inevitably provoke smiles. A series of accurately kept scores made by absolute beginners over corresponding courses during the first year of their golf experience would contribute material of genuine value for students of psychology, particularly those of the behavioristic school. If those who start their golf this year would be willing to keep such scores consistently and accurately and to hand them to someone interested in that sort of research they would be making a genuine contribution. EMERSON STRINGHAM, Chairman. Journal OF THE Patent Office Society Published monthly by the Patent Office Society. Office of Publication 3387 Stuyvesant Place, N. W., Washington, D. C. Subscription $2.50 a year Single copy 25 cents Max W. Tucker, Editor-in-Chief. A. H. Winkelstein, Case editor. M. O. Price, Periodical abstracter. Wm. I. Wyman E. R. Cole Emerson Stringham G. P. Tucker R. E. Adams A. S. Greenberg W. B. Johnson C. C. Pidgeon M. L. Whitney, Business Manager (Room 182, U. S. Patent Office.) 3319 Stuyvesant Place, 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. IX. APRIL, 1927. No. 8. COMMENT. New Patent Legislation. Five new statutes approved by the President during the period of February 7 to March 3, 1927, constitute a land mark in the progress of patent practice of which there is perhaps no equal since the establishment of the Patent Office. The diversity of subjects covered renders inaccurate characterization but the tenor of these new statutes is to accelerate the tempo and to avoid lost motion. The full text of the statutes will be published soon in the Official Gazette. One of the acts requires that patentees shall designate patented articles with the patent number instead of the date as heretofore. Another increases by one member, the number of examiners-in-chief, imposes an additional fee of $1.00 per claim for all claims in excess of twenty upon applications as filed and again upon patents as granted. In connection with this statute Commissioner Robertson, during the course of an exposition that he made for the examining corps on the afternoon of March 11, 1927, pointed out that 92% of the applications filed have less than twenty claims so that the excess fee provided by the new statute will fall upon the small minority whose applications and patents include a large number of claims. The third act, in cases where the District Court has held the patent valid and infringed, and where the patent has expired, permits an appeal to the Court of Appeals before instead after accounting proceedings, so that if the upper court reverses the lower court, all the expenses of an accounting will be saved. The act approved March 3, 1927, permits the bringing of an equity suit in cases where it has been heretofore impossible to bring suit because the defendants were residing in different states or in foreign countries. The act approved March 2, 1927, includes the bulk of the new provisions and it will be sufficient here simply to indicate the more significant of these. The time for response to office actions, including appeals, and the renewal of forfeited applications, is cut in half. The old board of examiners-in-chief is replaced by a "Board of Appeals," consisting of the Commissioner, his two assistants, and the examiners-in-chief. This Board of Appeals is the sole and single appellate tribunal within the Patent Office, and the Commissioner has announced that the Board of Appeals starts with a new docket on May 2, 1927. In place of the successive appeals to the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia, thence to a District |