Page 158 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

selling the patent on a royalty basis, or by selling the patent outright. They
assume that because they have a patent, they have the federal government
back of them to keep off poachers and pirates. There is danger in placing too
much reliance on, and attaching too much importance to, a patent until it has
been tested in a high court.

For example, a number of advertising men have “invented” trick mailing
cards, letters which fold down from the top, or some other device, and have
applied for, and been granted, patents on these things. In many cases they
have, on the strength of such patents, collected royalties from printers and
others for the use of the idea. One large lithographer paid several thousand
dollars for a patent on a folded-down letterhead, the patent covering any
letterhead which had printing under the flap. There was nothing wrong with
the patent. But if this patent claim was appealed to the U. S. Supreme Court
an infringement suit would probably be dismissed on the grounds that the
patent covered an operation which was natural to a mechanic in the pursuit of
his trade. English common law gives a mechanic definite protection, just as it
protects business men from confiscation of capital without due process of
law; and the question of whether a patent is for a real invention and not mere
mechanical skill must be left to the judgment of the courts in view of
evidence introduced on both sides of the controversy.

There is also the possibility of somebody being able to show prior use of
anything you may patent. A patent was recently granted for a “pop-up” idea
in collection folders. It appeared to be a perfectly good patent, and hundreds
of companies are paying the inventor a royalty for the use of the idea. Yet it
is possible that this idea was used in valentines many years before its present
use in folders. If somebody wanted to go to the trouble of searching among
collections of old valentines and found a sufficiently similar idea, the patent
could be invalidated by proving that it was not an original idea, and therefore
the inventor was not entitled to the benefits of a government monopoly.

Another hazard that goes with patents is the possibility of some person
“improving” upon your patent or otherwise changing it just enough to get
around your patent claims. The idea, of course, is to make the claim as broad
and as inclusive as possible, but because of earlier patents or printed