The Washington herald., 1910-04-18
VIEWS OF PEOPLE ON MANY TOPICS
YOU THINK ABOUT
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his recent testimony before the House
Committee on Patents, 'recklessly" IN
dermined property rights in patents is
incredibly absurd, as is the other as
sumption that the Commissioner was
speaking Of legal validity only in his
testimony. What the Commissioner
really said was that 90 per cent OF the
current patents were worthless" for
various reasons, one OF which was our
defective system and lack Of facility for
REORGANIZATION. Many inventors could
tell him. from sore experience, what a
multitude Of ways there are for a patent
TO prove worthless" though valid
Persons, or patent lawyers, who cannot
recognize the moderation OF the Commits
sioners testimony. which seems so 10
have huttered the dove cotes Of tho local
Patent Bar Association. or who are IN
aware Of Germany's present superiority
TO us in patent practice. are singularly
81 equipped for twentieth century dis
cussion of this subject. II not hostile to
progress and TO inventors interests. they
must have been doing the Rip Van
Wrinkle act Patent Lawyer" might as
well quote the historical fact Of our early
superiority in merchant marine. now
vanished. 10 prove its present perfection.
or the other fact that Mexico and other
Latin-American republics copied our
Constitution by the page. TO prove the
superiority Of our government. as to say.
rs he does. that because Germany once
initiated our patent practice hers must
be now inferior.
Has he read the fable OF the tortoise
and the hare? Such neighbors as Messrs.
Alexander Graham Bell and Emil Ber-
liner (who has lately returned from Eu-
rope and has has an experience just IN
point might tell the gentleman how the
fable applies TO comparisons between
our patent practice and Germany's. They
could also inform him that the Commits
sioner's testimony is as conservative as
1t is correct and exact.
A recent advertisement Of reputable"
patent attorneys gravely states that 60
per cent OF all patents are successful, and
proves it-so does the habit OF legal
presumption" befog the mind-or near
proves Il. by quoting the figures FOR pat
ents assigned at issue. as II marketed
first and then patented. Inventors more
reasonably think the figures prove just
the opposite Of the advertisers conten-
tion-namely that the poverty OF the in
ventor makes him pawn his brain prod
uct. or an interest in it. for the fees.
and generally he shares, not PROFITS, but
costs and loss by so doing.
A vicious System.
II IS under the Embellishments Of
just such legally presumed honest" pub
Lefty that so many fractional. or futile
and trifing. or worse. patents are taken
out by ignorant inventors, and by such
unworthy means has the ST00o.000 surplus
of the Patent Omce-the only self-sus-
tanning department Of our government
been accumulated from victims 81 able TO
support such costs.
Under an administration such as mod
ern needs require for so important
branch Of government as the Patent
Office is. half as many patents might
be taken ont, but which would be worth
to the patentees and the public ten times
as much as the entire present issue. No
such shoals of patents unable 10 stand
on edge. or representing only skillful
word juggling by tyros in mechanics
dubbed patent attorneys. who are "out
OF meat and need the fees. no such
travesties viii cumber the records when
patent bar associations prohibit such adj
vertising. as they should. It is on a par
with that Of steamship companies. whose
agents comb the slums OF Europe for
immigrants 10 this home Of the free. 1t
recalls the Spaniard who, on being told,
in answer 10 his question, that the
priests went 10 heaven. Of course, said:
Then I want 10 go below, for I must
get away from them in some world"
SO inventors want 10 get away from
such reputable" practice OF patent law
and try some other kind. II the news
whispered by a little bird proves correct,
and the local bar association secretly ap-
pointed a committee yesterday to inves-
tigate and report upon patent law abuses.
and II this tardy action results in the
long-delayed housekeeping by that au-
thority, none will rno-e cordially congrat-
ulate the association upon results at
tanned than the brotherhood Of inventors
And IL the new code OF ethics for prac-
titIoaers shall prohibit a disbarred attor-
ney from withdrawing his reputation
and resuming his criminal practices by
the transparent eNpedient OF partnership
with a reputable attorney not yet
caught. the purple dawn Of tho inventor
millennium will appear on the horizon Of
an army Of victims to presumptive greed
J. AlacFARREN.
Eternal Punishment"