DO PATENTS PAY?

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10777, 27 May 1911, Page 4

DO PATENTS PAY?

" It' would almost be idle to quote the enormous profits derived from patents. The following are a few examples of profitable patents:— The Westinghouse air-brake made millions; Mr J. L. Easley's conical glass lemon-squeezer sold enormously, and his royalties were extremely heavy; an inyentor obtained a patent for printer's ink, and he refused £50,000, and "finally sold it for £fi0,000: a slight improve-, ment in straw-cutters realised 40,000 dollars. Howe, the inventor of the sewing machine, derived C 1.00,000 per annum from it. The men who thought of putting metal plates on the soles of boots, and copper tips to children's shoes, each gained for himself a competency. The patentee of the stylographic pen rejoiced in an income of £40,000. Indeed the field is so vast, and the number of profitable patents so great, that it would, perhaps, be a far easier task to undertake a recapitulation of what kinds of patents do not pay.