Evening star., 1914-04-19

| in the history of American invention If
the business of the United
| Increase In States patent Office con-
p..4 tinues at its present rate
of increase. In a special
report prepared for Patent Commissioner
Thomas Ewing yesterday much interest
ing information is made public. AS is
generally known, the United States pat
ent office is practically the only branch
of the government which is entirely self
sustaining, its income received from pat
ent and trade mark fees and sales of
printed copies of patents amounting each
year to more than the total expenditures
for running the office
Inc report made to Commissioner
Ewing yesterday showed that on the
second Thursday of April the office had
eotai receipts of more than $4,000, the
largest Tor any single day since the gov
eiliiheht began to grant patents in 1886.
mere nave been days, of course-Mon-
oass or on the day following a holiday,
"heh Two days receipts were counted
ds ohe-When this amount has been ex-
ceeoed' out business for Thursday, April
. reached the high record for a single
.I Ieceipts The report shows that
.he patent office receipts for the Grst
SO oon oiiohths OF this year were nearly
so66-oo0, against less than sseS oi.n fas
last year. March business was ~
larsest of any of the three months ond
t,ie increase promises to continue tbrougb
ti1e year. If this proves to be tho 80,
~ l .otal amount of cash receipts for
.ie year would be far in excess Of the
record business for 1912 vhep tba ..,
income was $o11SO 1000 Ai
Iie[e Is an interesting story back Of the
lisures which show Uncle Sans increase
astiNlties .,':l.. IN issuing patents When Com
missioner Thomas Ewing cama int oeHa.
about a year ago he felt that lo,a'J.fa,.os
dpplcauons for patents and the operafion
u q tine-consuming system of amending
| .asenes we're the principal abuses of the
an,eiLcah ~, l patent system. Many old cases
+h .,u oeen delayed by the applicants for
lhe patents for long time, in some cases
as long as fifteen years.
one reason for delaying applications is
lhat on a certain class of patents in
yeh1ors believe there will be a greater
.1e telihana Tor the article in future years
than there is at the present time For
this reason every thing possible Is done to
protect their idea after the application
mas oeen once filed and to delay the date
OF ilnal issue of the patent as long as nos
slole, ihe law allows one year in which
TO make answer to various Ietters Com,
missioner Ewing found that there was a
sclent1flc system of delaying applications
Dy certain patent attorneys using the
hHit OF time allowed to make answer to
t lesteIs written about the patents for
"n,cn they had applied.
Ihe number of applications for naferts
aeiayed more than five years is less than
3.UO. AS there are 125, 900 applica tons
IN the patent Office. 1t can be seen that
anout per cent of the applications have
been slowing up the work of the office
ihe fact that 96 per cent of the applica-
tons went through the office in less than
llVe years and that the average applt-
cation went through in less than two
years convinced Commissioner Ewing
tlme-consuming tactics of the appli-
cants OF the eighty-one applications
which he found in the Office January 1
whlch We're older than fifteen years, he
mas already reduced the number by
eighteen. or nearly 30 per cent
Commissioner Ewing has not been slow
TO let those patent attorneys know that
ne does not like this dilatory and time
consuming system of delaying applica-
tlons Tor patents. His expression Of dis
up dilatory applicants who have tried
to hold back the time for the final issue
or their patents. This cleaning I'D of
business which has, been delayed
through no fault Of the men in the pat
ent office. but because of the applicants
themselves. has resulted in greatly In
creased receipts by the office. In the be-
lief of Commissioner Ewing 1t may be-
come possible, with proper administra-
ton, to limit the time during which an
appllcatlon for patent may be kept pend
ing In the office to less than FIVE years
and perhaps to less than three wears
Ihe commissioner of patents hopes that
the announcement that the patent office
officers dislike the dilatory tactics of the
applicants in delaying the issue of pat
enfs will be sufficient to insure the speed
ing up of the work and the cutting down
Of the list of delayed applications If
the announcement is not sufficient the
commissioner will consider the propriety
and wisdom of having old applications
published. thing which has not been
done In the past. There Is no law against
this. although the rules and custom Of
the office have been to preserve applica-
tions in secrecy If these means, which
the office has adopted to encourage law
yers to transact their business promptly
are not effective 1t is likely that Commits
sioner Ewing will recommend corrective
legislation at the next regular session
X
Government statisticians have lust
completed the first thoroughgoing study
and summing up OF the
Safety-First results of the safety
r.4 first movement. Using
eA'' the United States census
figures as a basis Of calculation, the sta
tistical experts show that the safety
first idea has been a most important
force in human conservation.
The safety-f1rst movement got its
start in 1903, when the government be-
gan a nationwide campaign for safety
in the coal and metal mines. During the
previous year the death rate for all kinds