May a worker who has invented some kind of a technical improvement of a factory me thed, or who has perfected some mechanical equipment, ask for a patent?

This problem, which has repeatedly arisen in the courts, is entirely untouched by the American laws. Practically this question in each separate case is decided according to the agreement between the worker and the employer. There is a principle concerning this question, which was set by the courts, (to the effect) that the worker who, by agreement with the employer, has no duties of any technical improvements or perfections but who worked out his ideas outside the shop and during the hours of his leisure, has the full right to his patent. If the worker, in working at his ideas, made use of the materials and the assistance of labor of his empleyer, the latter cannot apply for the patent of these ideas, but (he) can make use of these ideas without paying the inventor any compensation.

The patent is given out to the rightful inventor, but the employer gets permission to its use as long as he remains in the business, even if the inventor leaves the place of his employment. However, this right does not pass to the heirs or successors of the employer. Any mechanic who is hired to make improvements, once he sells in advance his ability as inventor he cannot claim his patent.

The results of his inventions become, by agreement, the property of the employer.

There are two forms of agreement. One of them in which the worker definitely renounces all rights to his inventions if these are made during the time of his employment. By such agreement the worker is deprived of the right even to a part of the profits of his inventions. By the other - a more limited form of agreement - the inventor is hired for the improvement of definite mechanical By this agreement the 3inventor has the right to such of his inventions as do not concern the machines and processes of the production of the employer. Concerning the experienced mechanic who is working for the inventor in the practical achievement of his ideas there also arise doubts. If such a mechanic invents something new which improves the idea of the inventor, he can claim a certain part of the general invention. By the decisions of the courts in such cases, if the improvement does not change the fundamental idea or principle of the invention, the mechanic has the right to patent this certain part of the invention, but if the mechanic entirely changes the aspect of the machine, building it on a new principle, then the right to the patent belongs to him only.

(Editor's note: This is of interest, as most Russians in Chicago are workers).