'X^f 019 923 880 2 Conservation Resources Lig-Free® Type I Ph 8.5, Buffered «■'■•■ I ■ I ■ I ■ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 i 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 > I ' I ' I ' I ' I ' I ' l] 'y lH ^ REYisiox or pate:n^t laws. SPEECH OF HON. BENJAMIN DEAN, OF MASSACHUSETTS, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FBBEUAET 14, 1879. ^ WASHINGTON 1879. CKS -/5^.^ UvAfCu'cL. SPEECH OF HON. BENJAMIN DEAN. On the 1*111 (S. Xo. 300) to amend the statutes in relation to patents and for other purposes — Mr. DEAN said : Mr. Speaker : I have received some letters from constituents wliom I respect, wko are apprehensive there is some lurking evil in this bill. I have also received a circular cautioning me against it in addition to some newspaper articles in which the writers express some alarm at the attacks upon the rights of inventors, which they think they see in the bill, and at the evil destiny it will bring upon the indus- tries of the country. I think all of these fears are unfounded and I am therefore impelled to discuss this subject somewhat. I will notice some of these apprehensions at the outset. One writer thinks section 2 takes away from the inventor the con- trol of his own invention and gives the right to others to use the patent against his will. Now, in fact, there is no change in this re- spect. The patentee always had a right to two things unless he had voluntarily parted with them — a money compensation for his dam- ages or profits, (and I shall hereafter use the word damages alone,) and a right to enjoin any one from using the patent against his will. The proposed statute does nothing in the world in this regard but affect the question of damages ; the other right remains preserved to the patentee as fully as it ever was. No one can infringe a patent or make use of the invention without leave, under the proposed any more than under the existing law. If that could be done it would be an important change ; but no such thing is in this bill. The well established right to an injunction is expressly and in terms preserved unimpaired. Complaint is also made of the fourth section. This complaint is made in behalf of the patentee. This is astonishing, for it is certainly a provision in favor of the patentee. It expedites the cause. It hastens the determination of the rights of the patentee. Now, before an api:)eal can be taken, the cause has to wait the long and tedious accounting or determining of the damages; then comes the appeal, and all the time between the interlocutory decree and the accounting is lost to the patentee. He only loses by that delay. Why he should complain of the expediting of the cause it is difficult to see. The only fault with this section is that instead of giving the court power to authorize the defendant to appeal, it should require the defendant to appeal, if at all, from the interlocutory decree, and authorize the plaintiff to take his account and have that account sent up and be- come a part of the appeal, though the appeal may have been already 4 entered, so that all questions relating to the damages or account may be determined at the same and earliest time. Neither the patentee nor the defendant can complain of the fifth section, for it authorizes the court to grant inj auctions after the ap- peal as well as to suspend them. Patentees have never had occasion to complain of the unfriendliness of our courts ; they have always been the protectors of the rights of patentees. In fact a recent rule of the Supreme Court seeks to accomplish .pretty much the same end. Some complain of the ninth section, which authorizes the taking of testimony by either party which is liable to be lost by delay. This is but fair to both parties. In no case can it be determined which party it will benefit, but whichever is benefited it is just ajid equita- ble. This provision would be very seldom used. Every litigant studies 1 3 keep the other uninformed regarding his intentions and regarding his evidence till he has to use it in court. Nothing but necessity or the danger of the immediate loss of valuable testimony would induce a person interested either for or against a patent to do anything to discover his evidence to his adversary or to the world. Section 10 authorizes the bringing of suit s by parties adversely in- terested, to have the patent declared void, when the patentee unrea- sonably delays to bring a suit for an infringement. This is surely a just provision. No patentee should keep his patent merely for a threat. One of the greatest difiiculties meritorious inventors encoun- ter at the present day is the existence of a multitude of patents upon the same subject-matter, which though of doubtful validity stand in the way of other more meritorious inventions. They stifle and deter invention and the development of the very industries the inventions were intended to subserve, because the uncertainty attending them frightens off the capital needed for that development. But more of this by and by. The eleventh section is also so just that no one can fairly object to it. Why should one who is carrying on an extensive business be com- pelled to carry it on in the face of a constant threat from some pat- entee whose i)atent may not be valid and which the person carrying on the business believes to be invalid, without the law aftbrding him means of determining whether or not he must stop his business or submit to the demands of the patentee ? Why should a patentee be at liberty to stand by and say, "I will let this manufacturer do an immense business, he believing he can do it in security, and when the amount of business done is so large that the damages will be great I will pounce upon him with a suit for infringement ? " It is this class of men — it is the men who think this use of patents to be just, and who cry "Wolf!" "Wolf!" when any j ust legislation is proposed — that are the great enemies of the patent system. In presence of such an unwillingness to submit to what is fair and just, and in presence of such loud cries, when any legislation to correct evils and while so many patentees "No say turkey to Injun once," how can we wonder that the whole patent system becomes un- popular and we are called upon to defend it against its utter abolish- ment ? These remarks will also apply to section 1. It is better for the patentee that he should be prompt in the assertion of his claims. He will get more money by collecting of every infringer with promptness than by lulling a few into security by his acquiesence in their acts, and finally attempting to make them pay large damages. I have now taken a bird's-eye view of the more important objections to the bill, excepting its principal provisions, to which I shall now call the atten- tion of the House. I would go over the provisions of the bill in detail were I not in danger of making my remarks too long to command attention. When a patent has been adjudged valid "by a court of equity it is many times but the beginning of the plaintiff's labors and troubles. The case is referred to a master to state an account of the defend- ant's profits which have accrued to him by the use of the plaintiff's invention. This is a long, tedious, and expensive part of the litiga- tion, occupying in important cases months of arduous labor on the part of the master, counsel, and parties. The master and counsel charge a liberal per