Publications

I. Introduction

In Mark Twain’s 1889 novel, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” the first thing that protagonist Hank Morgan does when he comes to have influence in his medieval kingdom is to establish a patent office. The reason, he declares, is that “a country without a patent office and good patent laws was just a crab and couldn’t travel anyway but sideways or backwards.”

Twain himself had first hand experience with the operations of the patent system. In fact, he was patentee on several patents during his lifetime, including a suspenders replacement patent entitled “an improvement in adjustable and detachable straps for garments,” meant to replace suspenders, and another for a “self-pasting scrapbook” that made him significant money. Based on his experience, he presumably understood the value of good patent laws.

Imagine for a moment a time when the patent system’s incentive to disclose information relating to an invention is replaced with a tacit incentive not to disclose that information. Such a time might mark the death knell for good patent laws. That time is now.