EPO express

Source: Exhibit A to the report of J. M. THACHER, Assistant Commissioner of Patents, to Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State

published by Google books: United States Congressional Serial, 43D Congress, 1st Session

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This seems to be the official invitation that was sent from the Vienna Exhibition committee to different nations in a translation into the language of the receiving state. This invitation is also attached to the report of Thomas Webster.

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UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1873, IN VIENNA.

International congress for the consideration of the question of patent-protection.

PROGRAMME.

In the series of disputed questions within the province of political legislation belongs at this moment the question of patent-protection, or rather the question of the protection of the right of invention.

As an object of legislation, its origin extends back to former centuries, as, for instance, in Great Britain the right of the Crown to the concession of patents for invention was established by the acts of Parliament of 1623. But as a matter of controversy it is scarcely twenty years old; yet notwithstanding its recent date, it already possesses peculiar history. The question of patent protection, as it now stands, includes no longer simply the inquiry how the right of the inventor is to be protected in the best manner, the most conformable to its design and the least prejudicial to the general welfare; and whether the natural right of the inventor may become regarded in advance as absolutely justified; but the question rather imposes upon those who apply themselves to its consideration, first the duty of refuting the latest doubts and scruples against the practicability and economical utility of such a protection; and then the endeavor to effect a uniform transformation of the existing law of patents, which is now as various as it is complicated.

It would scarcely accord with the importance of the pending question of patent protection to disregard the chief arguments of its opponents. There exists to-day an anti-patent movement which since 1860 has extended too far, and the causes of which movement bear, in part at least, too much upon views which are generally acknowledged by the economical progress of our age, to justify at this time, as hitherto, a partial solution of that problem.

The complete abolition of all patents for inventions; such is the motto of this movement. Patent-protection, the maintenance and improvement of the existing patent law, if possible in simple form, and by international agreement; such is the watch word of the other.

The present condition of patent-legislation in the most enlightened and progressive countries shows on which side the majority stands; with the exception of Switzerland and, with her, Holland, which recently abolished her patent law, the legislation of all the other industrial states to-day recognizes the protection of patents as a necessity; and the history of the patent-system for the last twenty years is a continuous evidence of the tendencies of the respective governments, not in the direction of a gradual abolition, but in the direction of a thorough reform of patent-protection, and especially in removing the disadvantages of a territorial limitation of patents granted for inventions.

All the views, however, even those of the partisans of patent-protection, unite in variably and unexceptionally in this, that the protection of the rights of inventors needs new forms corresponding to the altered international commercial relations; and that the solution of this question of reform should not be aimed separately, as hitherto, by each state of the great international commercial area, but rather that a complete solution common to all states should be accomplished by international agreement. This work of reform can the less dispense with such unanimity, as the present territorial limitation of patents for invention forms one of the chief defects of the existing system; and as matters now stand, the days of patent-protection on the continent may be regarded as numbered, should the effort fail to establish an universal rule and introduce it into the law of nations.

We live no longer in the day of industrial action, which is strictly confined and is removed from foreign competition, and where slow communication prevents or delays the utilization of inventions. We live at a time of liberal customs policy; steam and electricity have newly united once isolated seats of industry in a way undreamt of: and the mutual exchange of goods shows to-day a magnitude which a generation ago one could not have imagined. Under such altered relations, the patent granted for an invention in one country becomes in fact a restriction, unprofitable and obstructive, if the same invention, without limitation or increase in price, becomes in an adjoining country common property. The artisan who in the one country must work with the auxiliary material there patented, and therefore dearer in price, will suffer an essential injury as soon as the same material is produced in the other country, not only without restriction, but with a damaging competition. Moreover a continuance of the hitherto antagonistic views and measures would scarcely conduce to the preservation of general harmony; and if, for example, patent-protection were maintained in one country, so as to attract thereby skilled operatives from another, then the danger of disturbance of the international industrial balance might leadily be apprehended. Such and similar inconveniences can only be met by the common action of all civilized states disposed to the maintenance of patent-protection.

The solution of this problem may be alike difficult and tedious, but the impossibility of its solution has, however, not been proved, and it is at all events a problem, the importance of which is worthy the effort.

But where, for such an attempt, could be found an occasion more appropriate and more legitimate than one where the laboring part of mankind meet from all quarters of the world in peaceful rivalry; where men of science and of practical ability, scientific artisans and political economists, representatives of the higher industry and the smaller trades, unite to bear testimony of the high degree of culture to which education, labor, and inventive spirit have advanced the human race!

The Vienna Exhibition of 1873, called for the embodiment of universal progress in culture, would seem more peculiarly adapted to pay tribute to the spirit of invention, even from the stand-point of modern legislation, and to form the starting era for a new and universal codification of the rights of inventors. Had there been any doubt of the connection of this right with the aims and ends of such an universal exposition, previous exhibitions would have solved it. The recent patent-legislation of England is the immediate result of the London Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862, while the Paris Exhibitions of 1855 and 1867 produced, as is well known, temporary protection-laws, which it was thought expedient to imitate in the preparatory acts for the Vienna Universal Exhibition of 1873, (law of 13th November, 1872.)

In pursuance of these views, and following a suggestion of the Government of the United States of America, the General Direction of the Universal Exhibition intends to unite with the exhibition an international congress, which shall discuss the question of patent-right; should this discussion, as may be foreseen, induce a vote in favor of patent-protection, it will then be the task of this congress, on the basis of the experience of various countries and the materials collected, to proceed to a declaration of fundamental principles for an international reform of patent-legislation.

The international congress for the consideration of the question of patent-protection is to take place after the close of the July deliberations, on the 4th, 5th, and 6th of August, 1873, under the following regulations:

1. Manufacturers, scientific artisans, political economists, and other experts, are entitled to participation in the congress, in both its full and sectional deliberations, and in its decisions.


2. The applications for participation in the congress must be made to the respective exhibition commissioners, domestic and foreign. Based upon the applications communicated by these commissions, (at the latest by the end of June, 1873,) to the chief manager of the universal exhibition, cards entitling the applicants to membership will be transmitted to them.


3. It will rest with the governments of nations which exhibit to be represented in this congress by special delegates.


4. At the seat of the general direction a committee of preparation will be appointed, whose duty it shall be to prepare the materials to be laid before the congress, to elaborate the matters of inquiry, and, in general, to prepare all the preliminary matters for the opening of the congress.


5. The manager of the universal exhibition opens the congress. After its opening, the congress elects from its membe s the president and the bureau, determines the order of business for the accomplishment of its work, and proceeds then to a general discussion of the question of patent-protection.



The decisions of the congress will be communicated, through the several commissions, to the respective governments.

6. The language of the congress is German, but the English, French, and Italian are also admitted.


7. All written communications, works, and propositions relative to the international congress for the consideration of patent-pretection are to be addressed to the chief manager up to the time of the opening of the congress, but during its sittings to the bureau of the congress.