Poor Man's Patent?

by Steve Reiss (stevenreiss@scienbizippc.com)

Ribbon and Seal of a US Patent

Many’s the poor man who has thus crazily run to get a patent, thinking that that piece of paper with a red seal on it, would in itself buoy him to a fortune; thinking that all one has to do is to procure a patent and the article will sell itself, just like hot cakes. As a rule, it is not so. Inventing a thing and getting a patent for it is oft times but the easiest half of making a success of it. Supposing. that like many inventors, he is poorly off financially, the first thing for him to do will be to get some friend or acquaintance to take hold of it, to manufacture, or use or sell it, and this is not always easy, and when he has succeeded in that, there still lies before him the most difficult task of all, and that is, making the public think it is worth buying and using.

Raymond, Curiosities of the US Patent System (1888), p. 15.

See also, Charles Dickens, A Poor Man's Tale of a Patent (1850).