Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MU3IC TRADE
REVIEW
again, the granting- of patents that are later declared by the courts
to be infringements.
I
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Staff:
G«o. B. KBLLW,
B. BRITTAIN WILSON,
W. H. DYKES,
A. J. NICKLIN,
L. B. BOWERS,
WM. B. WHITE.
R. W. SIMMONS,
AUGUST J. TIMPB.
BOSTON OFFICE:
CHICAGO OFFICE:
G. W. HENDERSON, 178 Tremont St.
E. P. VAN HARLINGBN, 156 Wabasn Ave.
Room 12.
Room 806,
Telephone, Oxford 1151-1.
Telephone, Central 414.
PHILADELPHIA:
MINNEAPOLIS a n d ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUIS:
R. W. KACFTMAN,
ADOLF EDSTEN,
CHAS. N. VAN BDHBN.
SAN FRANCISCO: S. H. GRAY, 88 First Street.
CINCINNATI, O.: JACOB W. WALTERS.
BALTIMORE. MD.: A. ROBERT FRENCH.
LONDON. ENGLAND: 69 Basinghall St., E. C. W. LIONEL STURDY, Manager.
Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Cluss Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION, (including postage), United States and Mexico, $2.00 per year;
Canada, $3.50; all other countries, $4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, $2.00 per Inch, single column, per Insertion. On quarterly or
yearly contracts a special discount la allowed. Advertising Pages, $60.00; opposite
reading matter, $75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency forms, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
^kPPfinn
iJCvUVUt
An important feature of this publication is a complete sec
tj o n devoted to the interests of music publishers and dealers.
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
tions of a technical nature relating to the tuning,
regulating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos
are dealt with, will be found in another section of this
paper. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information concerning
which will be cheerfully given upon request.
Player and
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900
Diploma.. Pan-American Exposition. 1901
Gold Medal
Silver Medal.Charleston
Exposition, 1902
Gold M edal... St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905.
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONES-NUMBERS 4«77 a n d 4«78 GRAMERCY
Connecting all Departments.
Cable a d d r e s s : "Elbill. N e w York."
NEW
YORK. OCTOBER I S , 1919
EDITORIAL
T
H E 626. Congress is to investigate, among other things, the
present condition of Patent Law in the United States, with
a view to adopting certain remedial legislation. In the circum-
stances, it is worth while to call attention once more to the very
unsatisfactory state of things at present existing in the matter of
protection for inventions. A patent is a form of contract between
Government and inventor, whereby, in consideration of a complete
disclosure of the invention at issue, the Government agrees to give
the inventor or his assigns complete control thereof for a period of
seventeen years. Now it is perfectly obvious that such a contract is
of little practical value, unless the Government is itself prepared to
defend its own side of the agreement by either of two courses: (1)
by actually registering a patent and assuming financial responsi-
bility for its validity, or (2) by taking such care in the granting of
patents as to assure their future upholding by the courts.
O
F the two possible courses, the first would be very simple and
perfectly safe if the second were always the practice. The
great trouble with the United States Patent Office is that patent
applications are too easily granted. There has for years been a
general complaint that primary examinations are not sufficiently
thorough. Partly this is due to the insufficient salaries paid to
examiners, whereby the required class of man is- not obtained, and
those who are in the service have no incentive to make it their life
career. Patent examiners, in short, are only too often looking for-
ward all the time to future business as patent attorneys. Hence
we have carelessness and a lack of thorough examination.
N the piano, and especially in the player industry, this sort of
thing has been troublesome for years. Patent litigation forms
a recognized branch of activity in the great player houses. There
are too many player patents by far, and too many of them are bad
patents, or at least will so be declared when, if ever, they have to
stand the strain of court attack. Again, Federal judges are ex-
pected to give expert opinions on matters of infringement, many
of which require technical training for their complete comprehen-
sion. Judgments are thus frequently unsatisfactory and a bad situa-
tion is rendered worse. The legislation now urged proposes to take
the very difficult patent causes from the Federal judges and place
them in the hands of a specially constituted Court of Patent Ap-
peals. Every manufacturer of pianos or players ought to urge
strongly the passage of this provision in the proposed act.
A
FURTHER, and exceedingly important, question which must
be decided ere long relates to the working of patents. All
nations are now falling into line in this respect, and it is certain
that a few years will see every civilized nation requiring the work-
ing of a patent within a limited time after its grant, as a necessary
part of the inventor's contract with the government which grants
protection.
T
HE proposed patent legislation then should receive the hearty
approval of all thinking men in our industries. Better
scrutiny of applications, less carelessness in granting patents, gov-
ernment assurance of validity after granting, and a special court to
deal with patent matters; these are vital and essential features in
patent reform.
I
N the piano trade, as in other industries, there is a large army
of dealers who view the increasing popularity of the automo-
bile as a menace to their business.
The claim has been made, and in many instances substantiated,
that the money spent for pianos and other necessities in the home
is diverted to the purchase of automobiles.
Of the estimated $800,000,000 that will be spent in 1911 on the
purchase and maintenance and operation of automobiles it would
be probably unsafe to say that much more than half is waste or
extravagance, inasmuch as a growing proportion of automobile
manufacturing in the country consists of the making of commercial
vehicles to take the place of the horse and buggy or the team, and
these are in the nature of a necessity.
Yet, at a period of commercial uncertainty, when banking",
industrial, and commercial conditions alike dictate national caution
and conservatism, the fact remains that the people at large—the
middle class—are plunging into luxury and extravagance at a rate
never before equaled, perhaps, in the history of the nation. This
fact, taken by itself, is sinister enough to justify all the warnings
that have been based upon it. It is no wonder that the bank officers
of the country, who understand the reaction of waste upon the sensi-
tive structure of credit, should be the first to be alarmed. There is
good reason for their alarm.
If the automobile craze keeps on it is going to affect business
in a still greater way, because it will mean the postponement of
other purchases which involve quite a large money outlay.
Then, again, so far as automobiles are concerned, they take the
purchasers into the open air more frequently, and pianos are quite
apt to fall into disuse through the constant use of the automobile.
Therefore, the automobile hits the piano man going and coming.
It hits him on the collection end of the business, because he
will find it harder work to get money from some of his customers
who have purchased automobiles and he will find it more difficult
to sell pianos to new purchasers who have purchased automobiles,
and who, for the present time, are not specially interested in musical
instruments.
An interesting discussion could be raised along lines of just
how much the automobile is interfering with the regular piano
business.
We shall be very glad to obtain from our readers an expres-
sion of views concerning the automobile as a deterrent of legitimate
piano business.