PATENTS MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 1932 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, The committee met at 10 o'clock a. m., the Hon. William I. Sirovich (chairman) presiding. The CHAIRMAN. We will call this meeting of the Committee on Patents to order, and I am going to call upon Karl Fenning, master of patent law, patent lawyer of Washington, D. C., with an office in the Press Building, who has practiced law at Washington, New York, and Cleveland, specializing in patents, trade-marks, and copyrights. Mr. Fenning has been Special Assistant to the Attorney General, handling important patent litigation for the Government. He is a professor of patent law at Georgetown University Law School, and has written numerous articles on patents, trade-marks, copyrights, and so forth, for legal and technical papers. He has been chairman of the committee on laws and rules of the American Patent Law Association, the National Association of Patent Lawyers, that being the most important and most active committee of that association. He is chairman of the national committee on patent legislation, which is made up of representatives of all the patent law associations in the country, including the American Bar Association, patent section, American Patent Law Association, Boston Patent Law Association, Chicago Patent Law Association, Cleveland Patent Law Association, Dayton Patent Law Association, Michigan Patent Law Association, New York Patent Law Association, Philadelphia Patent Law Association, Pittsburgh Patent Law Association, and San Francisco Patent Law Association. He is a member of committees on patent law revision and copyright registration of designs of Patent Law Association and Association of the Bar of the city of New York. He has had much experience with legislative matters; has frequently appeared before committees of both House and Senate, and is author of several recent amendments to patent laws. Mr. Fenning, it is a great pleasure for me, as chairman of the Committee on Patents, to have you appear before this committee to give us the historical aspects of the Patent Office. STATEMENT OF KARL FENNING, WASHINGTON, D. C. Mr. FENNING. Mr. Chairman, I thank you. I come here to praise the patent system, not to bury it. Possibly, for the purpose of placing the amendments or changes or objections which will come before you, it might be well to give some |