The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-11-20

Qec1Qe6
legally or illegally frozen The only law
that bears directly upon this matter is
the following paragraph from Section 1887
Of the Revised Statutes of the United
mo person shall be debarred from receiv-
ing patent for his invention or discovery,
nor shall any patent be declared invalid
by reason Of it's having been first patented
or caused to be patented In q foreign coun-
& pa tns or oas sssn
prior TO the application. But every patent
granted for an invention which has bee
shall be SO limited as to expire at the same
time with the foreign patent. or IL there
ne t more than one at bsess the same 1sr time win
no case shall it be in force more than sew
enteen years"
at first glance would say that there was
no getting around It,; that IL you got a
patent from the United States on an in
say in England, your United States patent
expired. But we shall presently see that
James G. Carter is doing something quite
as he stands before the Supreme Court.
' Sou Will o find that that Mr. Mr.. a Carter is putting %
up good fight for the money.
THE BUTCHER AMAZED.
There Is part of the story that cannot
be told because those who know it not
going TO give it away. 1t is known that
when the first foreign patent of this Bate
Refrgerating Company expired number
of people at once began to use it's powers
in part because it was supposed that under
the law quoted above, and interpreted by
many decisions of the lower United States
courts, the United States patent had ex-
pired also. The Bate company began suit
AGAINST AGAINST several Of these people on the
had not been granted before, but after the
United States patent was applied for, and
was therefore not in the meaning of the
law The Bate company began suit against
butcher Suzberger for using a partA Of
their process and refusing to pay royalty;
States Circuit Court, in this city, it at
tracted attention, although eminent.
high-priced counsel appeared lighting for
the Bate company. Poor Sulzberger had
no lawyer that was i'm any way match
for these powerful persons, who excited
his wonder not little. He could not un-
derstand how the Bate company could af-
ford such good lawyers. But the United
States Circuit Court upheld Sulzberger,
deciding as 1t had decided about ten times
before on the same point
The Bate Company, undismayed by the
huge exposures of its learned counsel or by
its defeat. carried the case into the Court
of Appeals 1t came to hearing there last
spring and was argued at length by James
carte for the Westngh0gss
being in the case and at once smelled a
mouse. He began to nose around, and he
monopoly was fighting for lease Of it.
He at once jumped to the conclusion that
the powerful monopoly was the General
of the Circuit Court was reversed would
have the profits of the Edison lamp until
1897, instead of having to give them up.
under the standing decision, on Nov IL,
1894 So this lawyer jumped to the rescue
of Mr.. Sulzberger
business was exposed Everybody was soon
on the qui vive, and the unequal battle
became q contest of evenly matches bat
full was the monopoly behind the Bate COM
pany disguised that the allies of Sulzberger
did not suspect the right person until about
OF Appeals. Then IT came out that the
Bell Telephone Company was bearing the
passed out of the Court Of Appeals, which
did not pass upon It. but merely certified it
to to the Supreme Court, the interests and
the counsel arrayed as nearly as can be
got at. were as follows: Behind the Bate
Refrigerating Company, James c. Carter.
and J. j. Storrow for the Bell Telephone
eral Electric Company, and b. +. Lee for
the Rubber Trust Behind Sulzberger-that
Wheeler H. PeclShaBl,rzIsdwin Wetmore
Gen. Benjamin H. Bristow and Charles A.
Aldrich - These gentlemen represented
Westinghouse Electric-light Company, the
United States Company, the Harrison In
ternational Telephone Company.
OF course. the telephone companies
more interested than the electric-light
companies, because the success of the Bell
company means practically their destruc-
Bell interest in this matter. The chief Bell
patents, those upon which they mainly rely
for their monopoly, are patents on a trans
mitter granted to Edison on May 80, 1892.
He applied for this patent in the spring of
1877, and soon after application was filed
he sold his right to the Bell company for
comparatively small sum. In that same
mysterious way in which the Berliner-Bell
n nU q no ir1ryr rInd oil
in the Patent Office this application was
also Juggled along until May 80 1892. OF
course, every one understands that the
right to use a patent exclusively begins
when the application is filed, and the legal
does not begin until the application is
granted. So the longer you can put off the
granting OF patent after you have got
your application in all right, the longer
privileges. Now. IL this particular patent
had been granted it would have expired at
the end of seventeen years from some time
late in the summer of 1877. that is. in 1894
until 1892. That is, other things not inter-
fering. the transmitter would be a Bell
monopoly until May, 1909.
The whole matter. of this mighty battle
of millions. the Bell people, and the Gen.
eral Electric people and the Rubber Trust
people on the one SIDE and George West
inghouse. and Steve Elkins and a score of
almost equally rich men on the other, re-
meaning Of the single word-'previously
The decision will be very far-reaching
Think how many people must have left
their patents go relying upon the de-
Bell company and its allies win, they can
come forward and claim royalties to which
they, little as any one, dreamed they
had right.