Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Revision of the Patent Laws: The Oldfield Bill, Being a Report and Papers Relating to House Bill 23417, As; Revised August 8, 1912
Third. Resale-price restrictions and limitation of right to sue for infringement.
The considerations above stated apply to the question of resale price restriction. If a patentee has a monopoly in the making, using, and selling of an article, and has the right to suppress the invention Wholly and to exclude others wholly, it follows that he has the right to suppress it in part or to admit others on such terms and condi tions as he may fix. Of course it may be argued that under the con stitutional provision it is still Within the province Of Congress to fix conditions and limitations affecting the exclusive right which the Constitution mentions, but the reasoning of all Of the decisions up to the present time points to the conclusion that when the Constitution used the word exclusive it meant just that, and that the constitu tional provision could not be avoided by fixing conditions and limita tions upon the exclusive right which impaired or lessened its Scope. This, of course, does not mean that patent property like other prop erty is not subject to other provisions of the Constitution and to the laws of the land, as for example to the police power of the States and the laws relating to the conservation of the ublic health and the public morals. But the provisions Of the Old eld bill, at their face value, take away from the owners of patented property the right Of contract which is enjoyed by owners of unpatented property. We can not see any justification for prohibiting the patentee from fixmg in the terms of his contract as one of the conditions of a license the price at which the article shall be resold, if that. Be necessary to the preservation of his monopoly and if the restriction be imposed as a condition of the license.
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