The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1857-08-11
THE PATENT OFFICE.


readers those of gentleman who has, with no in
considerable labor, brought together, for his own
convenience, the statutes and decisions relative to
patent laws, and is therefore familiar with both
The constitution expresses It's own object, with the
limitation of power under it, when it provides that
Congress shall have power to promote the progress
of science and useful arts by securing for limited
times authors and inventors the exclusive right to
their respective writings and discoveries"
In 1890 Congress- passed law authorizing inven-
tors to present petitions to the Secretaries of State
and War, and the Attorney General and on proper
examination the President was clothed with power
to grant patent for fourteen years. Penalties
imposed upon those who should violate the rights
conferred, with power to the Judiciary to adjudicate
repeats in certain Letters patent were de-
clared pra aee evidence in favor of the patentee.
The fees payable by the applicant were merely NOM
inal-not amounting in all to four dollars.
In 1893 this act was repealed and another enact
ed, authorizing the petition to be presented to the
Secretary of State, and requiring the Attorney Gen
eral to certify that the proposed letters
formabe to law before signing the patent by the Pres
iden This act in substance, authorized patent to all
might describe and claim invention, but render
ing the void if the paentee not in fact the
first original and true inventor. 1t provided for
eating patents improperly granted, through the in
strumentality of the Judiciary notice to the pat
entee in certain The patent fee raised to
thirty dollars at which it continues except in case
of aliens, which the act of 1886 fixes at FIVE hundred
dollars. By many this is deemed the most useful
patent law passed. 1t made it the duty Of APP
plicants to examine their claims to patent and
to determine for themselves whether the same was
patentable 1t authorized the setting aside, under
certain circumstances of patents not sustained in the
courts and which ought not to have been granted.
This, like the former act confined grants of patents
to citizens of the United States. That of 1900 ex-
tended the privilege to aliens and regulated the dam
ages recoverable for infringing patent giving three
times the actual damage sustained Some think these
penalties preferable to unliquidated damages
The act of 1919 first conferred direct authority upon
the United States circuit courts in patent cases,
though now, by the act of 1885, it has exclusive ju-
risdction. 1t is questionable whether this produces
that uniformity of decision designed while it is often
very inconvenient to litgants. The aot of 1882 au
thorized the surrender and reissue of patents in
cases where the patentee by mistake had claimed
what he did not invent Another act of the same
year extended the privileges of aliens Up to this
time the business of granting patents had pertained
to the State Department.
great change in the law was provided by the
act of 1886, organizing distinct Office and requiring
the signature of the Secretary Of State to patents and
creating the office of Commissioner. Henry L. Els
worth the first Commissioner. The right to deter
mine whether an applicant claiming to be the in
ventor should receive patent was transferred from
the Secretary of State and Attorney General to the
Commissioner, who was provided with examiners to
assist him, with final appeal to a board
now to one of the judges Of the circuit court
for the District of Columbia. The circuit courts are
empowered to order patents and cancel them when
wrongly granted refused before the Patent Office
The act provides for surrenders and reissues in cases
of mistake, but to annu void patent as
was clearly shown though much needed in the third
circuit, when there over one hundred cases de-
pending upon one patent claimed to be void 1t is
insisted as defect in this law that it confers upon
the circuit court exclusive jurisdiction in all contest
ed cases arising under patents, excluding the
authority of State tribunals which are supposed to
be equally competent and much more convenient for
parties. But greater one it is claimed, consists in
the power conferred upon the Commissioner to re-
fuse patent when adequate means are provided
for trying the claimants rights In practice it is in
sisted that, since the change of the law, the great
object seems to be to escape condemning scrutiny
by the examiners and Commissioner and to resort to
delphic language, to be interpreted way before
them and another before the courts patent once
came before Judge Grier, in the eastern district of
Pennsylvania which had been the subject of several
adjudications in other States, in no two Of which
did the patentee claim that it meant the same thing.
The provisions of the act of 1885, with its alterations
in 1887, 1889, 1872 and 1S4s, are STILL from the
loose manner of their framing subject of much UNI
certainty and conflicting opinion in the Patent Office,
before the courts and in the public mind If the de-
sign had been to confuse the public mind and create
doubts among those interested, Congress could not
have been more successful. This uncertainty has
led and will for years to come, to vexatious pro-
ceedngs in the Patent Office, and endless litiga-
ton before the courts Several circuit courts are
crowded with patent that all other business
is for weeks at time, substantially blocked up
The act contains provisions so full of alb
surdty that trial seems to be nearly
impossible while the difficulties greatly height