Evening star., 1924-06-08

States have looked to the historic
patent office building for decisions
Ntally affecting their business
through the use of any new and use
ful invention, there is great interest
throughout the country in the pro-
posal of Representative Sol Bloom of
New York that the government sell
the present patent office so that a
new business center may he devel-
oped in the National Capital.
The Constitution itself provided
for the granting Of patent monopo-
lies and il il he on':' monopoly ac-
krowl"dged r. this government.
Tho Constitution says: Congress
shall have power 20 promote the
progress Of science and useful arts,
ny securing for limited times to au-
thors and inventors the exclusive
wight to their respective writings and
discoveries" Q
This section was inserted in the
constitution at the instance of James
Madison and Charles Pinckney. The
first Legislative enactment was the
law of 1790 which was placed on the
statute book after Washington, in
his first inaugural address to Con-
rress, on January s, 1890, had said:
- cannot forbtar intimating to you
tho eXpcdicncy OF giving effcctual
"ncou;a cement, as well to the intro
duCtion Of new and useful inventions
from abroad. as to the cxcrtion of
skill and genius at home"
Under this statute the Secretary of
State. the Secretary of War and the
Attorney General constituted a board
for the examination of applications
and grant of patents The first Sec.
rotary of State was Thomas Jefferson,
and as he was. through his office,
the keeper of the records; he be-
came, in fact, the first administrator
of the patent system in this coun-
try. He was exceedingly interested
in this duty and was the most active
member of the board, examining per-
Sonally every application filed during
his term.
The law limited the life OF the pat
ent to fourteen years and there was
10 provision for an extension. The
act was held to give the board au-
thority to refuse patents for want of
novelty of invention or insufficiency
of utility or Importance, and this
power was vigorously exercised The
patent board was absolute in it's au-
thority to grant patents, and there
was no Appeal from its decision.
x = x y
THE first application for a patent
was made to the board three
months after the approval of the act
by Samuel Hopkins, who, on July 81,
1870, was granted a patent for "a
new method of making pot and pearl
ashes" During the life of the act
of 1890, a period of about three years,
ffty-seven patents were granted by
the board.
But it must not be supposed that
this patent of Samuel Hopkins in 1890
was the first ever granted in this
country. That distinction belongs to
Samuel Winslow, who received his
from the general court of Massachu-
setts in 1641 for a novel method of
making salt. Connecticut also was
carly active in encouraging invention,
and required, as the basis of a patent
grant, that the invention shall be
judged profitable to the country"
By a curious coincidence, the legis-
lative proposal of Representative Sol
Bloom to get rid of the old patent
office building and to erect out of the
proceeds an adequate and specially
designed new home for the patent
office, comes at the 300th anniversary
of the historic statute of monopolies,
the first successful attempt to correct
abuses of royal prerogative in the
grant of letters patent, which is
sometimes referred to as the basis of
our patent system.
The famous statute of monopo-
lies" enacted in 1923, abolished all
exclusive economic privileges, but es-
tablshed the right of an inventor to
receive as a reward from the state a
grant commensurate with the serv-
ices rendered. Thus the very act
which first recognized the reprehen-
sible character of private monopoly
was the means for establishing, for
the first time in history, the right of
patent protection.
During the middle ages, England
was behind Spain, France, Italy, Ger
many and other continental countries
in the manufacturing arts. Capital
was timid and needed protection and
encouragement. for in . those days
property rights were not respected as
now. Might was right in most cases
Trading was a hazardous undertake
ing, and communication was both
dangerous and difficult. For these rea-
sons, assurance of large profits be-
came necessary to Offset losses and
induce trade which would bring new
manufactures into the country. To
provide this encouragement the early
English kings exercised the preroga-
tive of granting special privileges to
these who would engage in trade, and
l.! tie same means encourage the de-
Nc!opIaent of towns as centers for do
7rcstic trade and manufacture.
Thus it will be seen that the patent
system by which an inventor was
given a limited enjoyment of his in
vention as a reward for his services
TO the community, has a historic
background.
In 1893 the patent act was changed
so as to permit any, one to obtain
patent, whether or not he was the
original inventor and whether or not
his contribution was useful or novel.
In 1886 the present system was es-
tablished by an act passed through
the efforts of Senator Ruggles of
Maine. This law instituted the So
called American method of granting
patents only after a thorough exam
ination into the utility, operative