CHAPTER XXXVIII.

TELEGRAPHS.

1. Parties to the Contract.-The business of telegraphy is carried on by corporations, and like other business consists of the making and performing of a system of contracts. The parties to this contract are two, (1) the sender of the message, and (2) the telegraph company. Each of these two parties agrees to do certain things, and each must keep his (or its) agreement. Consequently if the company fails to do what it agreed, the sender can compel it to pay for any loss resulting. But there is no contract ordinarily between the company and the one to whom the message (called a dispatch) is sent, and consequently it is not responsible for any loss he may suffer.*

2. The Contract. To ascertain, therefore, the duties of the two parties to the contract we have simply to inquire, What did they agree? The ordinary telegraph blank sometimes constitutes that contract. The sender says to the company, "Send this message," i.e., he requests it to do so, and such a request is in effect an offer to pay for the service if it is done. The company by taking the message agrees to send it, i.e., accepts the offer. The request and compliance, or as we may say, the offer and acceptance, make the contract. This is an agreement for personal services (Chap. XXVIII.), and the company is as it were a special messenger.

3. Its Terms. The main parts of this contract are these: (1) the sender agrees to pay for the message at the regular

*Thus, suppose A sends a telegram to B, but through the fault of the company in not sending it promptly both A and B suffer loss. A can compel the company to pay him, but B cannot.

rate, and the company may refuse to take it unless he pays in advance; (2) the company agrees to send the message by telegraph with promptness, deliver it to the person addressed, and not to reveal its contents to any one else. But the lability of the company for mistakes is often limited by its blanks, the blank being drawn in such a way that it is a contract.

4. Accuracy. The message must be sent as it is given. Hence the operator cannot correct evident mistakes, such as mistakes of grammar, nor add, nor omit anything, nor make any change in it.

5. Promptness.-The message must be sent as soon as it can be, and different messages must be sent in the order in which they are received. Even an hour's unnecessary delay might make the company responsible.

6. Secrecy. A telegraph company is a confidential messenger. It has no right to reveal the message to any one, except the one to whom it is addressed.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

PATENTS.

1. A Patent is a written instrument issued by the National Government, securing to an inventor the exclusive right to his invention within the United States.* Every one always has the right to make, or use, or sell anything he invents. That right does not need a patent. But without a patent any one else can also make it. A patent secures

The word is also used to mean a deed of lands granted by the Government, but in this book we speak of patents for inventions only.

to him the exclusive right, or in other words, the right to keep all others from making, using, or selling the thing. It does not, therefore, grant the inventor any new right; it simply takes away that right from every one but him. A patent lasts for seventeen years, and after that any one may make, use, or sell the thing patented.

2. Its Object is to encourage inventors and increase their number, by greatly increasing the profit to be made if the invention is successful. Without the exclusive right an inventor might make nothing out of his invention. The more useful it was the more eager others would be to make, use, or sell it, and thus he would not only be deprived of a large portion of the market, but he would be exposed to competition which would greatly lessen, if not take away, his profits. But with the exclusive right the inventor not only has the whole field but also can fix his own prices.

3. How Obtained. To obtain a patent an application must be made to the Commissioner of Patents, accompanied by carefully prepared papers and drawings describing the invention. The government officers then make an examination to see if the case is a proper one for a patent, and if it is the patent (also called letters patent) is signed and sent to the inventor. Foreigners may obtain patents here.

4. What may be Patented.--Almost anything may be patented, provided it is a new invention, and is suited to some useful purpose. The inventor must be the very first one who has ever known of it. Patents are very often granted for complete machines, which are entirely new, involving some wholly new principle,* or for a manufactured article itself, the article being entirely new in its

*For example, the Morse patents for the electric telegraph, or the Howe patent for the sewing machine,

nature.* But the great majority of inventions are for some small improvement upon an old machine or process. In such case the inventor gets his patent, not for the new machine he makes, but only for his improvement. Thus, if A invents a steam engine, and B afterwards invents an improved valve to go with it, B cannot make, use, or sell the engine without A's consent, nor can A make, use, or sell the valve without B's consent.

5. The Sale of a Patented Article by the inventor carries with it the right to use, to repair, and to sell that particular article until it is worn out, but not to make another like it. The patented article, once sold by the inventor, goes into the world's stock in trade, and may be sold and resold indefinitely.

6. The Sale of the Patent is a different thing, and means the transfer of the exclusive right, or some portion of it. Thus if I buy a newly-patented pen, I may use, or repair, or sell that one pen anywhere; if I purchase the patent, I may make, use, or sell any number of these pens. Inventors often sell the exclusive right in certain portions of the territory, as by granting to one the exclusive right to make, usc, and sell the invented article in the Eastern States, to another the same right in the Pacific States, etc.

7. Infringement is the making, using or selling the patented article without the permission of the owner of the patent. Its consequences are twofold: (1) the infringer must pay to the owner of the patent whatever damages the latter suffers through the infringement, equivalent usually to the profits which the infringer has made; (2) the court will compel the infringer to stop. These are the two methods by which the exclusive right is enforced (sec. 1).

* For example, the Goodyear patents for vulcanized rubber, or some patents for patent medicines,

8. Validity of Patent.-Patents are not necessarily valid because granted. We may never certainly know whether a patent is valid until some court has decided it to be so. Thus, it may be for an invention that was not really new, though thought to be at the time; or, the papers may be drawn incorrectly. In any such case it is altogether void. If, when one is sued for infringement, he can prove that the supposed inventor was not really the first inventor, the patent is declared void, and every one may disregard it.

9. Mark. Every patented article, before it is sold, must be marked patented, so as to give notice to every one that it is patented.

CHAPTER XL.

COPYRIGHTS.

1. A Copyright is the exclusive right to print and sell what one has written or drawn; or, in other words, the exclusive right to make copies. This means, as we have seen with patents, not the right to make copies, but the right to keep all others from doing so. Thus a copyright is the same as a patent right applied to articles which may be printed. This right is granted to authors by the National Government upon proper application, and continues for twenty-eight years, with the privilege of fourteen years longer if it is then desired.

2. Its Object is to encourage the writing of books, by securing to the author the sole profit. Patents and copyrights increase inventions and books. The general purpose of both, therefore, is the improvement of the knowledge and condition of mankind.

3. How Obtained.-A copyright for a book is obtained by simply sending to the Librarian of Congress a copy