Exercises

I. Give Russian equivalents of the following phrases used in the text:

 

to perform an experiment, to be precise, to make sure, to be accustomed to, to be engrossed in something, to expose a film, to develop a film, to pump out air, to produce an interesting effect, variously shaped descharge tubes, to apply high voltage to a tube, to penetrate the walls of a tube, invisible rays, to be content with sommething, to initiate a new era.

 

II. Paraphrase the following sentences. Instead of the words and word-combinations given in the left column, use their synonyms from the right column.

to carry out an experiment	to perform an experiment
at the end of the year	late in the year
to be the result of	to be caused by
to get used to	to become accustomed to
to make do	to cause to do
to be absorbed in	to be engrossed in
to stand out	to show up
to be satisfied with	to be content with
to have	to be equipped with
to pass through	to penetrate

 

1. We may start the story with experiment carried out by a tall scholary professor of physics at the end of the year 1895.

2. Both the pink and the blue glow were the result of the collision of the electrons passing through the tube with the gas atoms.

3. His eyes got used to the blackness.

4. Some rays must be coming from the tube and making the cristals glow.

5. Dr. Roentgen was completely absorbed in his investigation of X-rays.

6. The details of the metal parts of his hunting gun stood out clearly on the photographic film.

7. He was not satisfied with photographing intimate objects.

8. He experimented with a Lenard tube which hed a thin aluminium window.

9. The new rays could pass through the glass walls of the tube and the cardboard in which it was wraped.

 

II. Correct the wrong statements using the following phrases:

 

it seems to be wrong; I am afraid you are mistaken; on the contrary; I can't agree with you; I don't believe that; to my mind; in my opinion; as far as 9 know; as is known.

1. Dr. Roentgen knew that in order to cause a Lenard tube to give off a grow he had to fill it with air.

2. When Dr. Roentgen first discovered his X-rays he lost all interest in them and turned his attention to a different problem.

3. He was a young student when he performed his historical experiment.

4. He could make his experiments only in a brightly lit room.

5. After Mrs. Roentgen had placed her hand on a photographic film and exposed it to X-rays, no traces of the hand were found on the film.

 

IV. Write a logical plan of the text.

V. Find key sentences in every paragraph.

VI. Make up a summary of the text, using the words from exercise 3.

VII. Write an abstract of the text.

Text 8

The US Patent System

Patents are widely regarded as being a means of protecting inventors. A patent gives an inventor exclusive rights to something he has invented and thereby enables him to share in whatever rewards the invention may being. That is certainly one of the functions of a patent, but it is only a secondary one. The primary function is social: the society that issues the patent gains access to the invention. If there were no patents, the inventor would benifit most if he could exploit his invention while keeping it secret.

The correct order of priorities is reflected in the language of the Constitution, which gives Congress power to "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries". The patent system that was thereby established, together with the patent system of other nations, has contributed profoundly to the advance of technology.

Patents originally applied to much more than inventions. The term comes from the Latin Litterae patentes, meaning 'letters patent" or "open letters". For 1,000 years sovereigns and other constituted authorities issued letters patent to proclaim the granting of a special privilege, franchise, monopoly, office, title or honor.

By the 16th century several nations were issuing patents that granted exclusive privileges of manufacture and sale to citizens who had invented new devices or processes. The patent law of 1770 stipulated that patents would be granted for "any useful art, manufacture, engine, machine or device or any improvement thereon not before known or used". In the came year the first US patent was issued to Samuel Hopkins of Philadelphia for "the making of Pot-ash and Pearl-ash by a new apparatus and Process". Hopkins patent was signed by President Washington.

In the beginning the requirements for obtaining a US patent were rather simple. The inventor filed a written description of his invention, accompanied by drawings and a model, and paid the fee, which was about $5.

Eventually the lack of examination led to a multitude of conflicting claims. In 1836 a Senate committee appointed to investigate the patent situation, reported" Many patents granted are worthless and void and conflict upon one another, and a great many law suits arise from this condition. Frauds develop. People copy existing patents. Take slight changes and are granted patents. Patents have become of little value, and the object of the patent laws is in great measure defeated".

The result of the investigation was the patent law of 1836, which required that all patent applications be examined to determine the novelty of the claimed invention.

In this country a patent is defined by the Patent Office, which is a part of the Department of Commerce, as a "grant issued by the United States Government giving an inventor the right to exclude all others from making, using, or selling his invention within the United States, its territories and possessions for a specified number of years. A patent, then, does not give its holder the absolute right to do something. The distinction is significant for two reasons. First, a patent does not provide immunity from other laws if in the process of putting an invention into practice the patent-holder comes into conflict with those laws. Like real property, intellectual property can be owned, used exclusively and protected, but it cannot be used to harm others or to deprive them of their rights.

Second, the issuance of a patent does not automatically mean that the state of the art in a particular field will be advanced or that the invention will be used or that someone will benifit by the new knowledge disclosed in the patent. Achievement of these objectives is the function of the process of innovation which is quite different from and in some independent of the process of invention. The definition of the two terms is important. Invention involves the conception of an idea; innovation is the process by which an invention or idea is translated into actual use.

What a patent system provides, in the form of a patent, is a quid pro quo between the inventor and society. He receives a limited monopoly, which gives him an opportunity for financial reward if the invention is translated into commercial reality; hence the patent system provides him with an incentive to invent.

Society receives the benefit of the inventor's insight. If one takes the long view, it is evident that the financial rewards obtained by inventors are more than offset by the society's gains from the enrichment of knowledge, the stimulation of technology and the growth of the economy.