I conceive, on the basis of this evidence, that the estimate I am now about to give represents, relatively, but I will not venture to say absolutely, a fair view of probable claims. It also affords some guide for anticipating what, coming from the Exchequer, would be a reasonable total vote for rewards. Such a sum, or even a larger, Parliament should willingly grant. It can be proved to be true national economy. The nation, as individuals, is paying vastly more now. For that burden Parliament, by not removing Patents, is alone responsible.
| 1 | at | £10,000 |
| 3 | at 5,000 | 15,000 |
| 12 | at 1,000 | 12,000 |
| 84 | at 500 | 42,000 |
| 250 | at 100 | 25,000 |
| 400 | at 50 | 20,000 |
| Medals and Certificates of Honour and Merit | 1,000 | |
| 750 | £125,000 |
I am aware that inventors have hitherto drawn such large sums in some cases (in many or most cases claiming more than they got), that they may at first hardly be pleased with my proposal. But they should remember that the sums set down are those derivable from one country alone—one of the between forty or fifty countries which give Patents now. The revenues from these other countries, therefore, are to be added. They will also consider that it is optional whether or not they apply for rewards. Let them work in secret, if they will and can. But if they resolutely contend for Patents, let them know the time for abolishing these is at hand; and abolition may come, if they resist it, without even this substitute.
I have endeavoured to show what I believe to be true—that Parliament, when it, by the Act 21, Jas., 3, tolerated monopolies for inventions, did not sanction any system at all like that into which Patents have developed, or degenerated; that, in defiance of the Act, Patents are granted so as to create the evils which Parliament expressly sought to shield the nation from; that recent legislation has aggravated the great evils that pre-existed; that a Commission has satisfied itself that no radical or sufficient remedy can be applied; that the arguments of the defenders of Patent monopolies are untenable; that the most eminent statesmen, lawyers, engineers, manufacturers, and philosophers plead for abolition; that the State is at liberty, and has the power, to devise, if it wills, a better method of dealing with inventions, but that such a method must be one that leaves manufacturers free, and able to compete with continental rivals by at once adopting, without any burden of royalties, every most recent improvement.
To conclude: this great and vital question cannot longer be deferred. It must be taken up, and that early, by what is expected to be a working Parliament—a Parliament, too, which for the first time can claim to represent labour and operative industry. Parliament has legislated in order to the preservation of salmon, and required the removal of obstacles on the coasts and in the rivers. Here are far worse obstacles, affecting not a luxury, but all our necessaries of existence, and every means of earning a livelihood.
Again: are we not asked to remove light-dues at the sea and tolls on the land? But what are these unimportant, sparse, and withal equitable taxes, compared with the close-recurring stoppage and the indefinite and heavy demands for questionable “service” which Patents constitute? Yet, again: By arrangement with France we recently abolished the time-sanctioned petty exemptions of free-men; but here we are continuing to levy more burdensome private taxes, with exemptions in favour of foreigners! It is they, indeed, whom the provisions of the Patent-Law strangely serve. Foreign countries are not so liberal to British subjects as we are to theirs;—why should they? The number of Patents we grant in a year to foreigners has increased within a short period tenfold—to about 880, or about twelve times the whole number that Prussia grants to her own subjects and all the world besides. Well may Sir William Armstrong remark in his evidence:—
“Unless you wish to benefit the foreigner, unless that be the sole object, as a matter of policy, I do not see what the motive to apply the Patent system is.”
The same witness said also:—
“Is it the fact that Patents are taken out in this country for processes which are in operation abroad, but which have not been previously introduced into this country?—Certainly. A process in actual operation abroad, which has not been published in this country, can be made the subject of a Patent.
“Is it practically the case that processes which are carried on abroad are brought into this country by parties who patent them here?—Yes.