RULES, GOVERNING THE REGISTRATION OF PRINTS AND LABELS IN

THE PATENT OFFICE.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

Washington, D. C., August 15, 1913. The following rules, designed to be in strict accordance with the provisions of the copyright law, for the registration of prints and labels, are published for gratuitous distribution.

Applicants for registration and their attorneys are advised that their business will be facilitated by the observance of the forms on pages 13 to 15.

THOMAS EWING,
Commissioner of Patents.

CORRESPONDENCE.

1. All business with the office should be transacted in writing. Unless by the consent of all parties, the action of the office will be based exclusively on the written record. No attention will be paid. to any alleged oral promise, stipulation, or understanding in relation to which there is disagreement or doubt.

2. Applicants and attorneys will be required to conduct their business with the office with decorum and courtesy. Papers presented in violation of this requirement will be returned. But all such papers will first be submitted to the commissioner, and only returned by his direct order.

3. All letters should be addressed to "The Commissioner of Patents;" and all remittances by postal order, certified check, or draft should be to his order.

4. A separate letter should in every case be written in relation to each distinct subject of inquiry or application. Complaints against the examiner, assignments for record, fees, and orders for copies or abstracts must be sent to the office in separate letters.

5. Letters relating to pending applications should refer to the name of the applicant and date of filing. Letters relating to regis-tered prints and labels should refer to the name of registrant and number and date of certificate.

6. The personal attendance of applicants at the Patent Office is unnecessary. Their business can be transacted by correspondence. 7. When an attorney shall have filed his power of attorney, duly executed, the correspondence will be held with him.

8. A double correspondence with an applicant and his attorney, or with two attorneys, can not generally be allowed.

9. The office can not undertake to respond to inquiries propounded with a view to ascertain whether certain prints and labels have been registered, or, if so, to whom, or for what goods; nor can it give advice as to the nature and extent of the protection afforded by the

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law, or act as its expounder, except as questions may arise upon applications regularly filed.

10. Express, freight, postage, and all other charges on matter sent to the Patent Office must be prepaid in full; otherwise it will not be received.

ATTORNEYS.

11. An applicant may prosecute his own case, but he is advised, unless familiar with such matters, to employ a competent attorney. The office can not aid in the selection of any attorney.

12. Before any attorney, original or associate, will be allowed to inspect papers or take action of any kind, his power of attorney must be filed. But general powers given by a principal to an associate can not be considered. In each application the written authorization must be filed. A power of attorney purporting to have been given to a firm or copartnership will not be recognized, either in favor of the firm or any of its members, unless all its members shall be named in such power of attorney.

13. Substitution or association can be made by an attorney upon the written authorization of his principal; but such authorization will not empower the second attorney to appoint a third.

14. Powers of attorney may be revoked at any stage in the proceedings of a case upon application to and approval by the commissioner; and when so revoked the office will communicate directly with the applicant, or such other attorney as he may appoint. An attorney will be promptly notified by the docket clerk of the revocation of his power of attorney.

15. For gross misconduct the commissioner may refuse to recognize any person as an attorney, either generally or in any particular case; but the reasons for such refusal will be duly recorded and be subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior.

WHO MAY REGISTER A PRINT OR LABEL.

16. (a) The author or proprietor of any print or label, or his executors, administrators, or assigns, who is a citizen of the United States.

(b) An alien author or proprietor of any print or label, or his executors, administrators, or assigns, only as provided by section 8 of the copyright act approved March 4, 1909.

Any person to whom an author, who has the privilege of copyright in the United States, has transferred his copyright can apply for and obtain a copyright entry as a proprietor.

THE APPLICATION.

17. To entitle the author or proprietor of any such print or label or his executors, administrators, or assigns to register the same in the Patent Office, the application for registration thereof must be made to the Commissioner of Patents, and the said application should be signed by the author or proprietor, or by his executors, administrators, or assigns, or for the author or proprietor by duly authorized agent.

