Recent discussions on the abolition of patents for inventions in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the Netherlands

by Unknown

[M. Passy, the chairman of the meeting, confirmed the statement of M. Michel Chevalier on this fact.]

M. Michel Chevalier, in continuation, remarked that in our time industrial arts are subject to great changes in the details of their operations.

Independently of the general alterations which from time to time completely change the face of any given manufacture, there is no important workshop where some useful notion is not occasionally suggested by some mechanic or overseer, which leads to minor improvements [un perfectionnement de détail]. It would be an abuse to grant, during a term of fifteen years, or even a much shorter, exclusive use of any particular improvements to any single individual. It would not be just, for it is quite possible that the idea might have occurred to another at the same time, or that it might occur the next day. It would even be against the general interest, for it would fetter competition, which is the chief motor in the progress of the useful arts.

But it is said inventors are useful to society; we must therefore recompense them. To this M. Michel Chevalier answers that it may be too liberal to confer the flattering title of inventor on men who, when a veritable discovery has been made by savants, push themselves forward to appropriate the profits, in securing by Patents the various special applications which may be made of it. Besides, there are different sorts of recompenses; there are other than material rewards, and these are not the least coveted. The savants who are the greatest discoverers are satisfied with these immaterial rewards—honour, glory, and reputation. The example is worthy of recommendation; not but it is quite allowable for a man to extract from his labour [travaux] whatever material recompense he can. But, in many cases at least, the Patent is not necessary for this purpose. The authors of some useful discovery would often have the resource of keeping their secret and working the invention themselves. That would last for a time. Even under the system of Patents several inventors have thus sought and found an adequate remuneration.

Thus the famous Prussian steel manufacturer, M. Krupp, has taken out no Patent, and yet has made a colossal fortune; also M. Guimet, of Lyons, inventor of French blue. Their secret remained in their own hands for more than fifteen years, the maximum duration that their Patent would have had in France.

Lastly, in the case of some truly great discovery it would be natural to award a national recompense to the inventor. If James Watt, for instance, had received from the British Parliament a handsome sum, every one would have applauded it. These rewards would not impoverish the Treasury, since similar cases are of rare occurrence.

In recapitulation, Patent-right may have been allowable in the pasts when science and manufactures had not yet formed so close and intimate a union. It was advisable to attract towards manufactures, by means of exceptional inducements, the attention of those who made a study of the sciences. But now that the union is consummated, Patent-right has ceased to be a useful auxiliary to industry. It is become, instead, a cause of embarrassment and an obstruction to progress. The time is come to renounce it.

Another speaker at the meeting, M. Paul Coq, thought that, on a question so delicate and controverted history furnishes instruction which directs to a right solution. Notably Franklin, a genius eminently practical, declared himself unwilling to avail himself, as to his numerous discoveries, of any Patent. The refusal of this great man is founded upon the principle that every one receives during his whole life ideas and discoveries from the common fund of knowledge by which all profit, and therefore ought, by reciprocation, to let the public freely benefit by every invention of his. This, with Franklin, was not a mere sentimental truth, but a practical conviction, based upon reasons worthy of the author of “Poor Richard.” There is in the bosom of society a constant exchange of beneficial thoughts and services. Every one stimulated by the efforts of others ought, in the spirit of equity, to make the community participants of the improvements and useful applications for which he has in a manner received payment in advance. On this system, equality, competition, and freedom of industry find their account in the law of reciprocity; whereas, on the footing of privilege established and defined by the theory of Patents, there is created an artificial property, along side of that rightful property which has in it nothing arbitrary or conventional, and depends simply for its existence on civil law. These circles, thereby traced round the inventor and his discovery, are so many hindrances and so many obstacles to the expansion of forces, in the way of continuous progress. Under pretext of maintaining individual rights, improvement is in reality paralysed by superimposed difficulties, and especially litigation without end, on account of which nobody dare touch, either far or near, what has been appropriated. The numerous actions at law, raised with a view to ascertain whether such and such a process constitutes a perfectionation, a new application, or merely an imitation, are my proof. There is another proof in the distinction attempted to be made between matters patentable and methods scientific which may not be patented. All this, as it affects progress, the free expansion of forces, is infinitely grave. Franklin has found for his precepts, already alluded to, more than one adept pupil. One modest savant, whose name deserves to be better known among us for his numerous services rendered to science as well as to the arts—Conté—honoured to replace in France the pencils of England, the importation of which was not possible in time of war—not only supplied by his new process the want of plumbago with success, but made it better than the English. To him are due, besides black-lead pencils, which make his name celebrated, the crayons of various colours, which have been so serviceable in the arts of design. Well, like Franklin, he presented his process to industry, and contented himself with being first in the new manufacture. It must be remarked that he who thus opens the way easily maintains the first rank which the date of his invention assigns him, and which public confidence assures him....

Before concluding, M. Paul Coq adverted to the distinction between the right of property generated by a creation of a work of art or of literature, and factitious property decreed in the interests of industry. The skilful painter, who should copy faithfully line for line, tint for tint, a chef d’œuvre like the picture of Ingres, which every one knows, “The Source,” in order to expose it for sale and pocket the advantages, not merely lays hold of the property of a great artist who lives by the fruit of his talent, but perpetrates, in all points of view, an action mean and vile. To inventions in the domain of the useful arts, processes and operations do not carry the stamp of personality, which is the glory of the artist and author, and which of itself constitutes a protection equal to that which protects right of property.

The invention is something impersonal, like a service rendered and returned, which is not exchanged or paid by services of equivalent weight and description. There is, therefore, no plausible objection to maintaining unimpaired the common right, which, by its freedom of movements, its equality, and its reciprocations, alone efficaciously favours the result of which these are the indispensable corollaries.