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Patent law
July, ~949.]
BOOK R E V I E W S
97
BOOK REVIEWS U.NRESTING CELLS,
by R. W. Gerard. 439 pages, 14 X 21 cm., drawings and illustrations. New York, H a r p e r and Bros., 1949. Price, $4.00. This is a re-issue of the first printing which came out in 1940. The author attempts to b r i n g to the intelligent layman some appreciation of the fundamental problems and the basic concepts of certain phases of biology. Since the emphasis throughout is upon the chemical and physical mechanisms governing biological reactions, careful reading is required, particularly in those sections dealing with cell substances and enzymes. "['his is made as easy as possible for the reader by the excellent organization and the careful selection of the material presented. With regard to a very few points, the author is on s h a k y ground. For example, it is doubtful if any living material could traverse interplanetary space without being killed by the radiation that would be encountered. I t is even more doubtful that bacteriolytic antibodies act as protein-digesting enzymes, or that the genic material in the chromosomes is protein in nature. Few other criticisms can be raised against the material here presented. Oversimplification of complicated concepts has been avoided and the amount of basic information that is provided is truly astonishing. Suggestions for further reading are not provided, nor is any simple bibliography furnished. The indexing, however, is excellent. LOUIS DESI'AIN SMI'n~ PATEN.T LAW, by Chester H. Biesterfeld. Second ed., 267 pages, 15 X 24 cm. New York, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1949. Price, $4.00, For its size, the volume under review is the most comprehensive known to the writer. The conciseness and the novel arrangement or grouping of the subject nmtter are due, at least in part, to the fact that the author did not deliberately attempt to write a book. The net result is q u i t e salutary. In most of its chapters, the book deals with various topics of patent law in a substantially standard manner, except for the brevity above noted. In certain other chapters, the a u t h o r makes exceptionally good presentations of certain other topics. For example: In Chapter I X the non-patentability of natural products and of "new uses" of old devices is clearly explained and this chapter should be valuable to a practicing lawyer who is ahvays having trouble convincing clients why their pet brain storm cannot be patented. In Chapter X X I , the necessity of making searches, independently of the Patent Office. and how such searches are made is treated for the first time in any book on patent law known to this reviewer. This too, should be of considerable help to a practicing patent lawyer in convincing clients as to why a search shouid be made and why searches to be worth making, cost as much as they do. In its sub-title, the book is said to be intended for "chemists and engineers." This may be true of the more general chapters of the book such as Chapter X I I I dealing with the application for patent, Chapter XVII dealing with Licenses (except for the part relating to price fixing which even lawyers find abstruse) and Chapter XVIII dealing with shoprights which, under certain conditions, employers may automatically acquire in the inventions of employees. But, and with all due respect to chemists and engineers, it is felt that the remaining parts of the book, and the book as a whole, belong in the library of a practicing lawyer rather than on the book shelf of a chemist or engineer. Unlike those who deal in the e x a c t sciences, the author, like all other authors on patent law, attempts to make tangible that which is intangible and to make objective that which is wholly subjective. Reduced to its lowest denominator, the main question is "What is invention" and a more subjective concept can hardly be imagined. The veritable plethora of cases deciding this point is, at best, good for the particular facts from which it arose and it is seldom that the facts in any two cases are exactly identical. This is only by way of pointing out difficulties attending a study of this question and not by way of detracting from the m e r i t of chapters II and III which constitute a well documented presentation. L o r e s NECHO
BOOK R E V I E W S
97
BOOK REVIEWS U.NRESTING CELLS,
by R. W. Gerard. 439 pages, 14 X 21 cm., drawings and illustrations. New York, H a r p e r and Bros., 1949. Price, $4.00. This is a re-issue of the first printing which came out in 1940. The author attempts to b r i n g to the intelligent layman some appreciation of the fundamental problems and the basic concepts of certain phases of biology. Since the emphasis throughout is upon the chemical and physical mechanisms governing biological reactions, careful reading is required, particularly in those sections dealing with cell substances and enzymes. "['his is made as easy as possible for the reader by the excellent organization and the careful selection of the material presented. With regard to a very few points, the author is on s h a k y ground. For example, it is doubtful if any living material could traverse interplanetary space without being killed by the radiation that would be encountered. I t is even more doubtful that bacteriolytic antibodies act as protein-digesting enzymes, or that the genic material in the chromosomes is protein in nature. Few other criticisms can be raised against the material here presented. Oversimplification of complicated concepts has been avoided and the amount of basic information that is provided is truly astonishing. Suggestions for further reading are not provided, nor is any simple bibliography furnished. The indexing, however, is excellent. LOUIS DESI'AIN SMI'n~ PATEN.T LAW, by Chester H. Biesterfeld. Second ed., 267 pages, 15 X 24 cm. New York, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1949. Price, $4.00, For its size, the volume under review is the most comprehensive known to the writer. The conciseness and the novel arrangement or grouping of the subject nmtter are due, at least in part, to the fact that the author did not deliberately attempt to write a book. The net result is q u i t e salutary. In most of its chapters, the book deals with various topics of patent law in a substantially standard manner, except for the brevity above noted. In certain other chapters, the a u t h o r makes exceptionally good presentations of certain other topics. For example: In Chapter I X the non-patentability of natural products and of "new uses" of old devices is clearly explained and this chapter should be valuable to a practicing lawyer who is ahvays having trouble convincing clients why their pet brain storm cannot be patented. In Chapter X X I , the necessity of making searches, independently of the Patent Office. and how such searches are made is treated for the first time in any book on patent law known to this reviewer. This too, should be of considerable help to a practicing patent lawyer in convincing clients as to why a search shouid be made and why searches to be worth making, cost as much as they do. In its sub-title, the book is said to be intended for "chemists and engineers." This may be true of the more general chapters of the book such as Chapter X I I I dealing with the application for patent, Chapter XVII dealing with Licenses (except for the part relating to price fixing which even lawyers find abstruse) and Chapter XVIII dealing with shoprights which, under certain conditions, employers may automatically acquire in the inventions of employees. But, and with all due respect to chemists and engineers, it is felt that the remaining parts of the book, and the book as a whole, belong in the library of a practicing lawyer rather than on the book shelf of a chemist or engineer. Unlike those who deal in the e x a c t sciences, the author, like all other authors on patent law, attempts to make tangible that which is intangible and to make objective that which is wholly subjective. Reduced to its lowest denominator, the main question is "What is invention" and a more subjective concept can hardly be imagined. The veritable plethora of cases deciding this point is, at best, good for the particular facts from which it arose and it is seldom that the facts in any two cases are exactly identical. This is only by way of pointing out difficulties attending a study of this question and not by way of detracting from the m e r i t of chapters II and III which constitute a well documented presentation. L o r e s NECHO