Evening star., 1923-12-02

| before any action is taken
upon them, thus impeding the entire
| industrial life Of the United States,
and because even, although with an
additional force of forty-five exam
| iners and forty clerks since July 1,
the accumulation of some 10000 cases
which the Office now has in arrears
| is being decreased at the rate of
| about 1000 cases a month-it would
| take something like five years to
bring the patent office up to date
| with it's work-a drive for relief is
going to be made Immediately in
Congress.
The largest manufacturing indus
| tries in the country, as we'll as many
small plants, on specialized and ap-
| pliance work, are deluging members
of Congress generally with appeals for
relief from this situation in the pat
ent office, which is putting the
brakes on the manufacturing indus
! try. This reaches into practically
every home in the country, especially
through the employment furnished by
these factories.
! Work Asks Action.
| DR.. Hubert Work, Secretary of the
| Interior, under whose administration
| the patent office operates, has urged
| the necessity for immediate and ade-
/ quate relief upon Brig. Gen. Herbert
| NJ. Lord director of the bureau of the
/ budget, who is expected to Include
| recommendations to remedy the sit
uation in the budget which will be
laid before Congress tomorrow.
! Secretary Work will also emphasize
the need for prompt action by Con-
| gress in his annual report, which
will be made public this week Rep
| resentative Florian Lampert of Wis
! consin, chairman of the House pat
ents committee. is prepared to make
| a vigorous fight as soon as possible
after the House organizes to get leg
! islative action.
At least 100 additional examiners
are needed.
Remodeling the famous ould build
ing on the squares between f and G.
and 7th and 9Th streets to provide
additional Office space for examiners
and the building of a first-story steel
copies OF patents in the space now
occupied by the large court is rec
commended at cost of approximately
one million dollars
Need More Room.
In addition. at least one-half Of the
old land Office building which is
across + street from the patent Of
flee, should be made Immediately
available, those who have given the
problem close study advise. At least
| fifty more rooms are of vital neces-
| sity and would be a real economy
| with the existing force, while with
an increase Of 100 examiners, much
more room will be an absolute ne
| cessity to permit the patent office to
| perform the duties imposed by stat
! ute.
Every nook and corner in the patent
| office building now is used. including
| the ends of all the halls not used
! as exits. and also including the main
| entrance, on 9th street. The tech
nical work of the examiners cannot
be efficiently done in such makeshift
! quarters, and it is tremendous
waste to pay s2,5O0,O00 annually in
salaries and fail to provide room
where such technical work can be
properly performed, Chairman Lam
pert emphasizes.
After a personal inspection of the
premises, Secretary Work urged Gen.
Lord to approve estimates for these
changes saying:
| II am so impressed with the vital
necessity of relieving the patent Of
flee by providing more room to per-
nit it to perform the duties required
by statute and actually paid for by
inventors that 1 feel compelled to ask
| that you or your assistant, or both,
inspect the patent office before next
years estimates are acted upon by
the bureau of the budget.
| Taxed Beyond Capacity.
THE patent office building is taxed
beyond it's capacity. Every nook and
corner of the building is now used.
| The main entrance on 9th street and
the ends of halls are partitioned off
! and these and open corridors are al
| ready used for Office purposes. In
[ fact, many clerks and highly paid
| technical examiners are occupying
| space which is not fit for their use.
have carefully considered the tenta-
tive plans with Commissioner Robert
son and can not too strongly urge i'm
provements in the building, which
will change halls adapted merely for
exhibition purposes into modern
rooms suitable for offices, provide
economically accessible storage space
| for copies of patents 100000 being
] sold for $4,000 cash monthly and
shift the public service facilities from
| the upper floors to the street floor.
"a committee appointed by the su
perintendent of the State. War and
| Navy buildings (having charge of the
Patent Office building) has been pre-
pairing plans and estimates to submit
for the changes suggested by the COM
missioner
Reports Each Week.
Thomas E. Robertson, commissioner
of patents, receives every Monday
morning a batch of reports signed by
the chief examiner in each division,
showing how many cases each man
has cleared over his desk during the
week. These reports show the oldest
lnew case and the oldest case returned
for action (amended) before each ex-
aminer There are more than fifty
different patent divisions where spe-
cialized consideration is given to
particular patent, and in each of these
divisions there is a chief examiner
and a number of assistant examiners
~