OF THE Patent Office Society Published monthly by the Patent Office Society. Max W. Tucker, Editor-in-Chief. A. H. Winkelstein, Case editor. E. R. Cole G. P. Tucker 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. NOVEMBER, 1926. No. 3. COMMENT. In a little country newspaper, which the writer receives more or less frequently, one of the features is a portion of a column headed "The Office Boy Wonders"; then follows a number of pithy paragraphs, each beginning with "If", and each more or less successful in pointing a moral. Taking our cue from this and slipping easily into the role of Office Boy, we wonder: If the Journal would not be made a little more interesting and valuable if the following suggestion was adopted by a large body of our subscribers. These subscribers have frequent occasion to look up points of law in patent practice and in doing so sometimes delve deeply into legal lore. The fruit of this, or even a less exhaustive study, would be very beneficial to a subsequent investigator of the same point, if it could be preserved and made available. The Journal is, obviously, a proper repository for the preservation of this class of valuables. This suggestion, in the thought of the writer, is especially applicable in cases where a long paper is unnecessary and the result can be set down in one or two pages, or even less. As an example, the case may be mentioned, where the authority for a proposed action is obscure. Subject-matter digests are, of course, numerous and voluminous; to go through them requires time and patience. When, in the settlement of a point, this journey is once made the discoveries attained should be made available to all who later consider it necessary to take the trip. JOHN T. JOHNSON Chief Of The Docket Clerk's Division John T. Johnson was appointed as a messenger in the Patent Office February 1, 1873, being at that time thirteen years old. He was assigned to the interference records room, now designated as the Docket Division, under Major Emory. He remained in this position for about five or six years when he was transferred to Division 20, under Prof. Wilkinson, as Examiner's clerk and general utility for a number of years. He was transferred back to his former room as assistant head in 1902, and in 1920, upon this room being created into a division, he was appointed as assistant chief. In 1922, upon the retirement of Mr. J. M. Fowler, the chief of the division, he was made chief. Mr. Johnson was born in New York City December 19, 1859, and attended public schools in Washington, D. C., night school, and had private instructors. During the Patent Office fire, September 24, 1877, many of George Washington's relics were moved from the model room to the room of interference records for safe ty and the night of the fire Mr. Johnson, who, with a number of others stayed on guard that night, relates that he bundled himself up in Washington's tent and slept very comfortably with Baron De Kalb's saddle for a pillow. Many events, some quite startling in character, have occurred during this long period of service, but one that created a lasting impression in Mr. Johnson's mind was a clerk whose mind became deranged and who stripped to the waist and having a belt around it with a dumbbell and paper weights attached paraded through the halls carrying a pole, bayonet-attached, and an American flag at the end, singing "John Brown's Body, etc." He was a powerfully built man with a grudge against Commissioner Leggett, whom he threatened, and when the crowd approached too near, he would whirl around and the crowd would fly and those that formed the rear end would be forced clear around the hall to meet him. Someone finally had nerve enough to step in close to him and knock him unconscious, and later he was removed to the hospital for insane. Mr. Johnson, next to Mr. W. T. Hutchinson of the examining corps, is the oldest person, in point of service, in the Patent Office. His position as Docket Clerk brings him into contact with many attorneys practicing before the Office, and the able and efficient manner in which he conducts the business of his Division is such as to reflect credit both on him and the service. FINIS D. MORRIS The Financial Clerk Finis D. Morris was born in Montreal, Canada, May 6, 1865, and has resided in Washington since 1868, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1896. Mr. Morris was appointed Nov. 15, 1879, with the board of Indian Commissioners. He entered the Patent Office as a messenger at $360 per annum July 1, 1881, at the age of 14, and has worked in all, of the clerical divisions except one. He served in the Chief Clerk's Room from 1883 to 1891, Division 14 from 1891 to 1893 and in the Financial Clerk's Room from 1893 to 1903, and in Div. E from 1903 to 1920. Mr. Morris was appointed Chief of Division E, the Manuscript and Photolithographic Division October 19, 1906, and succeeded General Sloat as Financial Clerk on August 11, 1920. While Chief of Division E, the Photostat machine which has proved so valuable and profitable was installed under his direction and supervision and here he was also instrumental in establishing improved methods which have saved the Government thousands of dollars per annum. Besides his regular duties Mr. Morris has served on various committees selected by the Commissioner and the Head of the Department relating to matters of Patent Office business. Mr. Morris attended the public schools of this city and graduated in 1887 from Spencerian Business College. At the age of eleven in 1876, he manufactured and sold on the streets and to the trade the first toy telephone on the market. Mr. Morris is married and has two children, a daughter and a son, Daniel Leigh Morris, who is a patent attorney in New York and a special assistant to the U. S. Attorney General in defending patent suits. As President of the Chillum Heights Citizens Association and officer of several fraternal organizations, Mr. Morris is busy and active in his hours outside the office. His has been a long, efficient and faithful service within and for the Patent Office. VISIT FROM GERMAN PATENT OFFICE During the closing days of September the Patent Office was visited by Messrs. Robert Strauber, Adolf Ackerman and Wilhelm Momber, Examiners in the German Patent Office. These gentlemen wished to acquaint them selves as much as possible within a limited time with the organization of the Office and the method of handling cases followed here. Each of the visitors was interested in a special field of invention and spent some time in the division having his class of inventions. In a conversation with Dr. Strauber some facts concerning the organization of the German Patent Office were stated which may be of interest. The examining force there is divided into twelve sections with twelve to fourteen examiners in each section. Each section handles applications in a certain art or arts and each examiner therein decides primarily the question of patentability in the applications he examines. The chief of the section decides only law questions. Only a few of the examiners have assistants and the majority do their own searching. Of these assistants some have a technical or college education and some have a law training; only the first group may become examiners and later, perhaps, section chiefs. Of the section chiefs, six are technically educated and six are trained in law. There is a Board of Appeals with 33 or 34 members; this Board is separated into divisions comprising two technical men and a chief called a director; each division handles appeals from a certain section and cases from other sections as its time permits. There is no appeal from the decision of one of these divisions in the prosecution of applications. The German law provides for suits to invalidate patents; these suits are in the first instance brought before the Appeal Board of the Patent Office and appeal from its decision may be taken directly to the German Supreme Court sitting in Leipsic. Of the gentleman making this visit, Dr. Strauber is a member of the Board of Appeals and of the division deciding appeals in the textile art; his division also occasionally considers appeals in the shoe machinery art. Dr. Ackerman is an examiner in the electrical art, his special |