Patents in Germany - Complaints of Ill Treatment of American Inventors

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN — Sir: In a special cable despatch from Berlin in THE SUN of May 3 the president of the Imperial Patent Office is reported as saying that he did not recall a case in which the rights of unexploited American patents have been withdrawn. That statement reminds me painfully of at least one such case, the annulment by a special act of the Reichsgericht of my patents on the transmission of power, which deprived me of a great fortune. My discoveries in that field are the foundation of an immense industry in Germany, but it is of no benefit to myself or to the firm which undertook their introduction in that country. This, however, is not my only disappointing experience with the Imperial Patent Office. My application for my system of wireless transmission of energy, anticipating all others, is still locked up there, while German companies are exploiting the advances in the art it disclosed.

I could say more, but it would be nothing novel, for such has been the uniform experience of American inventors. The ablest patent attorneys here now advise their clients, almost as a rule, not to bother with German rights, and for good reasons. Ask any of the great inventors of this country. Bell, Edison, Thomson, Brush, Weston and others, what pecuniary benefits they have received from Germany, and the answer will be, none.

How much we have to fear from a patent war with Germany I leave it to yourself to infer. That the United States should adopt some measures for the protection of home invention is a perfectly obvious conclusion, particularly in view of the recent change in the British patent law.

NIKOLA TESLA.
NEW YORK, May 5.