Compulsory Manufacture of Patented Articles.

Progress, Volume II, Issue 4, 1 February 1907, Page 119

Compulsory Manufacture of Patented Articles.

Ihe more one thinks of the ministerial proposal for the compulsory manufacture of patented articles, the less necessity there appears for the innovation in the law Apparently it is designed to take the place of a higher protective duty and to enable the colonial manufacturer to obtain the making of all inventions tor which patents may be taken out in the colony Now we believe that owing to our protective policy, practically every patent that can, with any hope of success, be manufactured within the colony is manufactured here. There is, howevei a class of articles the manufacture of which is obviously out of the question Of the latter a long list can be readily reeled off by an\ one who has some small degree of acquaintance with the subject Typewriters, Monotype and Linotype machines, boot-making machines, cash registers steel pens, printing machiner\ weaving machinerv^these are among the hrst to occur to the mind as the subject mattei of a large number of patents They cannot profitably be made here an\ more than iron-clad battleships or ocean liners, for the simple leason that the output of any factory or workshop that might be established for their pioduction would be insufficient to justify the investment of the large amount of capital required \ccording to the proposal of the Minister, howe\er none of the articles on this list could enjoy, for more than four years the protection ot the patent laws of the colony The rule of "No works no patent" would expose patentees, who have not available funds for patenting their inventions m all foreign countries, to the competition in the local market of imitations made m countries in which the invention is not patented Our public certainly might get articles of similar character

but probably inferior quality at cheaper rates, but the only effect of the law intended to foster the industries of the colony would be the fostering of foreign industries to the prejudice of the meritorious inventor without any material gam to our working population It would clearly be a retrograde step for the legislature of this country to inflict hardships upon the world's inventors to the aggrandisement of foreign manufacturers. If there are patents which can be worked here, and which are prevented from being worked by the greed of the patentee we are not familiar with them If the Minister is better informed, he will not object to give a list of them to enable the public to adequately study this subject If, after the discussion incidental to threshing out the matter, theie remain any cases of hardship to the local manufacturer and his men, which cannot be met by the present compulsory licensing clause of the Patent Act, both sides can easily join in some attempt to amend the patent law. At present the available evidence is decidedly against the proposed change The proposal appears to be based upon the assumption that the inventor is one who fattens without e:\ertion, or has the tendency of the octopus to grasp everything within reach regardless of others. But is this so ? Anyone acquainted with inventors will know that they have enough difficulties without the added risk of losing the result of their ingenuity, perhaps at the moment when their hopes are about to bear fruition.