Chapter I: 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

CHAPTER V.

HOW TO CONDUCT THE SALE OF PATENTS.

Patent-selling Agencies--The Best Selling Agent--In
Case the Patentee Cannot Undertake the Selling--Methods
of Selling Patents--About Advertising--How
to Write an Advertisement--Correspondence as
a Means of Bringing Patents before Interested
Parties--How to Correspond with
Manufacturers--Circulars--Illustrations--About
Getting up Circulars--Copies of Patents, How to
Secure--Uses of Printed Copies--First
Impressions All--important--Value of Models--Working
Drawings 41-54

CHAPTER VI.

HOW TO CONDUCT THE SALE OF PATENTS.--_Continued_.

Value of Personal Influence--Personal Solicitation
Advisable--Selling Outright--Assigning an Undivided
Interest--Dividing a Patent into Different Classes of
Rights--Granting Licenses--Placing upon
Royalty--Manufacturing and Forming Companies--To
Organize Stock Companies--Trading as a Last Resort 55-72

CHAPTER VII.

CANADIAN PATENTS.

About Canadian Patents--Selling Canadian Patents--
Population of Canadian Cities 73-78

CHAPTER VIII.

DECISIONS AND NOTES.

Assignments--Territorial Grants--Licenses--Patent
Title--Rules of Practice--Assignments--Assignees--
Grantees--Mortgages--Licensees--Must be Recorded--
Conditional Assignments--State Laws on
Selling Patents 79-91

CHAPTER IX.

THE TRANSFER OF PATENT RIGHTS.

Assignee, Grantee, and Licensee Defined--The Language
of Law--Assignment of Entire Interest in
Letters Patent--Assignment of an Undivided Interest--Grant
of a Territorial Interest--License; Shop
Right--License; Non-exclusive, with Royalty--License;
Exclusive, with Royalty 92-105

CHAPTER X.

TABLES AND STATISTICS.

Map of the United States--Official Census of the United
States by Counties for 1910--Population of
Cities of the United States--Number, Acreage
and Value of Farms, by States--Table of
Occupations 106-141

INDEX 142-146

PRACTICAL POINTERS _for_ PATENTEES