Radio Broadcast (May-Oct 1926)

266 RADIO BROADCAST ADVERTISER screw machine products —brass For plugs, jacks, clips, condenser and transformer parts, etc., Brass assures economy in quantity production. It also gives the right electrical conductivity and the mechanical accuracy essential to proper operation of radio sets and parts. COPPER & BRASS RESEARCH ASSOCIATION 25 Broadway, New York Jewell Lightning Arrester Price #1.10 Thunder Storms are now with us. Your customer will be asking for dependable lightning arresters. Jewell arresters have been tested and listed by Underwriters Laboratories for indoor and outdoor installation. A stable item and good profit. Jewell Electrical Instrument Co. 1650 Walnut St. Chicago How the Patentee Is Covered by Law Legal Protection Qranted to Patentees and Instances of Important Suits — How the Inventor Collects His Royalties When Private Individuals Infringe By LEO T. PARKER Patent Attorney THE matter of infringement of patents is an important subject about which the average individual is entirely unfamiliar. Considerable hearsay information is commonly being circulated among inventors regarding what is and what is not infringement, and just how it can be avoided. But through actual observation, the writer has determined that it is a subject concerning which the majority of individuals should become at least acquainted with the fundamental principles. For example, it is generally thought to be perfectly within the law for a person to make a patented invention for his own individual use, but this is not permissible. A patent gives an inventor the exclusive right to make his invention, as well as to "use and sell" it. General home construction of patented radiocircuits is generally allowed on the basis that the result is for "experimental purposes" and not for sale. Then, too, there is another thing about which many inventors are misinformed, and that is the privilege, or, rather, the nonprivilege, of selling an article which, when sold, is not an infringement of a patent, but which is so arranged that it is convenient for the purchaser to change the product into an infringing device. In. this case, not only is the user liable as an infringer but also are the maker and seller. Not so long ago, a United States Court had occasion to decide a patent litigation between the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, and the Independent Wireless Telegraph Company et al. The question, decided by the Court in favor of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, is one of particular importance inasmuch as a common point of discussion with varied opinions among radio fans is definitely answered by the decision. The Independent Wireless Telegraph Company et al, employs a large number of wireless operators to whom the company furnishes wireless apparatus. The Company issued absolute instructions to the operators forbidding them to tamper or change any of the connections on the regular wireless sending and receiving instruments. But the operators soon discovered that considerably better reception of the incoming signals could be effected by simply connecting a wire from the antenna post to the plate. This simple change converted the receiving apparatus into one employing regeneration, which is a direct infringement of Armstrong's patent No. 1,113,149. Although the Independent •fa Tested and approved by Radio Broadcast -fc Wireless Telegraph Company originally supplied non-infringing wireless apparatus to their employees, and the operators made the changes unbeknownst to the Independent Wireless Telegraph Company, the Court decided the practice was an infringement, and granted an injunction to stop the employees making the alteration. This decision was rendered although De Forest had, since the suit was filed, been awarded certain claims in the Armstrong patent. AVOIDANCE SCHEMES DIFFICULT ANOTHER practice that has gained considerable popularity among certain manufacturers and other persons, is supplying the users with certain parts of a patented product and giving instructions to the purchasers how to make other parts of the apparatus, so that when the whole structure is completed, an infringing instrument is the result. Such tactics as these do not avoid infringement of a patent, and both the user and manufacturer are liable as coinfringers. Moreover, it is not fair to those persons who devote time, effort, and money in perfecting an invention to permit others to later devise some scheming means of indirectly avoiding' infringement of the patent, without paying the inventor his just royalty. The Courts tend to favor the inventor, and will look through the shrewd methods employed to deprive him of his rights. For these reasons, the Patent Offices at Washington are kept busy filing applications for patents of inventors who have faith in the Courts upholding their rights. Another common method of avoiding payment of royalties to an inventor is to make and use the patented product without the knowledge of the inventor. The maker and user ordinarily believe that the amount of money involved is too small for the patentee to attempt to bring suit to recover. But if a sufficiently large number of actual users are properly located, the patentee is privileged to file but one suit to recover damages from each infringer, collectively. This method is permitted by the Courts to eliminate a multiplicity of suits. Thus an advantage is once again given to the patentee. So for these various reasons, it is unwise to attempt to avoid paying just royalties to the originator of a radio article or device from which a user is deriving material benefits of far greater importance and value than the small royalty requested by the inventor.