The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1910-12-23
ELECTRIC TRUST
WILL COME NEXT
GOVERNMENT WILL TEST LEGAL
ITY OF PATENT AGREEMENT OF
ELECTRICAL COMPANIES.

NEW YORK, Dec. About ten
years ago Mr.. Westinghouse caused a
statement to be prepared showing the
legal expenses which the protection of
his patents created amounted to from
the time he began inventing and mar
keting electrical apparatus. He was
amazed when he saw the total. He
passed the paper containing the fig
ures to the present writer, saying:
you will see how large an item of
expense litigation for the protection
of patents is for manufacturing COM
pany like that of which / am presi-
dent" Mr.. Westinghouse was asked
if he thought the other great electric
corporation, of which Mr.. Coffin is
president, had been compelled to pay
bills of equal, or approximately equal,
amounts. His bills must have been
very large" Mr.. Westinghouse res
pended.
1t was. the contemplation of the ex-
penses of litigation to protect patents
which undoubtedly brought about an
undertaking between the larger of the
electric companies of the United
States. That agreement provided
that each compony might use
the patents of the other subject of
course to fair royalty. The agree
ment may be regarded as in restraint
of trade, as tending to prevent compe-
tition. But that was not the purpose
of it. 1t was entered into simply to
put an end to very heavy legal ex-
penses. The experiment has been
fully justified, and one of the principal
items of cost in the direction of these
corporations has been to a great eX-
tent eliminated.
Edison had similar experience. To
protect his patents has cost him mil
lions, and although in almost all cases
he has received final judgments in
his favor, yet in many instances these
judgments were handed down only a
few months before the expiration Of
the patents. In not one instance has
Edison ever received penny repre-
senting damages awarded by the
courts for the infringements of his
patents. This experience has led him
to be strongly in favor of the license
, system, and he has sometimes won
dered whether he would not have
been better off pecuniarily had he re-
lied upon the trade secret principle for
| the protection of his inventions.
To Dissolve the Electric Trust.
Word has come from Washington
that the Department of Justice is
about to begin proceedings in the Fed
eral courts, having for their purpose
the dissolution Of the so-called Electric
Trust. 1t will be something of a sur
prise if the evidence obtained by the
government makes it clear that the
great electrical companies of the Unit
ed States are practically operated up
on the combination or trust principle
Certainly the competition, at least un
til within a short time, between then
has been very keen. There is still II
commercial and railway circles viviC
recollections of the fierce competition
carried on by the two great electric
}, companies for the contract for cleo
trifying one of the greater railways o.
J southern New Jersey, In this city
after the Legislature commanded thu
railroad companies to electrify theil
! terminals, a competition which wal
: both scientific as we'll as theoretic
and in addition practical and financial
was for a considerable period in pro
gress, between the great electric com