Potter v. Parr, 140 Printing and Numerical Register- Queen The v. Feather, 185, 273 Ralston v. Smith, 16, 33, 148, 194, 195 Ranson-Allen, 59, 164 Reece's Patent, 201, 202 Regina v. Cutler, 45, 50, 152, 302 Regina v. Steiner, 62 Renard v. Levinstein, 41, 122, 231, 233, 281, 282, 287, 289, 290 Rennie Mackelcan, 43, 120, 125 Reuss v. Lever, 233, 234 Rex v. Arkwright, 37, 61, 124, 135, 302 Rex v. Cutler, 146 Rex v. Else, 146 Rex v. Metcalf, 101 Rex v. Neilson, 301 Rex v. Wheeler, 13, 14, 102, 136 Ridgway v. Philip, 228 Russell's Patent, 173, 174, 208 Russell v. Cowley, 21, 27, 37, 138, 159 Russell v. Ledsam, 181, 213 Safety Lighting Co.-Hinks, 28, Saville Street Foundry and Engineering Co.- Marsden, 97 Savory v. Price, 132, 154 Saxby v. Clunes, 250, 255 Saxby v. Hennett, 176, 248 Saxby's Patent, re, 204, 206, 212, 219 Schlumberger's Patent, 202, 213 Scott and Young, ex parte, 176 84, 122, 124, 132, 135, 241, 288 Seed v. Higgins, 140, 161, 163, 195, Spence's Patent, 173 Spiller-Plimpton, 63, 64, 157, 161, Starbuck Waggon Co.-Eades, 121 Stevens-Parkes, 32, 143, 254, 258 Stocker v. Rodgers, 299 Stoner v. Todd, 68, 107, 109, 119 Sturtz v. De la Rue, 103, 129, 132, 134 Sugg v. Bray, 296 Sugg v. Silber, 287 Sykes v. Howarth, 271, 277, 285 Talbot v. Laroche, 262, 286 Tetley v. Easton, 32, 133, 134, 140, 149, 155, 164 Thomas v. Foxwell, 147, 161, 164, 248 Thomas v. Hunt, 228 Thomas v. Welch, 119, 158, 159, 161, 196 Thompson-Hill, 19, 35, 37, 52, 75, 145, 281 Thompson v. James, 34, 44 Tilghman's Patent Sand Glass Co. Townsend v. Haworth, 256, 277 Trotman's Patent, 206 Trotman v. Wood, 231, 232, 244 United Telephone Co. v. Harrison, 64, 107, 120, 259 Universities of Oxford and Cam- Upmann v. Forrester, 298 Van Vliessingen-Caldwell,272,274 Vavasseur v. Krupp, 273, 277 Wagstaff-Palmer, 37, 38, 153, 161, 270, 286 Wakefield v. Duke of Buccleuch, 283 Walker-Cheavin, 97, 303 Wallington v. Dale, 16, 130, 196 Walter-Patent Type Founding Co., 288 Walton v. Bateman, 92, 133 Walton v. Lavater, 226, 232, 268 Walton v. Potter, 167, 242, 258 Welch-Thomas, 119, 158, 159, 161, 196 Wells-Minter, 13, 37, 58 Werderman v. Société Génerale d'Electricité, 226 Westinghouse v. Lancashire and Wilson v. Gann, 287 Wilson - Singer Manufacturing Winter-Turner, 35, 132, 154 Wright v. Hitchcock, 119, 161, 268, 278 Wright's Patent, 208, 217 Wulstenhulmes, Rye & Co., Limited -Jackson, 296 Young-Adair, 241, 272, 288 Young v. Fernie, 25, 50, 54, 287 Young v. Rosenthal, 34 Zimmer-Wood, 84, 86, 131 THAT the Crown has the power, in certain cases, of granting to inventors the privilege of a monopoly in working their inventions for a certain number of years, is probably known to every reader before he opens this volume. During that period the entire community is precluded from making use of the invention, except by the permission of the inventor or the person who has duly succeeded to his rights; the law declaring that the privileged person shall derive the exclusive benefit, whatever that may be, of the invention for the specified time. This privilege was formerly secured to the inventor by letters patent passed under the Great Seal. It is now secured to him by a patent obtained at the Patent Office; and the person to whom the privilege is granted is termed in common parlance the patentee. For the purposes of the present treatise, there is no need that we should enter upon any historical disquisition as to the common-law right of the Crown in matters m B of patent privileges. It will be sufficient to state that the right of the Crown to grant privileges by letters patent to subjects obtaining its favour, was exercised in very early times, and it was only disputed when exclusive rights to sell various commodities, such as salt, iron, and coal, had been granted to certain persons, to the great grievance of their fellow-subjects, and to the oppression of trade. The Statute of Monopolies, passed in the twenty-first year of James I., was levelled at the abuses which an undue exercise of prerogative had produced, and being, says Sir Edward Coke, forcibly and vehemently penned for their suppression, cut off all claim on the part of the Crown to the right of granting monopolies and exclusive privileges, whereby the subjects of the realm could be aggrieved and inconvenienced.1 That statute (see the Appendix) declared that all The King had undoubtedly, by the ancient laws of the realm, large powers for the regulation of trade: but the ablest judges would have found it difficult to say what was the precise extent of those powers. . . . In addition to his undoubted right to grant special commercial privileges to particular places, he long claimed a right to grant special commercial privileges to particular societies and to particular individuals; and our ancestors, as usual, did not think it worth their while to dispute this claim till it produced serious inconvenience. At length, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the power of creating monopolies began to be grossly abused; and as soon as it began to be grossly abused, it began to be questioned. The Queen wisely declined a conflict with a House of Commons backed by the whole nation. She frankly acknowledged that there was reason for complaint: she cancelled the patents which had excited the public clamours; and her people, delighted by this concession and by the gracious manner in which it had been made, did not require from her an express renunciation of the disputed prerogative. The discontents which her wisdom had appeased were revived by the dishonest and pusillanimous policy of her successor, called King-craft. He readily granted oppressive patents of monopoly. When he needed the help of his Parliament, he as readily annulled them; and as soon as the Parliament had ceased to sit, his Great Seal was put to instruments more odious than those he had recently cancelled. At length that excellent House of Commons which met in 1623, determined to apply a strong remedy to the evil. The King was forced to give his assent to a law which declared monopolies established by royal authority to be null and void.' (Macaulay's History of England,' iv. 127.) |