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i found this old sterling silver medal in a small town park. i never found out much about the medal and thought maybe someone here has found one also. the bottom part of the medal is close to the size of a half dollar. as you can see it was a "reward of genius" medal from a patent attorney. from what little i have found out about this guy is that he was a shyster back in the 1890's. any info would be appreciated on the medal. happy hunting..........roger
did a search on the term "john wedderburn & co. attorneys" and it turned up in a appendix as foot note references to a book that was in a .pdf file.
I didn't read the entire document but it looks like JW was disbarred in 1897 for operating an incorporated firm as a law office and never was really a lawyer; although operated like one and filed and registered patents. Notes went on to indicate that his company offered rewards to contestants who would bring his company the best inventions to patent. One reference was to offering an $1,800 award and only actually paying $150. Apparently his company would control the rights and then not pay royalties, just the less than advertised "award" for the patents.
Did not find reference to the medal in that document, but might presume it was part of, if not all of, the "award" for some of the patentable ideas.
tvr, thanks for the information......it seems lawyers haven't changed very much since then have they?....lol. it's cool to put some history to a find like that............roger
