The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-05-16
THE CROWD WILL NOT DOWN.
HORDE OF OFFICE SEEKERS STILL
FLOODING WASHINGTON.

| cations For Patents Average 125
Day-HOw Patent applications Are
Observation-Disclosures Made by Conn
missioner Seymour Who Has just
Taken Charge of the Patent Office.
Power of Bureau Chief.
Washington, May 14.-And still the crowd
of oAice-seekers floods the city. And still
the assault on the civil service wall of
decentralization continues. There is more
trepidation among those who are in office,
and an increase in indignation among
| those who are out of it. At the skirt of
the array of ofice-seekers is the usual
spring influx of inventors. Both office
seekers and inventors are at the mercy in
many cases of bureau chieftains There
seems to be a tendency toward despotic
rule, not only in the House, but in the de-
partments as well. Congress may pass
laws at will, and the President may sign
them, but that is not the end of it. Some
obscure corporal in legislation, quartered
in the treasury department of elsewhere,
will take 1t upon himself TO declare them
unconstitutional. without waiting for ac-
ton by the supreme court.
There has been change in the patent
Office. Resolute John S. Seymour has re-
tired and genial Ben Butterworth has
again resumed the toga. Applicants and
attorneys were nearly all dissatisfied with
Mr.. Seymours administration. They re-
garded him as arbitrary, if not unreason-
able. Before his incumbency, applicants
for patents We're allowed two years in
which TO complete their applications.
When completed they were examined in
due course If the application was reject
ed the inventor was allowed two years in
which to amend his case or seek recon
sideration. All this was done under an
act of congress passed in 1861.
Occasionally a shrewd inventor or at
torney applied the law to his own advan-
tage and the disadvantage of the public.
Through technicalities he kept his appli-
cation pending for years But there were
| very few such cases-not one in hun
dred Mr.. Seymour recommended to con-
| gress that it enact legislation which
would stop such practices, by shortening
the time allowed an inventor in which 10
complete and prosecute his case. Con-
| gress paid no attention to the Tecommen-
dation. Thereupon Commissioner Sey-
mour determined to apply remedy with
out waiting for congress.
The applications for patents filed aver
age about 125 day. There are thirty-dve
principal examiners, with perhaps 200 as
sistants Every examiner and every as
sistant examiner has his own specially.
Let US take the case, say, of a poor in
Ventor living in Oregon. He makes a val
liable invention and desires to obtain a
patent. He sends his application with SIS
to the commissioner of patents. 1t is re-
ferred to the examiner having charge of
| hat a1ac af inv lone ic &c
duty to reject it, IL anything can be found
on which to base a rejection. Nearly Co.,,
900 patents have been granted in the Unit
ed States, and probably more than mil
lion in the rest of the world. If any of
these anticipate the invention, the exam
iner must reject the application. 1t is not
necessary that exactly the same thing
should have existed before for if any
thing substantially similar can be found
the applicant must go to the wall. But
more than this, if anything similar has
been described in any printed publication
in any language anywhere in the world.
or if without being patented or described
in print it has been used anywhere in
the United States, the examiner should
reject.
The rub comes all the time upon the de-
gree of similarity which will constitute an
anticipation of the invention. A tremen-
dous responsibility, 1t will be seen, is thus
| thrown upon the examiner. He wants to
be safe 1t is both his pride and his duty
not to allow patent to go out that ought
to have been rejected. The consequence is
that a great many examiners reject al
| most everything on the first examination.
No matter how broadly new the invention
may be, something can always be found
that is akin to it. The nearest thing that
can be found is used as a basis for re-
lection.
The Oregon man In due time receives
Al /. 1s,e,
been examined and rejected. He sends to
Washington and gets a copy of the pat
ent upon which the rejection is based.
He has been working at the thing for
years, while the examiner spent perhaps
a day on it, He sees al once that an in
Justice has been done him. With a SUI
perfcial resemblance between his inven-
tion and the patent, there is a vital diff
ference. Often the examiner Is right in
rejecting the words of the claim filed,
/ while the invention shown in the draw
| ings and described In the specification Is
novel and valuable. If the inventor can
raise the money to come to Washington.
with his model. and especially if he can
| employ a good lawyer when he gets to
| Washington, he may readily convince the
| examiner that he has right to a patent
and that the words of his original claim
| did not exactly describe his invention.
The examiner while strictly conscienti-
GUS often sympathizes with the inventor,
and is willing to put himself out Of the
way to assist him. In some cases, seeing
that the inventor is too poor TO pay an
| attorney, he drafts his claims for him.
But at the same time IL must be remem-
bered that the same examiner who orig
inally rejected the application Is the Judge
| who rehears the case. He Is usually slow
to reverse his own prior decision. All the
conditions are against the applicant If,
however his claim Is rejected upon the
second examination, he has the privilege
| OF appealing. first. TO the board OF exam
| iners-fn chief and, from that board, to
the commissioner, and from the commits
sloner to the court OF appeals of the Dis
trlct OF Columbia. The last Is the end Of
! the cul-de-sac
Under the law Of 1861 the applicant had
two years in which to secure a reconsid-
Grafton Of his case. and two years In which
to appeal. This gave him time 10 attend
70 his other business and 10 raise money
TO employ a lawyer or 10 come to WASH
inRton himself.
such was the procedure under Mr.. sey-