_Monopoly privileges._--Government monopolies have been a favorite method in past ages of fostering particular enterprises. These are in the nature of an exclusive privilege, granted to individuals or corporations for the manufacture or sale of particular commodities, and occasionally for special public services. These were once a method of showing royal favor, and the word monopoly has in its very nature the idea of inequality. Hence they are unpopular under all circumstances, except when permanent and universal advantage is secured.
_License._--The monopoly of service is secured by the issue of a license. If granted through official favoritism, the wrong is easily appreciated; if granted to all who conform to necessary requirements for the general welfare, as in showing qualifications for teaching, compounding of drugs, or practice of medicine, the license is recognized as useful. In fact, it seems to furnish security for satisfactory governmental service, and is the basis of all promised reform in civil administration.
_Patent and copyright._--The chief illustrations of a genuine monopoly maintained by government authority are found in the patent upon inventions and the copyright upon publications. A patent is conferred upon the inventor of "any new and useful art, machine, manufacture or composition of matter, or any improvement thereof," upon proof that the invention is original, not previously in use anywhere, and likely to be beneficial rather than detrimental. This patent secures to the inventor the sole right to make, use or exchange articles manufactured after the pattern described, or upon the principle involved in construction. This monopoly is limited usually to a term of years supposed to be sufficient to secure to the inventor a reward for his exertion. The patent laws of the United States protect the rights of an inventor for seventeen years, entitling him to damages upon proof in the proper court of infringement upon his patent. Such protection extends, of course, only throughout the territory under the same government. It may be secured, however, in foreign nations under special regulation, so as to cover the most of the civilized world. The copyright serves the same purpose, and is limited in much the same way, for securing to the products of thought or of taste a proper reward for the powers exerted. It gives to an author control over publication of his thoughts during a period of twenty-eight years, in order that the users of his thoughts may actually pay what they are worth. This, too, is confined to the limits of the government issuing it, unless by agreement an international copyright is provided by the laws of the several countries.