Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-10-26
.PlANKIS BAD FOR
POOR INVENTORS
PATENT LAW PORTION OF PRO.
GRESSivE PARTY PLATFORM
Is NOT A HELP.
WAGNER'S VIEWS.
st. Louis Man Shows Wherein the
Fault 10 In This Measure That 10
Unfair to the Patcntee Of
Moderate Means.

/. st. Louis, Oct. 24.-The progressive
! party platform plank pledging the
party to the enactment Of a. patent
law which will make it impossible
for patents to be suppressed or used
against the public welfare in the in
terest of injurious monopolies" Is at
tackled by Hugh K Wagner OF st.
| Louis, a member OF the committee on
patent. trademark and copyright law
just appointed by Frank B. Kellogg. OF
st. Paul, Mimi, president CT the
American Bar association, as opposed
to the interests Of poor inventors and
in the interests OF the very monopo,
lies against which it inveishs.
| Mr.. Wagner, in discussing his atti.
tude on the progressive party PROPOSE
ticn intimatad his intention to take the
matter up at once with his associates
on the bar association committee,
Melville Church. of washington, p. G.,
Frederick P. Fish, OF Boston. f. II.
Parkinson, of Chicago and Robert S.
Taylor, of Fort Wayne, Ind.
AN inventor brings into being some
thing that did not previously exist
said Mr. Wagner, and it is the policy
Of the patent law Of all countries 10 in.
dIce disclosure OF inventions, as we'll
as to stimulate the making of them, by
granting to the inventor by letters
patent the exclusive right fer limited
time to make. use, and sell the thing
thus created by the inventor. What
the inventor does for the community
lis CT the greatest value. but 1t would
be impossible to pay him in cash the
actual value of his invention. This
can net be. known accurately in adj
vance. and the funds would not be
available with which to make the
payment.
The Reward to Inventor.
"The grant OF the exclusive domin-
ion for a 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, becaus
the monopoly thus conferred relates
only to that which he created, and
which did not previously exist. If he
has made an important invention. ne
will be largely rewarded; and If he
has made but a slight invention, his
reward will be likewise small.
"The patent law of the United States
grants a patent for seventeen years as
the consideration for the disclosure OF
the inventors invention. What the
country gets is the making of the in
vention and the disclosure of 1t with
freedom of the public to use 1t after
the lapse of seventeen years. What the
inventor gets is the monopoly for the
limited term of seventeen years. NO
F4r h4
threatens the early shortening Of the
life of a United States patent, but.
on the contrary, 1t is an absolute grant
for seventeen years. In contrast 70
this. foreign laws are most pernlclous
in imposing the payment OF annual
taxes and, in addition requiring that
the invention shall be commercially
put into use within very short time
after the grant of the patent. 1t often
takes a decade to get an Invention
into commercial use, but the laws OF
the foreign countries almost without
exception require that this shall be &C
complished within such short periods
of time as two, three, or four years.
The result is that innumerable foreign
patents lapse through what is called
'non-working.'
THE platform of the Roosevelt party
proposes to impose this burdensome
requirement upon American inventors,
which will result in fostering injurious
monopolies, instead of abrogating
them, and the only person to suffer
will be the inventors who are not al
ready rich or not allied with possess
ors of large capital. The wealthy
owners of patents will be able to afford
to introduce the subjectmatter OF
their patents into commercial use. and
will not lose their patents; but the
great majority of inventors are poor,
or relatively poor men, and they will
be deprived Of their patents by the
requirement of working them. The
of patents that are suppressed
by wealthy manufacturers at the pres
ent time is inconsiderable as com
pared to the immense number issued
to people who are too poor to bear the
burden Of the provision of law for
working them proposed by the Roose-
welt platform"