In 1631 he converted his landed property into money, and John Hampden, his cousin, a patentee of Connecticut in 1632, was on the point of emigrating.
In England it is customary to allow the patentee of one or other system to furnish his own designs, but this is as much because he has gained the experience needed for success as because of any special virtue in this or that system.
But it is in the design of steel concrete beams that the greatest ingenuity has been shown, and almost every patentee of a "system" has some new device for arranging the steel reinforcement to the best advantage.
But Bessemer was fortunate enough to maintain them intact without litigation, though he found it advisable to buy up the rights of one patentee, while in another case he was freed from anxiety by the patent being allowed to lapse in 1859 through non-payment of fees.
A patent gives a patentee the right to stop others from making, using, selling or importing their invention.