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The Green Bag

ing certain conditions of use, certain materials to be used in connection with it," explained an officer of the Inven tors' Guild. "It certainly is a fact that, in some instances, a man's market for a good article would be completely de stroyed, if he could not insure himself in seeing that it was properly used after it left his hands." The suggestion that the self-interest of the user is sufficient guaranty that proper supplies, well adapted accessory machines and correct methods of opera tion will always be used does not prove sound in practice. In the case of staple commcdities, this rule doubtless obtains. Most patented articles, however, are not in this class. They are new devices in the arts, and depend for their mar ketability and value upon their demon strable efficiency. They must make their way in competition with older appliances, and only as they prove their superior efficiency, in producing the results for which they were invented, can they obtain any market and attain any value. When this result depends, in any considerable degree, upon the sup plies, the accessory machines, or the method or operation, it frequently is necessary, and always is reasonable, that the patent owner, whose time, effort and capital are staked upon the result, should require of the customer, as a condition of acquiring the machine, that it be used only with such supplies, accessory machines and method of operation as shall insure a satisfactory result. Since every patented article is essentially new, most users must necessarily be more or less unfamiliar with many of the elements involved in its satisfactory operation. Unaware of the reasons why some particular kind of supplies, or some particular accessory machines, or some particular method of operation is more certain than any other

to produce a satisfactory result, most users would succumb to the apparent economy or other superficial attractions of inferior supplies, ill-adapted acces sory machines, and less efficient methods of operation. Of course, the result to the user would be unsatisfactory. Con tinuance of this unsatisfactory condi tion, if studied and analyzed by the user, might eventually induce him vol untarily to use only those specially pre pared supplies, properly adjusted acces sory machines and correct methods of operation, which the patent owner knows to be essential to the satisfactory opera tion of his machine. Most users, how ever, have no opportunity for such study, analysis and reflection. Unless the patented article, in whatever fashion it happens to be used, promptly demon strates its undoubted superiority over older appliances with which it competes, most users will promptly discard it and return to the older appliances. While the user who has improperly used the machine has thus unwittingly acted against his own interests and harmed himself, he has in immeasurably greater degree injured the reputation, stand ard and commercial desirability of the patented machine. The patent owner, who has risked his time, effort and capi tal in the invention and has staked everything upon its reputation, stand ard and commercial desirability, is the chief loser. "I cannot agree," declares Mr. Leon ard, the independent inventor, already quoted, to whom the self-interest of the user was urged as a sufficient substitute for a license restriction, "that that would be sufficient protection to the manufacturer, whose sales depend en tirely upon the perfect performance universally of the articles. I have been a manufacturer long enough to know that there is nothing which so insures