IIT Chicago Kent College of Law - Transcript Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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Q r 1 TPANEICRWT , r z SHALL THE YOUNG LAWYER CHOOSE THE PATENT BRANCH OF THE PROFESSION CHARLES A. BROWN Lecturer on the Law of Patents HE recent work of hction by Warvsfick Deeping entitled Sorrell Sz Son, presents, with vivid interst, the importance of selecting the right job. Sorrell says to his son, Work is the cleanest of all things, the game you are playing, or the job you are going to do. He raises the job to the height of a religious function-giving to religion the broad meaning of devotion to the highest morality. So when a popular idol, staying at the hotel where his father is chief porter, is seriously injured in an automobile accident, and the whole community is waiting with bated breath for the verdict of death or life, and the great surgeon from London seems to hold the issue in his skilful hands, Christopher, the son, says to his father, Father, I'd like to be a surgeon. lNhether influenced by curiosity about the marvelous mechanism of the human body, by the desire to cure ills and to relieve suffering, or by ambition for fame and financial reward, or, as probably, by all three motives Qand properlyj, he had found his job, and made the most important decision of his life. The more he worked at it the more he liked itg for it is a, wise dis- pensation of Providence that the more one holds one's nose to the grindstone the more he enjoys it. I The Wlork under our Labor grows Luxurious by restraint. I wish to emphasize the importance of enjoyment in the job one chooses, The labor love delights in, physics pain. , , So let me point out some reasons why one may delight in practicing the patent branch of the legal profession. I am considering the patent branch as only one department of'the legal profession, assuming, of course, that one hs -first chosen the law as his job. VVhat I am saying is not with the idea of limiting one's study and preparation. There is no branch of the law which does not come within the purview of the lawyer who devotes himself to the patent practice. - For example, a patent is a contract, and nothing with reference to contracts is foreign to patents. A patent is property, and nothing with reference to the law of property is without its bearing upon patents. Infringement of a patent is a tort, and nothing in the law of torts is beyond consideration in the subject of patents. For infringement, the patentee is entitled to damages. The subject of damages, therfore, is material for patents. The rights of a patentee are usually enforced in a Court of Equity. The principles and practice of Equity are, therefore, within the required scope of a well equipped patent lawyer. An infringer of a patent is looked upon as a trustee ex maleficio, and all features of trusteeship are pertinent to patent law. And so, with injunctions, accountings, licenses, assignments, etc. As an illustration of the importance, in the patent practice, of all general legal information, it may be pointed out that the best patent judges have 100 1926 7,

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! terpreter of our Constitution, in the opinion of many, rendered great service to the Union. ' In the early history of our country, after the ratification by the several States of the Federal Constitution, the task of expounding the Constitution during this most critical period rested with the United States Supreme Court. At the time of the appointment of John Marshall as Chief justice of this Court, it was considered that the Supreme Court was one of the departments that had failed in its purpose. john Jay, the first Chief justice, had resigned and declined a reappointment on the ground that he left the bench perfectly convinced that the court would never acquire proper weight and dignity, its organization being fatally defective. Marshall, after leaving the Colonial Army, was admitted to the bar after a brief course of study. VVe find him in litigation of great importance. An examination of the reports of the time show his leadership at the bar in his State-Virginia. He was a member of the Virginia Legislature. Our Presi- dent, George Washington, offered him the Attorney-Generalship, and, on the retirement of james Monroe as Minister to France also offered him that posi- tion, but he graciously declined for the reason that his situation at the bar appeared to him to be more independent and no less honorable than any other. He was a member of the National House of Representatives, and was Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President Adams. During a short incumbency he was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice became practically the mouthpiece of the court. Marshall wrote the majority of the opinions involving the interpretation of the Consti- tution. It was given to him to preside, and he was called upon to write the opinions in four cases of importance, which are now generally considered to be essential to the preservation of the United States as a Federal State. It was decided during his incumbency as Judge, that the Court would disregard any Act of Congress, and also any Act of the Legislature of one of the several States, which the Court thought contrary to the Federal Consti- tution 5 also that Congress could lawfully pass an Act which permitted a person, who was convicted in a State court, to appeal to the Supreme Court, if he alleged that the Act on which he was convicted conflicted with the Federal Constitution. It was also determined that Congress, in the exercise of delegated powers, had a wide latitude in the choice of means. And, lastly, he held that the Govermnent had control over the means by which interstate and foreign com- merce is carried on. In all, Justice Marshall decided forty-four cases involving constitutional questions. - His was not the work of a statesman, but that of a Judge. In his opinions he adhered to the Constitution as written. In his interpretation of the Consti- tution we are impressed by his love for the Union. The constructions given to the questions involved clarified the Constitution, and the work of the Framers of the Constitution was saved. ' The heritage that the lawyers of the past have left to the lawyers of the coming generations must be, and will be, an inspiration to them to carry on the work, having in mind the grave responsibility that a lawyer has in the proper administration of justice. I'ION. OSCAR Hamer.. 99 1926 .,... .1 Nf A f f? 1 3

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it Pfl 2 t 1 TPAINETZLIIIIJT - been those who have had, without any special information about strictly patent questions, the best general knowledge of the Law. The names of Chief Justice Marshall, and Justices Story, Bradley, Miller, Blatchford, are instances on the Supreme bench, and Judges Blodgett, Baker of the Seventh, Coxe and Lacombe of the Second, and Sanborn of the Eighth Circuit, instances on the district and circuit bench. To take up specilic reasons Jin favor of the patent law as a profession: . . I, : . . . . flj The subject matter is iII1VCflt1OllS.,, An invention is something new and original-something beyond the skill of the mechanic-something which is the result of inspiration. ' The inventor is in the front rank-of the army which is engaged in carrying on the march of progress and civilization. The patent lawyer is brought into intimate relations, not only with the latest developments of applied science, but also with the most progressive of the workers in that broad and inqteresting Field. The value of the zest and romance that is added to work in such pioneer undetakings and with such bright and prophetic minds, cannot be over-estimated. Every important patent law office has always in hand some invention which promises to be of great value, and upon which patents are being solicited. It may be a new combination of metals, lighter and stronger than steel, rustless and everlasting. It may be a process of producing aluminum at half the cost at which it is now produced. . , Upon these and many more inventions are now concentrated the efforts of engineers, chemists and inventors in various parts of the United States. They may not all be successful. The effort may not produce the desired result: but The glory of the conHict is the joy the vanquished feels. The stimulus is the compensation offered by a- patent under the law. , It is the privilege of the patent lawyer to be associated with, and to share, the labors and joys of these explorers in the frontier territories of applied science. There is an inspiration about it that raises this work above sordid mer- cenary motives. CZJ The patent practitioner is engaged in protecting the patentee in the exclusive right to his invention, or, he is engaged on behalf of his client and the public in preventing the patentee from overstepping the legal limits of his monopoly: and in either case he is upholding that provision of the Constitution which gives to the Congress Power to promote the progress of science and useful arts. by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. I have not seen successfully controverted the assertion that this is the most beneiicent clause of the Constitution, so far the physical well being of the people is concerned. There lies in the citizenship .of the United States a great reservior of in- ventive capacity. The beneficent stimulus of the patent law, like the sun with great bodies of water, lifts this capacity and makes it active, as the sun lifts aloft the water from .river, lake and ocean, to make it active forthe benefit of mankind in producing fertility and power. 101 1926