No. 28.
Mr. Jay
to Mr. Fish.
[Extract.]
American
Legation,
Vienna, February 29,
1872. (Received March 22.)
No. 414.]
Sir: On calling to-day at the foreign office,
this being Count Andrassy’s day for receiving the diplomats, I found
that his excellency had not yet returned from Pesth, and I had an
interview with Mr. Yon Hofmann.
* * * * * *
In speaking of the approaching exhibition, I remarked that I had heard
from some American manufacturers complaints that the patent-law of
Austria did not always afford to them sufficient protection, and that
one provision, requiring the manufacture of the article patented to be
commenced in the Austrian Empire within one year from the date of the
patent, operated injuriously upon inventors from a distance. I alluded
also to an article in the “Scientific American,” (December 23, 1871,)
upon the subject of the Vienna Exhibition, which intimated that the
trouble and litigation to which this law had given rise would be likely
to check the disposition of foreign inventors and manufacturers to bring
their productions, unless the government proposed to award them greater
security for the enjoyment of their patents.
Mr. Von Hofmann said the suggestion was one which was of great
importance, and that Baron Schwartz, who was at the head of the
Exposition, with the fullest power, would certainly appreciate it, and
he begged me to write a note upon the subject.
I said that I was not sure that I should consider it my place to suggest
a modification in their laws, upon which he said I might say that I
wrote at his suggestion.
* * * * * *
I shall be glad of any instruction you may think proper to give me on
this subject, as, without instructions, I shall hesitate to do more than
to communicate to the Count Andrassy the fact that such complaints have
been made to me, and to send him a copy of the article from the
“Scientific American,” a copy of which I hereto append.
I am, &c,
[Inclosure.]
The Great Exhibition at Vienna, 1873.
[From the “Scientific American,” dated
December 23,
1871.]
We published, on October 28th, of the present year, the announcement
of the appointment, by the Emperor of Austria, of a commission to
arrange for holding an international
[Page 49]
exhibition at Vienna, in 1873; and on November
18th our readers were given some further information on the subject,
and some suggestions for organizing a proper representation of
American genius and industry, based on our experience gathered in
Paris, London, and elsewhere. The Austrian scheme is gradually
getting into shape, the form and dimensions of the building having
been decided upon. A building 3,000 feet in length and 660 in width
is to be erected; this structure will be crowned with a cupola,
about 330 feet in diameter. This will be finished by October 1,
1872. A separate building will be provided for exhibiting machinery
in motion, and another for the works of art. The novel features in
the arrangements have been submitted by us to public approval, and
it now remains for the manufacturers, inventors, and scientists of
the United States to decide upon their course of action.
Constructors and patentees who have introduced their inventions in
European countries have suffered grievous ill-treatment at the hands
of the Austrian authorities, whose regulations on the subject of
patents are, to say the least, not formed for the protection and
reward of foreign talent and ingenuity. One most vexatious rule is
that which invalidates a patent unless the article be manufactured
in the realm, within twelve months from the date of issue. Now, as
patents are, in a measure, characterized by the locality in which
they take rise, and are generally most economically worked in the
country in which they originate, it is almost equivalent to
prohibition to enact that the locomotive engines of Great Britain,
the telegraph instruments of the United States, and the printed
muslins of France shall be manufactured on Austrian soil within a
year from securing the patent, and is a preposterous requirement,
which ill comports with our liberal system of granting patents to
their subjects.
But worse remains to be told. An American gentleman, having a
manufactory at Vienna, was enabled to comply with this obnoxious
rule; but he recently had a taste of Austrian legal administration.
He had obtained a patent and commenced the manufacture of the
article almost simultaneously, and two trustworthy and credible
witnesses were produced to prove this fact, but the officials deemed
their affidavits insufficient, and the manufacturer has been
summoned before a court of justice to prove the introduction. Such
hinderance of the rights of foreigners gives rise to an
uncomfortable suspicion that the value of Austrian patents issued to
Americans and other foreigners, can be easily escheated to the
benefit of the Austrian public. The inventor in question even goes
further, and intimates that his production, being used by the
Imperial Government, was specially and purposely hindered from its
proper protection, that the authorities might more readily convey it
to their own use, without reward to the patentee.
Under such laws, it would be well for the Austrians to consider
whether their invitation to the nations is not likely to be met with
a contumelious refusal. Here, as elsewhere, experience is valuable,
and we remember that when we sent to Europe in 1851, 1855, 1862, and
1867, we took our inventions and processes to an open market.
Neither in London nor in Paris was there any room for suspicion that
our specimen machines and productions were there for Europeans to
avail themselves of, the American being-allowed a courteous
protection of his invention while the exhibition lasted; but we do
not learn that Austria proposes any such protection. The result of
this most erroneous and destructive policy will easily be
foreseen.
