FROM ANDREW JOHNSTON, ESQ., M.P.
7th July, 1869.
My dear Sir,
I am glad to hear that you intend printing the results of your inquiries as to the operation of the Patent-Laws, as the conclusions at which you have arrived tally entirely with my own experience as a manufacturer.
I had no opportunity of speaking in the recent debate on your motion, and will therefore put down one or two points which have specially presented themselves to my attention.
I am not biased, I believe, by self-interest, as the business with which I am connected has profited to a considerable extent by the purchase of patented inventions; but it is my firm conviction that the commonwealth would benefit by the refusal of the State in future to grant Patents.
Nothing can be more superficial than the objection that the intelligent working man benefits by the present system. For one such who really benefits by his invention, ten sell theirs for the merest fraction of its value; ten others who may get a fair price are led, by the possession of the capital sum so obtained, to give up regular employment, and generally “muddle away” all the money in seeking to “invent” afresh, while the remaining seventy-nine reap nothing by their invention but disappointment, privation, and misery.
Abolish Patents, and these men would stick to regular work. They would choose the service of employers who had a name for liberally rewarding their workmen for ingenious and profitable inventions, and also for the insight necessary to decide whether inventions were so or not. Employers would vie with one another in getting such a name, and the whole tone and level of the artisans would be perceptibly raised, while useful invention would proceed faster than at present, because the certainty of moderate rewards would stimulate men more than the remote chance of large ones.
No doubt you want facts rather than opinions. I can testify to this much as to another branch of the subject: when there is an infringement of a Patent, or supposed infringement, and an appeal to the law is in prospect, it never occurs to either party to consider whether the Patent-rights in question are good, bad, or indifferent. It is too well known that the longest purse will win, and that whichever party is prepared to spend most money will defeat and probably ruin the other.
Make any use you like of these notes.
Yours, very truly,
Andrew Johnston.
R. A. Macfie, Esq., M.P.