Practical Pointers for Patentees   By: Franklin Allison Cresee

PRACTICAL POINTERS for PATENTEES

CONTAINING VALUABLE INFORMATION AND ADVICE ON THE SALE OF PATENTS

AN ELUCIDATION OF THE BEST METHODS EMPLOYED BY THE MOST SUCCESSFUL INVENTORS IN HANDLING THEIR INVENTIONS

By F. A. CRESEE, M.E.

Revised and Corrected, with New Forms and Tables of Population of the United States in Accordance with the 1910 Census

[Illustration]

MUNN & CO., INC. SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN OFFICE 361 Broadway NEW YORK 1912

Copyright, 1901, by the POTOMAC PUBLISHING COMPANY

Copyright, 1902, by MUNN & COMPANY

Copyright, 1906, by MUNN & COMPANY

Copyright, 1912, by MUNN & CO., Inc.

New York MACGOWAN & SLIPPER 30 Beekman Street

PREFACE

The original conception and working out of an invention is usually a labor of love on the part of the inventor: having perfected his invention in every detail, he finds able and skilled counsel waiting to prepare and prosecute his application for patent before the Patent Office Examiner. When the patent is allowed or issued, the patentee's real work begins that of turning the patent into money. This is the business end of the inventor's work, which is generally to his interest financially to undertake himself, or to have under his immediate supervision.

The object of this little work, based upon the experience and observation of the author and other successful inventors, is to give the patentee such information and advice as will enable him to proceed more intelligently, on the most successful and economical basis, to realize from his invention.

The American Government issues annually over thirty five thousand patents, a large number of which are offered for sale by their respective patentees, who in many cases have no definite lines to pursue in negotiating their patents; many realizing little or nothing from their inventions through careless or bad management, while others, through incompetency, drift into the hands of unscrupulous patent selling agents only to be swindled.

The numerous inquiries from patentees seeking practical, reliable, and up to date information as to the best and most successful methods of realizing from the product of their ingenuity, has led the author, after due deliberation, to prepare and present this work to the American inventor, with a view of supplying a long felt want, with the hope that it will save them many expensive experiments in handling their patents, and advance them on the road to success.

It has been the endeavor of the writer to cover briefly every subject that is usually encountered by patentees in disposing of their patents, not only in the matter of selling, but also in the equally important and perplexing questions of arriving at the value of patents, legal forms, statistics, etc., etc.

Realizing that the work may be deficient in many respects, the hope that it will prove instructive, and the belief that it contains many practical pointers for patentees is still entertained by

THE AUTHOR.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

DEMAND FOR INVENTIONS OF MERIT. PAGE Monopoly in Patents Industrial Progress Based upon the Patent System 9 12

CHAPTER II.

INCOME FROM INVENTIONS.

Independence through Successful Invention Unprofitable Patents Money in Patents Business Capacity of the Inventor Inventions as a Poor Man's Opportunity to Advance 13 19

CHAPTER III.

SECURING CAPITAL.

Danger in an Undivided Interest A Better Plan Form of Agreement Perfecting Inventions Exhibit of Inventions To Avoid Being "Squeezed" Value of Record of Invention Newspaper Notoriety 20 29

CHAPTER IV.

HOW TO ARRIVE AT THE VALUE OF A PATENT.

Pecuniary Value Commercial Value Basis for Estimation General Rules for Valuation How Rating for Royalty Is Figured Stock in Stock Companies Prices for Territorial Rights Valuation Tables 30 40