... In some respects, the rather powerful arguments of the members who were favourable to the continuance of the system of Patents—and who contended that an inventor, the same as an author, has a right to protection of his individual mind-work—were defeated, principally by the pretty general opinion of the majority that it would be next to impossible to adopt any new Law on Patents efficient to protect one inventor without at the same time injuring not only some brother-inventor, but also the public at large.
FROM THE “FRANKFORT JOURNAL,” JULY 21.
The abolition of the Patent-Laws in the Netherlands will, it is evident, not remain without influence on the decision which other European States, and in particular those of Germany, will form in regard to these laws. Of the two countries, one of which is in possession of the sources of the Rhine, and the other of its mouths—the former the most industrious country in the world, never had a Patent-Law; the latter, eminent for its foresight, dispenses with those laws. Through this act are intensified the unsatisfactory circumstances which the existence of these laws produces, and the want of confidence which is felt in their advantage to inventors and the public. The number of their defenders is constantly declining. People are daily more and more becoming convinced that these laws belong to the same category as the Usury-Laws and the Corn-Laws, and other similar excrescences introduced by bureaucracy, and that they should be thrown into the lumber-room of laws which effect the very reverse of what they profess to do. They stop progress. Inventions of importance can always be made useful to the inventors without Patent-Laws. Great inventors might perhaps be indemnified by Government on behalf of a nation, but as for the innumerable herd of small inventors who prosecute inventing as a trade, they cause the consumer severe injury instead of benefiting him. Since Patents for inventions in Germany do not extend to protection against dealing in foreign articles patented here, we may consider the abolition of Patents in the Netherlands a reason why Patent monomaniacs should now ask themselves whether the cost is likely hereafter to yield a good return.
PROCEEDINGS IN LIVERPOOL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
At a meeting of the Council on July, 1869, E. K. Muspratt, Esq., rose and spoke to the following effect:—
Mr. President,—I rise to call your attention to the late debate on the Patent-Law. This Chamber has frequently expressed its dissatisfaction with the working of the present law, and after the issue of the Report of the Royal Commission on the subject, endeavoured to bring about an inquiry into the policy of granting Patents for inventions. I cannot but think the time has now arrived for further action in this matter. The late debate upon the motion of Mr. Macfie has re-awakened public interest in the subject, and it is gratifying to note, both in the debate itself and the subsequent discussion in the newspapers, that the formerly very prevalent idea of a natural property in inventions has been tacitly abandoned. In some of the arguments used the old fallacy seems to lurk, for the Pall Mall Gazette, in a very able article, says: “It is plausible to say that if there were no property in invention every one would get the benefit of all inventions; but this appears to us to have some analogy to the notion that if there were no property in land every one would get the benefit of the crops.” There is, however, a very great difference, because an invention cannot possibly yield all the benefits which society can derive from it until it becomes public property; whereas all experience proves that land, in order to yield the greatest results, must become and remain individual property. Let us discard, therefore, all comparison of property in invention with other property, and discuss the subject as one of expediency. Is it the interest of the community at large that Patents should be granted for inventions? I am not prepared to say whether or not inventors should be remunerated by the State; but, after mature consideration, I have come to the conclusion that, in the interests of the nation and of all engaged in industry, Patents for invention should be abolished. A Patent is a monopoly, a patentee a monopolist. When the Protectionist system was in vogue, Patents which were in full harmony with that system could be justified; but in these days of Free-trade all monopolies which act in restraint of trade should be abolished. Some of the arguments used in support of the system of Protection to inventors by granting to them a monopoly of manufacture are, to my mind, very similar to those used in former days in support of other monopolies. Before the repeal of the Navigation Laws, it was said that without them our marine would be destroyed, and no more ships would be built, because there would be no inducement to build them. Without Patents, say the defenders of the system, there will be no inventions, because there will be no special inducement to make them. We maintain, however, that under a freer system invention would be stimulated, and not restrained. As was well pointed out by Sir R. Palmer in his able speech, “Bounties and premiums might be adapted to a rude state of the arts and an early stage in the progress of commerce; but when a nation had reached so high a degree