18. A complete application comprises

(a) A statement addressed to the Commissioner of Patents, disclosing applicant's name, citizenship, residence, and place of doing business; whether author, proprietor, or executors, administrators, or assigns of the author or proprietor; and, if proprietor, a disclosure of the citizenship of the author, the title of the print or label, and the name of the article of manufacture for which the print or label is to be used.

(b) Ten copies of the print or label, one of which, when the print or label is registered, shall be certified under the seal of the Patent Office and returned to the author or proprietor.

(c) A fee of $6.

(d) A statement of the date when the print or label was first published with notice of copyright. (See sec. 9 of act of Mar. 4, 1909.) 19. The title of the print or label must appear on the copies filed. 20. Pending applications are preserved in secrecy, and no information will be given without authority of the applicant respecting the filing of an application for the registration of a print or label by any person, or the subject-matter thereof, unless it shall, in the opinion of the commissioner, be necessary to the proper conduct of business before the office.

EXAMINATION OF APPLICATIONS.

21. The so-called print and label section of the copyright statute, approved June 18, 1874, is construed to provide for the registration of any print or label without examination as to its novelty.

22. All applications for registration are considered in the first instance by the examiner. Whenever, on examination of an application, registration is refused for any reason whatever, the applicant will be notified thereof. The reasons for such rejection will be. stated, and such information will be given as may be useful in aiding the applicant to judge of the propriety of further prosecuting his application.

23. The examination of an application and the action thereon will be directed throughout to the merits, but in each letter the examiner shall state or refer to all his objections.

AMENDMENTS.

24. The application may be amended to correct informalities or to avoid objections made by the office, or for other reasons arising in the course of examination, and if the copies of the prints or labels. furnished are for any reason not registrable under the copyright law, the applicant may substitute copies which conform to the requirements of said law.

25. In every amendment the exact word or words to be stricken out or inserted must be specified, and the precise point indicated where the erasure or insertion is to be made. All such amendments must be on sheets of paper separate from the papers previously filed and written on but one side of the paper.

26. After allowance, the examiner will exercise jurisdiction over an application only by special authority from the commissioner.

Amendments may be made after the allowance of an application on the recommendation of the examiner, approved by the commissioner, without withdrawing the case from issue.

27. After the completion of the application the office will not return the papers for any purpose whatever. If the applicant has not preserved copies of the papers which he wishes to amend, the office will furnish them on the usual terms. (See rule 38.)

SUBJECT-MATTER OF APPLICATION.

28. The word "print," as used in section 3 of the copyright act, so far as it relates to registration in the Patent Office, is defined as an artistic and intellectual production designed to be used for an article of manufacture and in some fashion pertaining thereto, but not borne by it; such, for instance, as an advertisement thereof.

29. The word "label," as used in this act, so far as it relates to registration in the Patent Office, is defined as an artistic and intellectual production impressed or stamped directly upon the article of manufacture or upon a slip or piece of paper or other material to be attached in any manner to manufactured articles or to bottles, boxes, and packages containing them to indicate the article of manufacture. 30. No print or label can be registered unless it properly belongs to an article of manufacture and is descriptive thereof and is as above defined.

APPEALS.

31. An adverse decision by the examiner who has charge of the registration of prints and labels, upon an applicant's right to have a print or label registered, will be reviewed by the commissioner in person, on appeal, without fee.

ISSUE, DATE, AND DURATION OF CERTIFICATE.

32. When the requirements of the law and of the rules have been complied with and the office has adjudged a print or label registrable, a certificate will be issued, signed by the Commissioner of Patents under the seal of the Patent Office. Attached to the certificate will be a copy of the print or label.

33. A certificate of registration shall remain in force for twentyeight years from the date of first publication.

34. The certificate may be continued for a further term of twentyeight years upon filing a second application within one year prior to the expiration of the term of the original certificate and complying with all other regulations with regard to original applications.

ASSIGNMENTS.

35. Prints and labels are assignable in law by an instrument in writing signed by the proprietor. This should state the names of the assignee and assignor, the title of the print or label assigned, the