Harold Hitz Burton

“ They have dominated the field and suppressed competition. If competition is to be restored strong measures must be adopted to provide the maximum opportunity for new ventures to compete with the established giants of the industry. It is here that the major vice of permitting royalties on the licensed patents becomes apparent. Each dollar of royalty adds a dollar to the costs of the new competitor and gives the established licensor another dollar with which to fight that competition. ”

“ The difficulty with that argument is that it proves too much. For the Court was at the same time sanctioning compulsory licensing, a most serious inroad on patent rights. The patent law gives to the patentee or his assignee the 'exclusive right to make, use, and vend the invention or discovery * * *.' R.S. § 4884, 35 U.S.C. § 40, 35 U.S.C.A. § 40. If the antitrust court could not interfere with patent rights, then it could not order licensing on any terms, for mandatory licensing is hardly consistent with exclusive rights. ”

“ The burden of testing potentially invalid patents will thus be placed on the first enterprise unwilling to pay the royalties.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105) . ”