber Of New York Tribune.