of progress in all ingenious arts and discoveries, and in trade and commerce, as we had, he thought that in this department, as well as in others, the system of bounties and premiums was much more likely to be mischievous than useful.” He then very clearly showed how the Patent system worked; how, in the place of securing the reward to great and meritorious inventions, it gave a monopoly to the first claimer of those minor improvements which he classed as unmeritorious Patents, and which improvements would necessarily be made in the ordinary progress of manufacture. As an example of this, I may mention the manufacture of artificial manures. The modern history of manures dates from the publication of Liebig’s book in 1840, in which the conversion of insoluble into soluble phosphate of lime is recommended. This suggestion has been perhaps more fruitful in results than any other of modern times, and forms the basis of the enormous manufacture of super-phosphate and other artificial manures. It was patented in 1842, not by Liebig, but by Mr. Lawes; and since that period various improvements in the manufacture have been patented, but the real inventor has never been rewarded. There can be no doubt that without a system of Patents all of the subsequent minor improvements would have been made in the ordinary course of trade; and one of the main objects of the Patent-Law, to secure a reward to the inventor, has, in this instance, as in many others, failed of accomplishment. Then, on the other hand, all these minor improvements, being patented, stand in the way of further progress, and if the manufacturer wishes to adopt a new process, or to improve his manufacture, he must do it at the peril of litigation with some unknown person, who at some time or other has thought fit to claim for himself a monopoly. No matter whether his claim be good or bad, it stands in the way of improvement until it is either disclaimed by the patentee himself or pronounced invalid in a court of law. As an example of how, under the present system, a patentee may create a virtual monopoly and embarrass manufacturers even when his claims are, according to his own showing, to a very great extent invalid, permit me to draw your attention to a Patent, No. 12,867, A.D. 1849, for compressing peat for fuel, making gas, &c., and with which I unfortunately became acquainted, because the patentee, under another Patent (connected, however, with the first), endeavoured to make my firm pay him for the use of a substance in the manufacture of sulphuric acid. Now, the patentee, Mr. F. C Hills, finding, I presume, that in its first state his Patent was invalid, filed what is technically termed a disclaimer, in 1853; and on comparing the original specification, which is very long and consists of about 230 lines, I find at least one-half is disclaimed. This Patent secured to Mr. Hills the monopoly of the purification of gas by means of oxide of iron; and although, owing to the exertion of the Liverpool Gas Company, he failed to have it renewed at the expiration of fourteen years, by a subsequent Patent for the use of the said oxide (after it has been used in the purification of gas) in the manufacture of sulphuric acid, he continues virtually to enjoy that monopoly, and to prevent chemical manufacturers having access to what, under certain circumstances, may be a cheap source of sulphur. And this I would wish you to bear in mind, although the second Patent is undoubtedly invalid. It would detain you too long were I to enter into full detail on the subject, but I may mention that our firm used some 2,000 or 3,000 tons of this gas refuse from the Liverpool Gas Works, when pyrites was high in price; and it was only because of the annoyance and waste of time which a law-suit would have cost that we relinquished its use in our manufacture when the price of pyrites fell. But this case is but a sample, and I have no doubt every manufacturer has experienced similar loss and inconvenience from the action of the Patent-Law. When we consider that there are at the present moment 11,369 Patents in force, most of them as invalid as that to which I have referred, and acting as a restriction on manufacturers, we may form some idea of what the community at large has to pay for the luxury of a Patent-Law. But it may be said these objections are due to the imperfections and mal-administration of the Patent-Law. I would refer you, then, to the Report of the Royal Commission, which, in conclusion, says that “these inconveniences are, in their belief, inherent in the nature of a Patent-Law, and must be considered as the price which the public consents to pay for the existence of such a law.” There is, however, another aspect of the question which must not be lost sight of. The Lower House of the States-General of Holland has, by a large majority, voted the abolition of Patents. In Switzerland they don’t exist; and in Prussia, owing to a very strict preliminary examination, faithfully carried out, they are very few in number. We in this country have to compete with the manufacturers of these countries; and is it fair, I would ask, that we should be thus weighted in the race? I beg to move that a petition be prepared for presentation to the House of Commons, praying for the appointment of a Committee to inquire into the policy of granting Patents for invention.
(The motion was unanimously adopted.)