Evening star., 1909-08-21
DEFENDS HIS OFFICE
Patent Commissioner Moore
Answers Local inventors.
SAYS EXAMINERS ARE ABLE
Work Of Office Has Doubled in Ten
Years.
ISSUES 800 PATENTS A WEEK
Since Congress Gave More Money
Much Better Men Have
Been Secured.
SAYS EXAMINERS ARE ABLE
ISSUES 500 PATENTS A WEEK

E,ward b. Moore, commissioner OF
patents, is not disposed to take seriously
the criticism of his Office by the organic.
ers of a society OF Washington inventors
at their meeting in Eagles Hall last
Thursday night. Mr.. Moore has been in
the patent office for twenty-six years. He
was promoted from deputy commissioner
to commissioner in June, 1907. Conse-
quently he is in a fair position, all things
considered. TO speak with authority OF
patent office matters.
The criticisms directed at the patent
office were to the effect that inventors are
handicapped by the ignorance of exam
iners. which enable corporations to cheat
small inventors out of their rights: that
the methods of the Office are antiQuated
and sorely in need of improvement, and
that protection is thrown around the
infringer rather than the inventor.
Such criticisms will not hold water,
said Commissioner Moore to a Star re.
porter today, because they are not found
ed on fact. They refer, not to present
conditions, but to past conditions, which
existed before Congress gave us sufhcien,
money to run the office.
I'm the first place an American patent
can be obtained much more cheaply thar
a patent in any European country. Fol
So or $40 an inventor may have an exami.
nation made by a competent attorney, OIL
for $15 he may deal directly with the de.
partment, provided he can write his owr
application, and obtain his patent out.
right. 1t is always better to deal with
specialist and knows how to properly pre-.
sent the case. In most foreign countries
it costs an inventor $500 to get patent.
'Of course, it frequently happens thai
patent attorneys charge large fees. But
that is a matter that cannot be regulated
by the department any more than regular
attorneys tees can be regulated.
Have Improved Office.
"Since Congress gave us an increased
appropriation we have improved the pat
ent office force materially. Salaries were
increased all along the line and we are
getting better men, In former times 1t was
almost impossible for us to get men from
the civil service commission, because the
salaries were SO low that good men would
not take the examinations Now most OF
our examiners are graduates of technical
colleges. We get them from the Sheffield
Scientific School of Yale, the Massachus-
etts Institutes of Technology. the Sibley
School Of Cornell, the Worcester Institute
of Technology and many from foreign
THE examination is rigid and when a
man passes it he is qualified to do the
work called for. Another feature of the
changed conditions Is the reduction in the
percentage of designations. Before we got
our increase the designations amounted
to about 30 per cent a year. The men
would get offers from corporations and
their self-interest demanded that they
leave the departmnt and better them
selves. Last year our designations
q Yron fod f.. hn.
I'VE are now issuing twice as many
patents as we were ten years ago, aver
aging about 500 a week. Since the patent
office was created, about 1OJ years ago,
we have issued 931.711 patents in all,
bringing the figures up to August II, 1903
The total number of patents ISSUED by all
other countries amounts to about 2.OOO,
OOO so that the United States has issued
nearly one-half of all the patents in
existence.
The State Department as we'll as Con-
gress is taking the keenest interest in
the Patent Office Several important
treaties have been drawn up and will
soon be ratified which will have the ef-
feet of improving the international patent
laws materially and will result in great
benefit to inventors all over the world.
"At present we are busy looking for
a place to store our old models, There are
15I 600 of these. all made prior to 1850
when We stopped receiving models. Dur
were so poor that we had to have models
but about 1880 thes drawing improved
and it was no longer necessary to have
models.
Expensive to Store Models.
THE cost of storing the models has
| been considerable and an effort was made
to have them destroyed. The patent
Office opposed this. 1t has been my con-
tention that the models should be pre-
served because they are frequently need
ed as evidence in court. We have taken
them out OF the Union building, however
and they are packed in boxes in the base
| ment of the Interior Department building
A new repository will be found for then
in few days
Speaking of the coming convention OF
the International Association for the Pro-
lection of Industrial Property, an organi-
zation composed of the patent officials
of the world, Mr.. Moore said 1t will be
held in Washington in May, 1910. Con.
gress. after a struggle, appropriated S1O,.
| 900 for the entertainment of the Visitors