To these observations it is answered that industrialists or scientific men are equal before the law, that all have an equal right to its protection, but on the express condition that the invention be put in use.
We see very well where is the privilege of the chance patentee, who has made the discovery of the scientific man his own, but we do not see where is its justice or equality.
We see very well where is the privilege of the man who has had nothing to do but to apply the idea deposited in a book by a scientific man—an idea that, in fact, was at the disposal of the public, since the discoverer did not claim its proprietorship; but we do not see why the law gives a monopoly to him who has only borrowed that idea.
But we are told, the law is quite equitable, for it, says, “To every man his due. The scientific man discovers a body, glory be to him. If he will add to it some profit, let him indicate the properties that may be used industrially, and let him take a Patent for his discovery. But he must hurry, because if industry forestalls him, industry will get the profit.”[6] It is exactly as if this was the law: A millionaire drops a 100-franc note. It will not make him much poorer. If he wants to get it back, let him return where he came from and seek along the road. Let him hurry, for if this note is found, he who will have got it may keep it.
Common sense and equity would join to say that when a scientific man indicates a discovery or an invention, that invention or discovery remains at the disposal of every one if the finder does not claim the exclusive right to work it. But the law is different, and the results are soon made apparent.
In 1856 an English chemist, of the name of Perkins, was seeking the way to make artificial quinine. In the course of his experiments he discovered in the laboratory of M. Hofmann the property residing in aniline of producing a violet colour by the action of bi-chromate of potass.
Perkins got a Patent for this discovery. The attention of the scientific and industrial classes being called to this property of aniline, and to the possibility of extracting from it divers colouring matters, several French and other chemists and manufacturers got Patents for many more new processes.
In 1858, Hofmann, continuing to study aniline, discovered the red colour. He sent a memoir to our Académie des Sciences, in which he gave the exact method to produce this magnificent crimson red.
Hofmann took no Patent; it seemed as if he wanted to present gratuitously to tinctorial industry a new and beautiful produce.