The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-06-03
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM A TON
URE AU
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington. d. C
OUR ANTIQUE PATENT OFFICE

| Washington, D. c., June If you
invent a new hair tonic or a carbon
resisting spark plug, you must APP
proach the patent office by way of
patent attorney, at considerable ex-
pense; you must wait a long time
while an overworked examiner is get
ting around to your invention; and its
practical lity will finally be, passed
upon by this man, who does not earn
| so much as a master mechanic, and
has to work nights deciding upon the
merit of inventions. The record of
your patent, if you get one, will then
be stored in a building which has once
burned down, and is far from fire.
proof now.
The patent office is an antique. 1t
pays salaries that were good fifty
years ago and are pittances now. 1t
has a force that was adequate before
the Civil war and is swamped by the
present volume of business. And it
has a building that was once regarded
as enormous, and is now wholly in
adequate.
The patent office should encourage
and foster the inventive genius of
which America is supposed to possess
SO much. It should make 1T easy for
the inventor to get patent when his
idea is practicable; it should protect
! him and his patent thoroly; and it
| should aid in the development of
| great inventive ideas with scientific
advice. funds and laboratory service.
In a word, the patent office should
be leader of the inventive brains of
| America; instead of which it is drag.
These facts have been evident to
| the judicious for some time, and they
have been officially reported by the
| patent committee of the national re-
search council, which was appointed
! by Secretary of the Interior Lane to
| find out what was the matter with the
patent office and to recommend plan
| of improvement. The committee
| recommended that the patent office
be taken out of its obscure corner as
a part of the interior department, and
be made a separate government de-
| partment. Secretary Lane has made
it known that he is opposed to this
measure. What will be done, there
thing must be done, and soon, to put
our patent office on a par with those
of other leading civilized nations.
The committee which made this in
vestigation consisted of investors pat
ent lawyers, and an commissioner
of patents, Thomas Ewing. Besides
independence for the bureau, it recon-
mended increased salaries, increased
working force, and single court of
patent appeals to take the place of the
existing nine patent courts.
In support of its recommendation
4 that the patent office be made an in
dependent department, the committee
points out that a bureau thus emanci-
pated has always developed remark
ably. A case in point is the depart
ment of agriculture, which used to be
only a little seed distributing bureau
When 1t was made Independent it de-
veloped rapidly into the greatest de-
partment of the government.
In its infancy, a hundred years ago,
| emf ha
tege of Thomas Jefferson and other
influential statesmen, and it flour
ished accordingly; but in the past few
decades it has fallen into the back
ground.
When Jefferson was secretary of
state, he and the secretary of war and
the attorney general made a commits
sion of three to grant patents. When
an inventor came to Washington with
his model or idea, the three cabinet
officers stopped other work to study
the invention, which might be des-
tined to revolutionize industry. So
carefully did the court of three con-
slider each case that during the first
year of their term, only three patents
were granted, and only thirty-three
the second year.
Now inventions pile into the patent
office so rapidly, and the working
force is comparatively so small that
many patents are granted which in
SnOulQ
be denied. If suit were brought on
all patents granted, says a prominent
patent lawyer, so per cent would be
declared invalid. This is only an
opinion, but actual conditions show
that patents are proved invalid in rs
per cent of the patent suits.
This state of affairs does not reflect
on the individual efficiency or char
acter of the patent office employees
The bureau has more work than it can
properly 90. and many OF the patent
examiners take work home in order to
keep up with the ever increasing num-
Der of applications.
A trip thru the patent office shows
clearly the difficulties under which
the employees work. The building,
termed grand and majestic by writers
half century ago, is now too small
for patent office needs. The famous
museum of patent models long ago
gave up the space it occupied to Of
$ flee desks. Even so, examiners are
, crowded sometimes five and six into
a room. If an inventor brings in a
model for demonstration, the exam
liner has only his desk or the office
t corridor in which to test it.
Filing cases line all the walls and
form high partitions, shutting off
light from some of the desks. These
filing cases contain copies of all the
l patents issued, arranged by classes
The number of patents in a class is
of course always increasing. which
means that more room is needed, and
S also that the examiner must work
: longer on each case.
q Besides being altogether made
quate, the building has been declared
L unsafe from fire. And this is the
= building that houses the nations col
S lection of patent records-a collection
the value of which cannot be esti
mated, and one that could never be
replaced if destroyed. In 1877, fire
g destroyed photo-lithograp hic copies Of
t drawings which were replaced with
q difficulty at a cost of 100000. Eighty.
seven thousand models were lost il
that fire. and it was confined to one
section of the building. Yet no sug
I gestion that a new, fireproof paten