A man may spend ten years of his life in working out some obscure industrial problem; and when he has invented some piece of machinery, or made a discovery of some kind, he takes out a patent and imagines that he has a right to his own invention; then there comes a competitor
 Honoré de Balzac, Lost Illusions (1843). copy citation

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Author Honoré de Balzac
Source Lost Illusions
Topic discovery invention
Date 1843
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Ellen Marriage
Weblink https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/13159/pg13159.html

Context

“"I am going to overcome my last difficulty, and then I can apply for the patent and the improvement on the patent at the same time." This "improvement on the patent" is the curse of the French patentee. A man may spend ten years of his life in working out some obscure industrial problem; and when he has invented some piece of machinery, or made a discovery of some kind, he takes out a patent and imagines that he has a right to his own invention; then there comes a competitor; and unless the first inventor has foreseen all possible contingencies, the second comer makes an "improvement on the patent" with a screw or a nut, and takes the whole thing out of his hands. The discovery of a cheap material for paper pulp, therefore, is by no means the conclusion of the whole matter.” source