Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1912-10-28
PATENT PLANK IN PROGRESSIVE
PLATFORM WOULD BRING RUIN
EVERY INVENTOR IN AMERICA
Special to the Bonanza

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 2S.-The progress
sive party platform plank pledging
the party to the enactment of pat
ent law which will make it impos-
sble for patents to be suppressed or
used against the public welfare in
the interest OF injurious monopolies," "
is attacked by Hugh X. Wagner of
St. Louis, member OF the commit
tee on patent, trademark and copy
right law just appointed by Frank
B. Kellogg of st. Paul, Mimi, presi-
dent of the American Bar association,
as opposed to the interests of poor
inventors and in the interests of the
very monopolies against which it in
Weighs.
Mr.. Wagner, in discussing his at
ttude on the progressive party propo-
sition, intimated his intention to
take the matter up at once with his
associates on the Bar association
committee. Melville Church of Wash
ington, d. c.; Frederick p, Fish of
Boston; II. II. Parkinson of Chicago;
and Robert S. Taylor of Fort Wayne,
Ind.
"An inventor brings into being
something that did not previously
exist" said Mr., Wagner, "and it Is
the policy of the patent law of all
countries to induce disclosure of in
ventions, as we'll as to stimulate the
making of them, by granting to the
inventor by letters-patent the eXclu-
sive right fer limited time to make,
use. and sell the thing thus created
by the inventor What the inventor
does fer the community is of the
greatest value, but IL would be i'm
possible to pay him in cash the
actual value of his invention, This
can not be known accurately in .ad-
vance, and the funds would not be
available with which to make the
payment
"The grant Of the exclusive domin-
ion for limited time over the thing
that he has created rewards the in
ventor in exact proportion to the
value of his invention, while taking
nothing from the existing public
stock. because the monopoly thus
conferred relates only to that which
he created, and which did not pre-
viously exist, II he has made an
important invention, he will be large
ly rewarded; and il he has made
but q slight invention, his reward
will be likewise small,
THE patent law of the United
States grants patent for II years
as the consideration for the dis
closure of the inventors invention,
What the country gets is the making
of the invention and the disclosure
of il with freedom of the public to
use it after the lapse OF IL years,
What the inventor gets is the mo-
nopoly for the payment of taxes
threatens the early shortening Of the
life of a United States patent, but,
on the contrary, it is an absolute
grant for II years In contrast to
this, foreign laws are most perni-
cious In imposing the payment OF an
nual taxes and. In addition, requir-
ing that the invention shall be COM
mercially put into use within a very
short time after the grant OF the
patent. 1t often takes decade to
get an invention into commercial
use, but the laws of the foreign
countries almost without exception
require that this shall be accomplish
ed within such short periods of
time as two, three, or four years
The result is that innumerable for
eign patents lapse through what is
called 'non-working.'
"The platform of the Roosevelt
party proposes to impose this bur-
densome requirement upon American
inventors, which will result in fos-
tering injurious monopolies, instead
of abrogating them, and the only
persons to suffer will be the invent
ors who are not already rich or not
allied with possessors of large capi-
tai. The wealthy owners of patents
will be able to afford to introduce
the subject matter of their patents
into commercial use, and will not
lose their patents; but the great
majority of inventors are poor, OF
relatively poor. men, and they will
be deprived of their patents by the
requirement of working them. The
number of patents that are suppress
sed by wealthy manufacturers at the
present, time is inconsiderable a:
compared to the immense number
issued to people who are too pool
to bear the burden of the provision
of law for working them proposed