Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-02-03
UNITED STATES
PATENT OFFICE
LACKS SYSTEM
More Than Year Required to
Secure Papers for Simplest
Kind Of Patent.
CONGRESS REFUSES AID
By FREDERIC j. HAsKIN.

inventor over a year to get even the
simplest patent in the United States, and
after he has gotten a patent it is far
from affording him the perfect protection
which it is supposed to give. The value
Of a United States patent is decreasing
year by year.
These are the outstanding facts which
have been presented to Congress In con-
nection with the Patent Office bill which
is now being considered there. They are
due to a small, underpaid force and O
consequent labor turnover which would
be ruinOus to any private concern.
That our patent system is not efficient
is due to no fault Of its employees. 1t is
almost impossible to get Congress to add
even a few more examiners to the stan
of the bureau, though the work is OBJ
viOusly getting heavier all the time.
When an invention is presented to the
bureau it is presumed that steps viii be
taken to decide whether it is eligible for
patent. And that is what the examin-
ers try to decide. But there are more
than 100000 United States patents, and
while these are divided into classes and
subclasses, the work of comparing the
new invention with all of its kind is
long and exacting job. And, as the num-
Der of patents is increased by some $4,000
each year, it necessarily takes longer
each year to make searches, or else they
must be less thorough. The latter alter
native is alone possible, because business
brought to the Patent Office Is steadily
on the increase as the inventive genius
Of the most inventive people on earth
fiOuTishes.
INCREASED FORCE IN
OFFICE HELP NEEDED.
This is the disheartenfng situation
which the patent examiners face 1t
now takes at least q year and a half
to put a patent through-the average
patent, with no complications. And I'M
less the force working on patents is in
creased to meet the heavier work and
salaries raised sufficiently to attract and
hold competent men, 1t will take longer.
Another result of an inadequate and
underpaid patent force is that a United
S.R>s patent grant is coming to mean
less and less. One judge recently told
the House Patents Committee that
patent was not a real protection to the
inventor until it had been through the
CONSEQUENTLY two or more Of them,
because the decision Of a Circuit Court
in one section of the country might not
be upheld by a court governing another
section. In other words, 1t is almost a
part Of patent procedure to expect a
lawsuit to prove priority Of your in
ventiOn or that you are not infringing
on some one else's rights.
Patent examiners have never been al
lowed to do their work thoroughly, as
the law provides. At the very beginning
of the system, in 1870, the statutes de-
creed that to be patentable an invention
must not only have been patented but
1t must not have been previously known
or used in this country. These last two
conditions were rewritten into the pat
ent examination system in 1886, but they
have never been taken seriously by the
OverwOrked Patent Office.
As matters stand now, what chance
| has an examiner to know If an invention
/ is really new provided it has not been
/ patented by some one else? All the ex-
! aminer can do is to make a cursory sur
vey of patents in the particular class to
which the device belongs to see that the
same idea is not embodied there. He
also decided whether theoretically the in
yentiOn is useful and practical, though
he has no means of actually seeing it
work.
TROUBLES INVOLVED
IN SECURING PATENTS.
After the patent is granted, perhaps
the inventor will find that some other
company is making the same kind of q
device without a patent and If he sueS
for infringement the company may be
able to prove that it had been making
the article for some years before the pat
ent was granted. The patentee, there
fore, would probably find that he had
not invented anything original after all;
that his patent was invalid, and that
be could not maintain his exclusive righs
to make the article in question. This is
why the judge said no patent is a pat
ent until it has been adjudicated.
Much of this patent litigation could
be dispensed with, If the Patent Offics
was allowed to work on more
thoroughly systematic basis. For In
stance, as one examiner points out, 1t
would DO quite possible to comply with
the statute about limiting patents to in
ventions that have never been made or
used before-that is to limit patents to
real inventions. He explains that if is
were made known that the Patent Office
was keeping a catalogue of unpatented
inventions, the man who produced
new device would be very apt to send
word to the Government so that the
date of his discovery would be officially
recorded. Then, in case of an applica-
ton for a patent on a similar invention,
the existence of the unpatented article
would be known and some Investigation
OF its status could be made.
If the examiners had more time they
could also weed out good inventions from
theoretical nonsense. One patent attor-
ney says that four out of five things
patented now are for worse ways Of do
ing something that is well done already.
Forty per cent of patents applied for
are refused, because the principle in
volved or the method of applying the
principle is not new, or because 1t is
obviously impracticable, or because the
invention is of no possible use. But the
average inventor is q gambler. and he
wants his idea protected even If 1t has
only one chance in thousand of success.
And in this he is often abetted by his at
torney. There are many patent attorneys
who would frankly tell a client that his
idea was not worth protecting. But
there are others who promote business By
encouraging the inventor in the belief
that his discovery is as good soma
on which other inventors have made for
tunes.
One of these inventions of doubtful
value comes to the examiner skilfully
worded by an attorney, so that theoreti-
cally It is eligible for a patent. 1t is
found to be new, and while it mag not
look like a gold mine in disguise to the
examiner, he has no time to test its
working ability or to compare it with
other devices for the same purpose in
usa He knows that there are a few
cases where very unpromising inventions
have made big successes, so he passes
il, and 1t becomes one more patent to be
thumbed over by searchers. And the in
ventor blssfully sinks his money into
it, not realizing that it is a liability
rather than an asset.
Some day we may have an independent