The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1895-03-08
OHEAP TELEPHONES.
Decision OF the United States Supreme
Court Ends Several Patents.

reaching patent case decisions ever
handed down by the Supreme Court
of the United States that of the Bate
Refrigerator Company against Ferdi-
nand Sultzberger & Co, involving
probably 5000, 100000 of invested
capital, was determined for the people
and against the great telephone and
other electrical corporations on Mon
day. The case was one upon which
depended the question of when Ameri-
can patents expire when foreign pat
ents have been previously issued, and
it was decided in an exhaustive opin.
ion by Justice Harlan.
In thus invaldating most of the ex
isting Bell and Edison telephone pat.
ents as we'll as the patents in the Bate
case, the Court held that the invention
for which Bate received a patent was
previously patented in foreign coun-
try, and the United States patent did
expire with the foreign patents.
Among the patents effected are
three issued to the Western Union
Telegraph Company, on applications
hled by Thomas A. Edison. These in
ventions became the property of the
American Bell Telephone Company
by the telephone consolidation con-
tract of November /, 1879
These Edison patents are claimed
to be fundamental and they, with the
Berliner patent, now in litigation, and
which remained in the patent office
from 1877 to November, 1891, expire
at the date Of the expiration of the
foreign patents. the first of which are
now declared to have run out last
year. The inventions have been in
use since 1873. The Edison inven-
tlons were patented abroad in England,
France and Canada in 1877, in Bel
GUM, Austria Hungary, Italy, Ger
many and Spain in 1878, and in Prus-
sia in 1882.
They are free in foreign countries,
and under the construction now given
of section 1887 are made free in this
country. Substantially, the decision
will affect in the same way the quad
ruplex telegraph patents which were
applied ior in October, 1874, and is
sued December IS, 1885.
The incandescent lamp patents
owned by the General Electric Com
pany are also included IN these, which
will be affected by the decision.
The effect of the doctrine laid down
by the Court upon other patents of
like character is SO far.reaching that
even the lawyers who filed briefs in
the case, including those representing
the Bell Telephone Company and
Others not parties to this suit, cannot
fully define it,
COMPLETE oVERTURNING.
The early inventions of Mr.. Edison
in the telegraph, the telephone, the
phonograph, electric lighting and the
electric railway, those made and form.
ing the subject matter of patent appli-
cations prior to 1882, were patented
upon construction Of the statute the
reverse of that which was subsequently,
held by Judge Nixon and the Circuit
Courts of the United States, which is
thus upheld by the highest tribunal of
the land. Almost all applications
were made upon the theory that if you
first apply for your American patent,
then apply for and issue your foreign
patent, the life of the American pat
ent will not be limited thereby. If
the Supreme Court had taken this
monopolistic view of the case and re-
versed the Circuit Courts, all patents
which were not issued in the United
States II years ago and for which no
foreign application was made prior to
the date of the American application.
would have been found to be possess
ed of more or less extensive term of
existence.