Evening star., 1932-02-06
CONGRESS PROBE
| Of PATENT OFFICE
DELAYS ORDERED
House Committee Named to
Investigate Need of
More Employees.
88, ,3O2 APPLICATIONS
AWAITING EXAMINATION
Complaints From Manufacturers,
Inventors and Attorneys
Lead to Action.

| NullefOuS prOteStS tnat IL now re-
quires the Patent Office three years
and eight months to pass on patent
applications have resulted In an in
vestigation being ordered by a congress
| slonal committee to determine whether
TINS governmental agency is in need of
additional employees to keep up with
the pace set by the inventive world.
Chairman SiroVich, Democrat, New
| York, of the House Committee on Pat
ents said today his committee would
conduct the investigation because of
complaints received from manufac-
turers, inventors and patent attorneys.
| Today there are 88,302 patent appli-
| cations awaiting examination and an
additional $4,000 applications already
passed on by examiners, but held up
awaiting appeal action by attorneys,
according to the Patent Office records.
Probe Due Next Week.
| A subcommittee, composed OF Rep
resentatives Underwood, Ohio, chair
man; Dies, Texas, and Goodwin Min
nesota, is expected to start functioning
next week. This committees scope is
unlimited, Chairman Sirovtch said, and
all phases of the affairs of the Patent
Office will be gone into.
The investigation, however, Is not
considered by the committee as refec-
ton upon the Patent Office or its ad-
ministrative officials" the chairman as
serted. From hearings already con-
Quoted we are well satisfied that the
Patent Office is in proper hands"
| Thomas E. Robinson has been the
commissioner Of patents for the last 10
years and members of the committee to-
day praised his efforts of reorganization,
which during the time he has been in
office has brought the Patent ONCE up
to high level Of efficiency. Prior to
the time Commissioner Robinson took
Office he was for 80 years one of this
country's leading patent attorneys.
If 1t Is determined that the Patent
| Office has not a sufficient number of
patetn examiners" Representative Sir
ovich said, this committee will not
| hesitate to go before Congress with
recommendation for an increase in per-
| sonnet"
Revisions Considered
The chairman explained that for the
| past year the House Committee on
! Patents has been holding hearings to
ascertain whether the patent laws of
| this country, whtC44 ~,ere enacted in
| 1896, are in need Of drastic revision
He said the hearings have been con-
| Quoted in three phases, to determine
| the viewpoint of capital, inventors and
| the public
Testimony has been adduced from
| leading manufacturers and financiers,
scientists and newspapers and other pc
| rlodlcals dealing with the patent trade,
and Chairman Sirovich declared that
in the course of this investigation it
was brought out that the Patent Office
was unable to cope with the application
pace.
The primary purpose Of the United
States patent system, members Of the
committee pointed out, is to encourage
inventions and to secure for the public
the advantages of these inventions. The
| Patent Office, being the agency charged
with the responsibility of bringing to
! fruition the purpose Of the patent sys-
TEN, is therefore an exceedingly i'm
| portant organization.
! 1t is of such Importance, they assert
ed, that industrial, commercial and ag-
ricultural development is enhanced II
the Office is effective and retarded II
it is not. During the past two decades
the progress of industry has so stirnu-
lated invention that the Patent Once
has not been able to keep pace with it.
Inaccuracy Charged.
Inventors. manufacturers and patent
] attorneys have complained that the
work of the Office is not sufficiently &C
! curate and authoritative and that the
| time between filing of an application
and the issuing of patent is of such
| duration as to be serious handicap
to industry, it was sale.
| When President Hoover was Secretary
| Of Commerce similar complaints were
received and he appointed a committee
m ant CnT
| Of manufacturers, inventors and patent
attorneys to make an investigation. On
| April Is, 1926, this committee sub
mitted its recommendations, among
| which was one calling Tor more ex-
| aminers and another for a building to
cost not less than S8,500000 to house
this important agency?
The committee also approved many
| recommendations for reorganization
submitted by Commissioner Robinson,
| and in the conclusions Of its findings it
charged that the work of the Patent
Office ''is enormously and unnecessarily
| added to by the multiplicity of claims
| contained in applications.
AS the result of this investigation
! the movement to erect a new home for
! the Commerce Department gained con-
| siderable ground, and two years later
the contract for the erection of the
| S17,500,00 building which is now hous-
| ing this vast Government department
was awarded. Meantime the Patent
! Office continued to function in its 90
year-old building awaiting time to oc-
cupy its new quarters.
Personnel Increase.
It's personnel was increased, bringing
the total number of examiners up to
! 72O, divided into SO divisions, and the
total number of employees up to LAO.
The Patent Office personnel has been
| functioning in its new quarters for
| three weeks and Commissioner Robin
son, in report made public today,
! said the examining divisions have re-
sponded to the influence Of the new
Offices by establishing a net gain of
1929 cases this week, 972 cases the
second week and $50 cases the first
week.
The average net gain for the 10
weeks preceding the Christmas holidays
was $50 applications per week. he said.
It was estimated by various officials
of the Patent Office that the examin-
ing corps would go behind in its work
between 5000 and 10000 applications
office to the new building. Commis-
sioner Robinson said such was not the
| case, however.
The removal, he explained, has not
occasioned the loss of more than / 800
applications, the main loss occurring in
the week ending January 8, which
showed loss Of 988. The net gain Of
1929 this week shows the examining
corps Is making inroads into the vast
number of applications on file.