Inventors as Trust Hirelings

“The applications for patents come mainly from professional inventors. The largest number of applications come from the great trusts—the United States Steel Company, the great electrical companies, the harvester trust and the automobile trust. These trusts employ hundreds of inventors to devise improvements of their machinery. They are paid large salaries in many instances, and the business is gradually falling almost completely into their hands.”

Report of Asst. Commissioner of Patents, U.S.A., 1907.