ITEMS OF INTEREST June 7, 1913 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Patented articles sold under price restrictions by manufacturers, may be resold by retailers at cut rates. The Supreme Court so holds. Safety razors, talking machines, and thousands of other patented articles are affected by the decision, which was five to four. Justice Day announced the majority decision, which held that while the patent law gave the owner exclusive right to "vend" articles, that was not the same as a right to "keep up the price." That, the court held, was not granted by the patent law. Many manufacturers had joined the manufacturer in this case in his fight to sustain the contention that his patent gave him the right to sell or use his patented article under any conditions as to resale price he might see fit to impose. All decisions in the lower courts, with the exception of one, have been in favor of the manufacturers. Justice Day, in his decision, "distinguished" the famous "mimeograph case" of more than a year ago from the present case, but many lawyers who heard the decision regarded the term as a judicial phrase for practically reversing that case. Officials of the department of justice regard the decision as of great importance, putting an end to existing wide-spread extensions of patent monopolies.

Fines aggregating eighty-one thousand five hundred dollars have been imposed in the United States district court by Judge John R. Hazel of Buffalo in the cases of six corporations and eleven individual defendants in the government's action against the so-called "coaster brake" trust for violation of the Sherman law. Six corporations and eight individuals pleaded guilty to two counts of the indictment, conspiring to restrain trade and attempting to monopolize domestic and foreign trade. Four individuals pleaded nolo contendere. Three of the four were among the eleven defendants fined. Six additional cases were discontinued by nolle prosequi.

Paving the way for further Sherman law prosecutions, the federal district court at Philadelphia has entered a decree in strict accordance with the recent Supreme Court decision, enjoining perpetually the anthracite coal-carrying railroads and mining companies from monopolizing trade under the so-called "65 per cent contracts." Under the contracts the railroads agreed to buy all coal produced by the allied mines, paying 65 per cent of the market price on the Atlantic seaboard. The railroads assumed the freight costs. These contracts were held by the Supreme Court to be a violation of the Sherman law.

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