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592 ILLUSTRATED WORLD
chinery is not to be thought of for a
moment.
To repeat, as all these machines in
some form were originally patented, destruction
of the patent office files would
be fatal to the national business man's
peace of mind. Here is the reason. The
securing of a patent usually involves considerable
corresponding between the
attorneys retained to handle the case and
the patent office clerks. Inventors nearly
always in their patent claims try to get
all—and sometimes a little bit more—
than is coming to them. The original
claims are too broad and sometimes too
they are inexact. Thus a large amount
of correspondence may eventually be accumulated.
This correspondence, from
the legal standpoint, is of considerable
importance. It modifies, and interprets
the purport of the patent papers that are
finally issued. This correspondence is
really a part of the legal patent papers,
they show just what the patentee actually
does claim for his invention. At the
same time they cannot very well be attached
to the papers finally issued. If,
therefore, one were to judge the value
of the claim from the patent
papers held by the patentee,
he would be likely to be
badly deceived.
Take a case in its broadest
aspects—a somewhat exaggerated
case perhaps, to see
how the system actually
does work out. Suppose that
a man asks for the government's
protection in manufacturing
a new form of
typewriter, the distinctive
novelty of which consists in
an arrangement for automatically
carrying the carriage
back from the end of
the line, of spacing the lines
automatically, and of performing
other various functions
that the typist must
today look out for and do
himself. Just what this
man's full rights were would
not be clear from his patent papers.
They might appear to prohibit other
typewriter manufacturers from manufacturing
and providing their own machines
with certain well defined improvements
already in use. Only the official
records in the patent office at Washington
would enable the courts to settle any
lawsuit on an equitable basis.
Then comes the conflagration. The
inflammable record boxes go up in
smoke. A nation's business files are lost,
and so far as financial consequences are
concerned, one of the greatest fires in
history has occurred. Even before the
fallen walls have ceased to smolder, a
multitude of inventors are besieging the
courts with enough infringement suits to
tie up the manufacturing industries of
the nation. Our holder of the patent of
the improved typewriter attempts to
claim royalties for certain devices on
other machines. There come all sorts
of cross and counter suits, and in the
general uproar and confusion, the public
finds itself charged higher prices for
many—or all—of the standard-priced
products.