[LB054233], Letter from Alfred Ord Tate to Dyer and Seely, November 10th, 1891
https://edisondigital.rutgers.edu/document/LB054233
Transcription
November 10, 1891.
Messrs. Dyer & Seely,
No. 38 Wall Street,
New York City.
Dear Sirs:-
With reference to your letter of 4th instant in regard to three applications {Nos. 733, 734 and 866} on certain improvements in phonographs which were covered by Mr. Edison’s lapsed English patent No. 1644 of 1878, and which application were filed for the reason, as stated in your letter, that there were some hopes the Courts would decide that an expired foreign patent would not limit the life of a subsequent United States patent, I beg to advise you that Mr. Edison, to whom your letter was forwarded, has now returned it with the following answer to your question as to whether it is worth while to take out the patents in view of the short time they would have to run:-
“May not the Supreme Court some day reverse all this! Use your own judgement. Of course I don’t want the patents for one year only, but if they can be held in office until Supreme Court decides the case they have before them, perhaps it might be worth while. Edison.”
I return herewith the tracings which accompanied your letter now under reply.
Yours very truly,
A. O. Tate
Private Sec’y.