...a taste of patent monopoly which has been bitter. A charge of three to five dollars is made monthly for a local service that could be operated successfully by the owners of the patents for a uniform rate of one dollar. In this case we pay a million annually for the genius of one or two men and receive a wretchedly poor return. And now this same monopoly is in the field with an improvement, the automatic switchboard, which will allow them to continue their imposition for another term of years."
- "Our Patent System," Belford's Monthly, 1892, p. 798.
- Telephone photo from Wikipedia.
...to be most harmful. Thousands of patents have been issued on electrical devices and the applications are flowing into the Patent Office in an increasing volume. That some schemer overlooked securing a monopoly on the current and collecting royalties by the volt is a wonder. On the average, electric machines sell for many times their cost.... The great cost of equipping electric railways is the only reason that lines are not now extended to rural towns and through sections where the locomotive whistle and rapid transit are unknown. Electricity would be available at a trifling cost were it not for the expense of the various appliances required in its separation and distribution. In fact, it seems almost a hopeless task to attempt the development of our country through the use of the universal power while the prices of the necessary appliances are fixed at such an artificial standard."
- "Our Patent System," Belford's Monthly, 1892, p. 798.
...by this difficulty of getting the full reward out of their patents; and it was not till the wealthy Boulton took the matter in hand, that the results could be guaranteed. Even then they had intense fighting for years to keep plagiarists and imitators from interfering with their rights, and the public had to pay all these law costs on their engines, and that on the manufacture of which they were used. That Watt ultimately succeeded in amassing a fortune was due not so much to the patent laws as to his partnership with such a capitalist as Boulton. Hargrave died in obscurity and distress. Arkwright required to fight hard against malicious and greedy appropriates. But it was not till his patents expired that the full benefit of his ingenuity was gained by the public. Dr. Cartwright, notwithstanding his numerous patents, required a parliamentary grant of £10,000 to reward him for his public benefactions as an inventor. Compton and Cort are acknowledged by the advocate of the affirmative to have been unrewarded. We cannot avoid concluding that our modern patent laws, however beneficial they may be intended to be, are not productive of benefit to the public, inasmuch as they fail to protect the inventor, and hence operate against the expenditure of genius in that direction; burden the goods produced with the costs of law-suits and encourage dishonest competition and fraudulent imitation."
- "Are Our Existing Patent Laws Productive of Public Benefit?," The British Controversialist and Literary Magazine, 1864, p. 338.
- Picture of Watt steam engine from Wikipedia.
...a leapfrogging process whereby the potential of future monopoly profits induces new discoveries. As a result, a new entity will emerge and come into a market at some point and leapfrog all the existing entities. When that happens, you'll get a big jump in terms of productivity and economic value, and the old monopolists will typically be displaced."
- Paul Romer, Professor of Economics in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution, as quoted by by Clyde W. Holsapple in Handbook of Knowledge Management: Knowledge Matters, Vol. 1, 2002, p. 80.
