The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-05-19
The Telephone Decisian.

Monopoly won a signaI-yictory in the s1-
pfeme court when that distinguished tri.
| bunal decided that Berliner's invention OF
a telephone transmitter. patented In 1881. Is
entitled TO priority over all other devices
used for transmitting sounds by electric bat
terfes- The decision confirms the title Of the
Bell Telephone company to the Berl;ner
patents by declaring that sad patents were
| regularly and legally secured in 1891. with
out fraud or COLLISION. The case on which
the decision is grounded arose in Massachu-
sets on a suit brought by the government
to vacate the letters patent on the ground
tnat they were secured by fraud. On the
hearing in the circuit court the government
vas successful An appeal was taken to
! the court Of appeals and that body decided
| against the government 1t was shown on
1 the hearing that Berliner or his assigns
| filed application for q patent on a tele-
phone transmitter prior to 1880, and that
| owing to delays the patent was not issued
until eleven years later. or IN 1891. H.
application, models. etc, therefore, passed
through the hands Of four commissioners of
| patents in as many different administra-
tons.
The value Of his device was very great.
The owners Of it must have been aware Of
its great value and yet they permitted 1t 10
| lie unpatented :n the government patent
office for thirteen years. Then, in 1891, a
few years before the expiration Of the Bell
Edison patents, the patent office was sud-
denly stirred 10 activity and letters were
issued to the Bell monopoly on Berliner's
device-the legal and commercial effect be-
ing to preserve the monopoly against COM
petition for term Of twelve years or more
beyond the expiration of the Bell-Ed:son
patents.
The moral presumption Is ard was that
the Bell Telephone monopoly, being fully
aware of the value Of the Berliner device
or invention. and that it was an indispen-
sable attachment to telephones, exerted
unlawful and corrupt influences over the
officials OF the patent ONCE TO delay the
issuance Of the patents thereon until near
the approach of the expiration of the Bell
Edison patents. To sustain this presump-
ton 1t was necessary to show that four or
more commissioners OF patents Or their
subordinates had been corrupted. While
the moral presumption was convincing,
the legal presumption could not be estab-
fshed. and on appeal by the government
to the supreme court that body decided
that for any delay in issuing the patent the
patent office was solely responsible.
to establish the patentable right Of the Ber-
liner device. The patent is regular, but the
device patented is open 10 attack as an IN
fringement on other patents. Besides that,
the regularity Of the application and all
the proceedings had to procure the patent
may be attacked in direct assault upon
the patent, and thus the whole question
may be brought into court again for final
review
The contention will be made that the
Berliner patents Of ISaO and 1891 are identi-
cal and that q device used by the general
public for seventeen years without protest
or interference reverts to public uses
against the claim OF inventors
The effect of the decision on independent
telephone companies will probably be to
compel them to defend their rights to use
their telephones. But It does not follow
that the monopoly company win be success
full On the contrary. the prospects are good
that the monopoly win lose its greedily COW
eted fruits Of victory In the setting aside
OF the Berliner patents.