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THE!
MUSIC
TRADE
KEVIFW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Stall:
GLAD. HENDERSON,
A. J. NICKLIN,
H. E. JAMASON,
AUGUST J. TIMPE,
BOSTON OFFICE:
JOHN H. WILSON 324 Washington St.
Telephone, Main 6950.
PHILADELPHIA:
C. CHACE,
W M . B. WHITE,
B. BRITTAIN WILSON,
L. E. BOWERS.
CHICAGO OFFICE:
E. P. VAN HARLINCEN, 37 South Wabash Ave.
Telephone, Central 414.
Room 806.
MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUIS:
REVIEW
that is, the beginning of manufacture. For instance, an inventor
of an improvement in a player action, or in talking machine
mechanism, might feel that he was "ahead of his time"—that the
public was not yet ready to accept his advanced theories. Under
the present plan such an inventor can, from time to time, submit
amendments to his design which will delay final action in the Patent
Office, and his patent (with full seventeen years to run) need not
be taken out until he feels that the public has been educated up to
the idea and he is ready to manufacture. But if the patent law is
amended as proposed by this initial section of the new bill an end
will be put to such a scheme for waiting for a favorable market.
An inventor will have to get his invention on the market within
two years of the time he files patent application, if he wants the
benefit of the full seventeen years that Uncle Sam guarantees him
an exclusive market.
T
HE second section of the new bill supplants the "compulsory
license'' clause of the old bill, which stirred up so much oppo-
CINCINNATI, O.: JACOB W. WALTERS.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND^ STANLEY IT. SMITH
BALTIMORE, MD.: A. ROBERT FRENCH.
MILWAUKEE, W I S . : L. E. MEYER.
sition. In the original bill this clause compelled an inventor or
LONDON, ENGLAND: 1 Gresham Buildings, Basinghall St., E. C.
manufacturer to either begin manufacturing a new invention or
Published Every Saturday at 373 Fourth Avenue, New York
an improvement on which he had taken out a patent within four
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
years, or else grant a license to manufacture to any person else
SUBSCRIPTION, (including postage), United States and Mexico, $2.00 per year; Canada,
(mayhap a competitor) who applied for it.
$3.50; all other countries, $4.00.
This stipulation was bitterly fought by both player-piano and
ADVERTISEMENTS, $2.50 per inch single column, per insertion.
On quarterly or
yearly contracts, a special discount is allowed. Advertising Pages, $75.00.
talking machine manufacturers. It was represented that in many
REMITTANCES, in other than currency forms, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
•-
instances it was not possible to perfect an improvement or new
Piann anil
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques
invention and begin manufacturing within four years. In other
"• lallU allU
tions of a technical nature relating to the tuning, regu :
nonorfmontc
lating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos are
instances
it was shown the manufacturers of musical instruments
If C|PdI I1UVIH9. dealth with, will be found in another section of this
paper. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information concerning which
held
patents
under which they are no longer manufacturing, for
will be cheerfully given upon request.
one reason or another, but which they do not want to be compelled
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
to share with a competitor.
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900
Silver Medal.. .Charleston Exposition, 1902
Diploma... .Pan-American Exposition. 1901
Gold Medal.._..*.St. Louis Exposition, 1904
As revised this section is of somewhat different scope. It is
Gold Medal. .Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905
now framed with a view to giving all possible protection to Un-
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONES-NUMBERS 5982-5983 MADISON SQUARE
original inventor. The compulsion to license cannot be enforced
Connecting all Departments.
Cable address •• "Elblll, New York."
against an original inventor. He can hold his invention the full
seventeen years without ever manufacturing if he so desires. But
NEW YORK, AUGUST 3 , 1912.
the compulsory license club is held over the head of any manufac-
turer or interest that acquires a patent for the purpose of suppress-
ing the invention or crippling competition by "bottling up" an in-
EDITORIAL
vention.
The third clause of the new measure has to do with that chief
bugbear of the old bill—the section that knocked out price main-
BOLD attempt has been made in the waning days of the tenance and prevented a manufacturer from enforcing a resale
present session of Congress to bring patent legislation to
price on his patented goods. The rewritten clause would cause
the fore through the introduction by Congressman Oldfield of a almost as much havoc as would the old. because it stipulates that no
substitute for his previous patent reform bill and which embodies
purchaser or lessee of a patented article can be sued for infringe-
all the features of the old bill that aroused the opposition of the
ment because he fails to observe the price restrictions imposed by
leading men in the talking machine and music trade industries—
the manufacturer. In one sense this knockout of the principle of
legislation which again imperils the whole principle of price main-
fixed, uniform prices is intended to be more complete than the old,
tenance, although there is some slight qualification in regard to
in that, as now drawn, the prohibition of infringement suits be-
contracts which may lull the reader of the bill into the belief that
cause of price-cutting applies to present patents, whereas the other
it is not as drastic as the old clause.
bill would, in the opinion of shrewd lawyers, have been possible
The introduction of a new patent bill at this time has caused
of enforcement only in the case of patents taken out after the date
a great deal of surprise, and comes before the Legislature with a
of the passage of the bill.
certain prestige as being recommended for passage by the Patent
Committee of the House of Representatives.
A LTHOUGH this rewritten clause affords scant comfort for
The new bill is much more brief than the old one, and does
l~\ the manufacturer and dealer who believes in price main-
not attempt any wholesale revision, but concentrates on a few tenance, it does offer one loophole that did not appear in the old
issues, the very ones, as it happens, which most concern the busi-
bill. It is so written as to dodge the subject of contracts, and to
ness interests having to do with the manufacture and sale of
have no bearing on relations between buyer and seller based on con-
patented articles.
tracts. Heretofore many manufacturers of patented articles have
There are two new clauses which cannot be said to have had
relied solely upon their patent rights to enable them to uphold
any counterpart in the former bill, and yet both of which will have
prices, and have had no formal written price contracts with agents,
bearing upon the music trade. Indeed, everyone of the four clauses
retailers or others. But if this bill should become a law the only
of this latest proposition will have greater or lesser influence upon
salvation of the manufacturer who desires to uphold prices would
existing status in this field.
be to enter into ironclad contracts with jobbers' and retailers, and
The first clause of the new bill provides that an inventor's
perhaps they in turn would have to have contracts with the cus-
patent will in effect expire nineteen years' from the date of his tomers to whom they sold. Under this plan redress for price-
application. The actual term of the patent remains as in the past,
cutting would have to be obtained on an action for breach of con-
seventeen years, so that this changing in the wording of the law tract. Even under this contract system it would seem to be all
will mean that an inventor has two years, and only two years, to
but necessary to have the written agreements extend to the final
get his patent through.
consumer, as otherwise there would be no means of blocking a
This measure is designed to block the plans of inventors who
price-cutting department store that saw fit to buy instruments one
wish to insure patent protection for an idea, but who desire, for
at a time, here and there, at the full retail price, and then offered
one reason or another, to delay the actual taking out of a patent;
them for sale at a cut rate price as "leaders."
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
ADOLF EDSTEN.
SAN FRANCISCO: S. H. GRAY, 88 First St.
A
CLYDE JENNINGS
DETROIT, MICH.: MORRIS J. WHITE.