The Edison phonograph monthly (Mar 1904-Feb 1905)

EDISON PHONOGRAPH MONTHLY. lyzing the conditions of the license, said in referring to the rule of the laws on this subject: "The very object of these laws is monopoly, and the rule is with few exceptions that any conditions which are not in their very nature illegal with regard to this kind of property, imposed by the patentee and agreed to by the licensee for the right to manufacture or use or sell the article will be upheld by the courts. The fact that the conditions in the contracts keep up the monopoly or fix prices does not render them illegal." In June, 1902, in the District of Massachusetts, Judge Lowell decided the case of the Edison Phonograph Company against Pike, reported in Volume 116 Federal Reporter, at page 1863, in which he sustained the validity of a similar contract. The contract before him was one by which the owner of certain patents granted licenses to use and vend the patented articles, the licensees agreeing not to sell such articles for less than the price fixed by the licensor, and not to sell to any one who did not sign a similar agreement. The contract contained a further condition that as to any of the patented articles sold in violation of its terms, the license should be void, and that any vendor or user of such articles thereafter should be an infringer of the patents. The court held that such condition was valid and that the sale or use of the patented articles by one who purchased them from the licensee, with knowledge of the terms of the contract, and without signing the agreement required by the contract, constituted an infringement. Thus the court, recognized the right of the patentees to impose the price at which the licensee shall sell the licensed articles, and the further right of the patentees to require the licensee not to sell to any one as his customer who will not sign a similar agreement. The point in the case was whether one who had purchased the patented article of the licensee and had sold them in disregard of the terms of the license to the licensee, was an infringer. The court held that such customer so ignoring the terms of the license under which the licensee sold the goods to him, was an infringer. In April, 1903, the Circuit Court of Appeals for the seventh district, which sits in Chicago, decided the case of the Victor Talking Machine Company against The Fair, which case is reported in Volume 123 Federal Reporter, at page 424. In this case the court laid down the right of the patentee to fix the selling price of the licensed article in broad terms. The court decided that the "owner of a patent who manufactures and sells the patented article may reserve to himself, as an ungranted part of his monopoly, the right to fix and control the prices at which jobbers or dealers buying from him may sell to the public, and a dealer who buys from a jobber with knowledge of such reservation, and resells in violation of it, is an infringer of the patent." The court also added : "Within his domain the patentee is a czar. The people must take the invention on the terms of his dictates or let it alone for seventeen years." Judges on other circuits have since reaffirmed this decision, so that it is now enforced in all parts of the country. Thus it may be affirmed that the time has been reached and passed in the progress of judicial pronouncement when a patentee or owner of a patent may lawfully regulate the price and terms of sale, both as between himself and a jobber or dealer, and between the latter and the public to whom they sell. A PATRIOTIC RECORD. Record No. 8849, "Our National Airs," by Len Spencer, listed in December, will appeal so strongly to every patriotic American that space is here given to a more detailed description of it than was possible last month. The words were written by Howard Taylor Middleton, of Philadelphia. As Mr. Spencer recites them soft music is played by the orchestra. At the close of the third verse the band plays "Marching Thro' Georgia" ; after the fourth verse, "Dixie" ; after the fifth verse, "Yankee Doodle Dandy," and at the end "Star Spangled Banner." The words : OUR NATIONAL AIRS. When journeying through some foreign clime, Away from home and friends, If we hear an air from our native land, We bathe in the peace it sends. All of our homesickness is gone And in its place there comes A thrill of pride, a sense of joy, For we're America's sons. The air that marked the time so oft' When marched the boys in blue Down through Georgia's sunny fields; It thrills us through and through. Band: "Marching Thro' Georgia." The southern anthem, too* we love That led the boys in gray; Those gallant sons of Dixie land May Dixie live alway. Band: "Dixie." Then comes, that lively ringing strain That always comes so handy To stir the blood, to clear the head, Old "Yankee Doodle Dandy." Band: "Yankee Doodle Pandy." But best of all we love the one That lauds our flag so brave; The flag that has never known defeat. So may she always wave. Hurrah ! for the flag. Hurrah ! for the air Heard through battle clamor, The greatest flag, the grandest air, Our own Star-Spangled Banner. Band : "Star-Spangled Banner." Well, a Phonograph may not sing as well as a girl, but the crowd doesn't have to coax and flatter the Phonograph two hours to make it sing five minutes. If you have the stock for a holiday business advertise the fact. It will pay.