Journal

OF THE

Patent Office Society

Published monthly by the Patent Office Society Office of Publication 3928 New Hampshire Ave., Washington, D. C. Subscription $2.50 a year

EDITORIAL BOARD

Single copy 25 cents

E. C. Reynolds, Chairman and Editor-in-chief.

A. H. Winkelstein, Case editor M. O. Price, Periodical abstracter. G. P. Tucker

E. R. Cole

W. B. Johnson

R. E. Adams

W. I. Wyman Max Tusker

M. L. Whitney, Business Manager (Room 182, U. S. Patent Office.) 3928 New Hampshire Ave., Washington, D. C.

N. E. Eccleston, Circulation.

Entered as second class matter, September 17, 1918, at the post office at Washington, D. C., under the act of March 3, 1879.

Publication of signed articles in this journal is not to be understood as an adoption by the Patent Office Society of the views expressed therein. The editors are glad to have pertinent articles submitted.

VOL. VIII.

December, 1925.

No. 4

COMMENT.

For the first time in five years the number of cases awaiting action by the office has fallen below 40,000. There were 39,891 such cases on Nov. 1. This represents. a gain of 19,069 since Sept. 19, 1924, and of over 2,000 since Sept. 18, 1925. A large proportion of the 100 temporary Assistants have now had sufficient training to enable them to do effective work and it is expected that heavy reductions will be made in the number of cases on hand during the coming winter.

INVENTION BUREAU.

Representative Bloom of New York is expected to introduce a bill in the next Congress providing for a Bureau to accept and experiment with inventions offered to the Government by private citizens. This Bureau would give all such inventions the consideration they deserve. If established this Bureau would probably be made a part of some existing Department as there is a growing sentiment against the formation of more independent organizations.

ART EXHIBIT.

The National Academy of Design held an exhibit of paintings at the Corcoran Art Gallery during November.

It is interesting to note that Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, was a painter and was the first president of this Academy. One of the exhibits was a portrait of himself which he painted. From money received from the sale of his paintings he met a large portion of the expense attendant upon the development of the telegraph. The first telegraph Office established by him at the corner of F and Seventh Streets where the present Patent Office Annex is now located.

Robert Fulton was also a painter and his portrait, said to have been copied by him from another painting, now hangs in the office of the Assistant Commissioner of Patents.

In the office of the Commissioner hangs a portrait of Thornton, the first superintendent of the Patent Office. This portrait is said to have been painted by Thornton under conditions similar to that in the case of Fulton. Mr. Thornton was also an architect and won the first prize in the competition for a plan for the U. S. Capitol building.

RESIGNATION OF ASST. COMMISSIONER
FENNING.

Assistant Commissioner Karl Fenning resigned on November 1925, to accept the position of special assistant to the Attorney General. The new office he assumes is one of considerable responsibility, having to do with all patent litigation in which the United States is a party. Mr. Fenning by reason of his practice in patent litigation while in private life and his varied experiences in the Patent Office, where he participated in the treatment of all the multifarious legal problems that arose, is unusually well-fitted to assume the cares of the new position.

His incumbency in the office of Assistant Commissioner has been characterized by zeal in administrative reform. The task of examining and studying the varied details of executive procedure is necessarily wearisome, but must be pursued thoroughly if results are to follow. Probably no other man in his position in recent years has had such a grasp of those details, or such a quick comprehension of them. He was instrumental in simplifying many of the printed forms used in the Office, which has led to substantial economies in time and expenditure. That this is a matter of vital importance must be evident from the mounting totals for printing, due to the increasing business of the Office, which will probably reach a million dollars for the present calendar year. He was concerned in the changes effected in the Trade-Mark Division, by which the public convenience was greatly promoted and examination of cases considerably expedited. The campaign for intensifying interest in the examining corps as a career for technical graduates so as to fill vacancies, and the changes in the character of the entrance requirements for both patent and trade-mark examiners, by which the standards were raised and determinations expedited, were strongly urged by him. The more expeditious methods of entering amendments under Rule 78, making amendments to the drawings, and

providing for certificates of correction were ordered over his signature. In general, he was an enthusiastic proponent of the Commissioner's policy to modernize the Office to make it a more effective instrument of public service. It is not violating any confidence or venturing into the unknown to hazard the guess that if it were not for the exhibition of drastic administrative reformis effected under the present Commissioner, his request for additional funds for the purpose of bringing up the work to date would have been probably received with indifference. The Appropriation Committee is inclined to help those Bureaus which help themselves, and the showing of economies effected and business expedited in the Patent Office in recent years must have been a large factor in the cooperation of the Appropriation Committee.

Mr. Fenning had large experience in litigation before the U. S. Courts, which provided him with a valuable basis for the treatment of many questions that came up before him. Especially was this so in connection with rules of evidence and with the treatment of many collateral questions for which purely Office experience was no guide. This was illustrated in the decisions, Carrier v. Slough, C. D. 1922, page 35, in which as much credit is given to an actual reduction to practice as is given the disclosure in an application; and in Lott v. Tucker, etc., C. D. 1924, page 15, where considerations of a multifarious character appeared. He always possessed a fresh point of view and never feared to take bold action and express himself in vigorous terms. In Slivinski v. Lane, 1922 C. D., 4, involving Rule 128; Tilden v. Snodgrass, 1923 C. D., 30, under Rule 122; and in Carrier v. Slough referred to, concerning Rule 157, there were inaugurated new procedures in interference practice. In Tilden v. Snodgrass, the statement of the facts concerned was all that was found necessary to indicate the reasons for the new practice. It was one of the shortest decisions ever printed and yet one of the clearest.