THE NATURE OF PATENTABLE INVENTION
by John E. R. Hayes '95, Addison-Wesley Press, Inc., Cambridge, Mass., 1945,176 pp., $5.00.
Patentable invention, as defined in this little book by John E. R. Hayes, is a metaphysical and at the same time an eminently practical concept. It is metaphysical in that its essence is the creative spark of genius which transcends mere mechanical skill. It is practical in that the law of patents, granting no recognition to an idea as such, rewards only those ideas which materialize into a physical mode of attainment and lead to a new and useful result.
Mr. Hayes' lawyerlike study of the nature o£ the patentable invention will not make the specialized field of patent law less forbidding to the attorney in general practise, but it does suggest (probably without meaning to do so) an interesting avenue for further research outside the domain of patents. The law. as we all know, does not concern itself with dreams but leaves them to psychiatrists. A disembodied flash of genius, however complete it may be in the mind of the inventor, falls outside the law of patents until such time as the inventor gives his brainchild a physical form. Similarly, intent to kill, the so-called mens rea of the criminal law, is not murder until it is accompanied by an act. And conversely, many acts do not become crimes unless they are "willful" or "malicious" or motivated by a criminal purpose. Between the idea and the act, the concept of electric light and the incandescent lamp, the intent or desire to kill and the act of killing, is a no man's land, a shadow world where our drives, desires, talents, inhibitions and all the other strange inhabitants of the human mind shape what our conduct is to be or not to be. The law, which is concerned with the adjustment of social relations, deals with conduct leading to specific and usually harmful social results. Psychiatry, for a not dissimilar end, analyzes conduct in terms of its subjective psychological antecedents. But as yet we know little about the governor that translates our ideas into acts, sorts out, polices and orders the hodgepodge of the human mind. Perhaps the law, in emphasizing the idea of purpose or intent, has suggested a clue that its related sciences could profitably explore.
