THE LAW OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTYFOOTNOTES CHAPTER 1 <fn1> [*22] Some persons object to this principle for the reason that, as they say, a single individual may in this way, take possession of a whole continent if he happened to be the first
discoverer ; and might hold it against all the rest of the human race. But this objection arises wholly from an erroneous point of view of what it is, to take possession
of a thing. To simply stand on a continent and declare oneself to be the possessor of it, is not to take possession of it. One would, in that way, take possession only of what his body actually covered. To take possession of more than this, he must bestow some valuable labor upon it, such for example, as cutting down the trees, breaking up the soil, building a hut or a house upon it, or a fence around it. In these cases, he holds the land in order to hold the labor which he has put into it, or upon it. And the land is his, so long as the labor he has expended upon it remains in a condition to be valuable for the uses for which it was expended; because it is not to be supposed that a man has abandoned the fruits of his labor so long as they remain in a state to be practically useful to him.
<fn2> [*26] "To discover," and to "take possession of," and idea,
are one and the same act; while to discover and take possession of, a material thing, are separate acts. But this difference in the two cases cannot affect the principle we are discussing. |