diem fee, as it takes all their time, and clients devote all their time to the accounting to the exclusion of everything else. In a single important cause many thousand dollars are frequently expended. Anything which will tend to simplify the process of accounting is a benefit and saving to the parties ligitant, but it is of especial benefit to the patentee, as time is constantly running against his patent. Every day makes its life shorter, and there is nothing so injurious as the delays he encounters by the wayside in the final establishment of his patent. This bill does tend to simplicity ; it makes the dam- ages alike, both in law and in equity ; it furnishes a sort of compass to direct parties in the ascertainment of the actual damages. The use of patented inventions is so completely mixed up with every- thing that we make and use that we must be guided by the light of experience, and a recurrence to the vrorking of a rule will help us in testing it. Take the case of the "kindling-wood machine." Because the use of the plaintifi^'s device would make kindling-wood, as far as the mas- ter could ascertain, seventy-five cents per cord cheaper than by the hand or any known method, the defendant was decreed to pay that amount, though he had not made any profits at all by the use of the machine. So that we had in this case the defendant liable for profits that he had never made. He was held to be a trustee for what he had never received, and he would not have used the machine at all if he had known he should be subjected to any such damages, and yet it is for the benefit of the patentee that his machine should be used. Besides, to change the habits of the people and to induce them to buy kindlings already manufactured, they must be made and put into the market at a much lower rate than before. If the patentee is going to obtain all the profit he would give to the community no induce- ment to change their habits and buy machine-made kindling-wood, aiid his invention would bring him no profit. Therefore the rule which, would give him all the profit would prevent the use of his patent alto- gether and make it worthless. This rule, therefore, was not the true rule, but a fallacious and jack- with-the-lantern rule. I have known it to work wrong in other than patent cases. There was once a case where one railroad sought damages against another railroad because the latter railroad crossed the former at grade. Experts testified that the dam- ages to the plaintiff's cars and engines amounted to a certain sum by the injury to the engines and cars caused by the shaking and jarring in crossing the tracks. The fallacy in the testimony could not be readily disjiuaI application or its amendments, and which the jjatentee woiild have been entitled to include as a part of his invention in the patent originally granted. What a commentary upon our present patent system it is that such a provision should be necessary ; that now, in the year 1879, we should have to pass an act that a man shall not have in a reissued patent what was never " shown, contained, or substantially indicated in the specification or drawing of the original application or its amend- ments." But so it is. And now when it is attempted to remedy a great evil in this great system affecting the business relations of our whole peo- ple great efforts are made to prevent the remedy. It is true that our courts have of late been deciding cases inaccord- auce with the provisions of the proposed law, but they do not pre- vent the evil in the Patent-Office of reissues on ex parte evidence, which take by surprise other inventors and shock their sense of justice and right. Now, what is there in this system of patents with its reissues and its limitations of reissues, its limitations of the life of i^atents — what is there in all this which affects one man more than another ? Noth- ing at all; I repeat it, nothing at all. It is equal and just to all ; it is an improvement on the x)resent laws. Have you a patent not 10 worth $20 ? If yes, it had better die at the end of four years. Have you a patent worth more than $20 ? If yes, it is better for you that those patents should die which are worth nothing, but which stand a threat against the use of yours. Have you a patent which is worth- less unless reissued for something which is not in either the original drawings, models, or amendments thereto, nor substantially indicated therein, then I say you ought not to have it. Have you a patent that is valuable, then it is not injured by having anterior patents, which might under the present law be reissued to cover yours, confined to what is shown in the model, drawings, and specifications. All those parts of the bill which we have discussed are eminently just. They are calculated to prevent fraud and wrong dealing. If again we look at the case of an inventor who seeks for a reissue and obtains it because he was careless enough to misdescribe his in- vention. Well , he CO vers by his reissue machinery which was not touched by the original patent, and which was lawfully built and used at a time when no patent covered it, and when it was of course lawfully built and used. But a reissue under the j)resent law relates back to the date of the origiaal patent, and covers and enables the patentee to stop such lawfully built machinery. Many a man who could well have avoided the use of the device had it been covered by any claim in existence when he built his machine, now finds the cost of the change so great that he must submit to heavy terms imposed by the owner of the reissued patent. This power offers great inducement to the patent speculator and leads to most of the evil which flows from the right to reissue. Sec- tion 7 takes away this retroactive feature of the law. On the other hand, the surrender and reissue of a patent has been held to destroy the j)atentee's right to all the damages which had accrued under the original x^atent up to the time of the surrender. This section remedies this plain injustice and enables a recovery to be had upon the patent actually surrendered. I have not called attention to everything in the bill. It has certainly been considered a great length of time. Two whole years have been passed in its discussion and perfection. The greatest pains were taken to give it publicity. Written requests for opinions regarding it were sent generally to those known to be interested in the patent law. Notwithstanding all this I am satisfied this bill, owing to the late- ness of time, cannot be passed the present session. I have had so- many inquiries made of me regarding it that I somewhat hurriedly take this means of answering the questions. If it does not affect the legislation at this session, this expression may help to keep attention to the details of one of the most important branches of our national jurisprudence. The patent system is credited with the great progress of our peo- ple in the arts and sciences. It should be touched by cautious hand. Its abuses must be removed. This bill will, if passed, remove abuses which do not belong to and form no part of the system itself, but excrescences grow upon it. The attempt should be to preserve that which encourages invention, and destroy those features which lead inventors to worry and prey upon each other. 019 923 880 2 v; ^Xy^ ^^^ OOKJ £. Conservation Resources Lig-Free® Type I Ph 8.5, Buffered LIBRPRY OF CONGRESS 019 923 880 2 i