[LB048084], Letter from Alfred Ord Tate to Dyer and Seely, March 4th, 1891
https://edisondigital.rutgers.edu/document/LB048084
Transcription
March 4, 1891. Mesers. Dyer & Sealy, #36 Wall Street, New York City. Dear Sirs:- I am very much surprised to learn from your letter of 3rd instant that you have sent the Austrian patent on the Toy Phonograph to the Toy Phonograph Company. This Company is simply licensed under Mr. Edison’s patents, and though they have paid the expense of taking out certain foreign patents, they have absolutely no right to the patents themselves, these belonging to Mr. Edison, and they should have been sent to Mr. Edison when you received them from abroad. We are now in litigation with the Toy Company, and the chances are that if they know Mr. Edison wants these original patents they will refuse to give them up until compelled to do so. Therefore if you are unable to get them back upon some other pretext, it will be necessary for you to obtain from abroad copies of the patents that are now in the hands of the toy Company, certified in such a manner as will render the copies as serviceable to us as the originals. What patents did you send to the Toy Company? Yours truly, (Signed A. O. Tate) Private Secretary.