PATENT RIGHTS by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 23, 1878

PATENT RIGHTS.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

It is astonishing that some of our brethren will still go into patent rights, after all that has been said on the subject. Do not these brethren know that the Lord has expressly warned us against dealing in patent rights? The testimonies have spoken on this point emphatically, time after time. Warning after warning has been given through the REVIEW, that our people should let these things alone. Our preachers everywhere advise our people to keep out of them. And yet every year there are hundreds of dollars lost from our ranks through dabbling in patent rights. I know of brethren who have lost from $500 to $2500 on this forbidden ground. After it was too late, they have said to me, “If I had only heeded the testimonies, and let the miserable things alone, how much better it would have been for me!”

Probably next year some others will have the same experience. The enemy makes them think that this particular patent right is an exception to the rule. It is not like any others. It is the very best in the world, a sure success. Large gains with little outlays and small risks are confidently expected. It is but a few days ago that a brother told me that he had lost nearly a thousand dollars by investing in a patent right which he thought would be a sure success. Said he, “Oh, if this could only have gone into the cause.” Yes; that ought to have been thought of before. I have just learned of another brother who has lost all he had in the world, even his home, by going into patent rights. He is one of our old brethren too, one who ought to have known better, but probably thought that the Lord would make an exception for him. How many more want to try it and get their fingers burnt?

D. M. Canright.