Patent Office may show the particular laboratory in which the development was made and in order to secure control of the invention for future administration or dedication to the public if that is deemed advisable.

Any policy involving the filing of applications for patents will place a burden upon the public laboratory of providing the services of someone skilled in prosecuting applications before the Patent Office. In the case of large laboratories, this can be done by establishing a patent section or department, just as has been done by some large corporations in connection with their research laboratories and recently by some Government bureaus. Where the amount of work involved will not warrant incurring this expense, someone in the laboratory, for instance its secretary, should be trained in work of this kind, or the services of a competent patent lawyer secured.

The question of administering the inventions may arise even before the patent is granted thereon; at any rate, it will arise upon the issuance of the patent.

While the meaning of the statute of March 3, 1883, may be in question in the absence of interpretation by the courts the dedication to the public of an invention may at any rate be accomplished after the patent has been issued by recording at the Patent Office a properly worded conveyance amounting to a surrender of the patent. A number of such conveyances have been recorded at the Patent Office, among which will be found that by the Diamond Match Company of its patent covering the non-poisonous sesquisulphide of phosphorous used in the match making industry.

It is however believed that the best interest of the public and therefore of the laboratory itself would be served by adopting a liberal policy of issuing licenses under its patents to applicants therefor, and collecting royalties, which might after a period pay the legitimate expenses incurred in the carrying out of the patent poli

су.

In this connection, attention may be invited to a proposal by a well known scientific employee of the Government, under which inventions developed in the laboratories of the Government or in other public laboratories would be assigned to the Federal Trade Commission which would provide the necessary organization for the securing of patent rights and the administration of those

rights, following the policy in general adopted by it in the granting of licenses under enemy owned patents. It was proposed that the Commission should collect fees and royalties, which would be applied to the expenses incurred incident to the acquisition, administration, development and encouragement of the use or industrial application of the inventions.

In view of the supervision exercised by the Federal Trade Commission over interstate trade, it is believed that an activity of this kind, if exercised by a central bureau, might well be assigned to this Commission.

There would appear to be no reason why, with proper legal advice, a public laboratory should not administer the patent rights covering the inventions developed by it or why it should not join with other public laboratories in administering them.

No patent policy would be complete without making some provision for the protection against unauthorized use of the patent rights involved, but this portion of a public laboratory's policy need not be aggressively pursued. Under a liberal policy of licensing, there would be but few occasions when the filing of a patent suit would be necessary.

* Copyright 1919 by W. D. Shoemaker.

ADMINISTRATION OF PATENTS OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES AND OTHERS FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PUBLIC.

On November 5, 1919, a hearing was had before the Patent Committee of the House of Representatives, in joint session with the Patent Committee of the Senate, with reference to the following Bill. This Bill was introduced in the House by Representative John I. Nolan, of California, and in the Senate by Senator George W. Norris, of Nebraska.

H. R. 9932

S. 3223

A BILL

Authorizing the Federal Trade Commission to accept and administer for the benefit of the public and the encouragement of industry, inventions, patents and patent rights, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

1. That the Federal Trade Commission be and hereby is authorized and empowered to accept assignment of, or license under; to issue or refuse to issue licenses under; to encourage the industrial use and application of, and otherwise to administer, on behalf of the United States, under such regulations and in such manner as the President shall prescribe, inventions, patents and patent rights which said Commission deems it to the advantage of the public to be so accepted, as these may from time to time be tendered it by employees of the various departments or other establishments of the Government, or by other individuals or agencies; and to cooperate as necessity may arise, with scientific or other agencies of the Government in the discharge of the duties herein set out.

2. That the Federal Trade Commission be and is hereby authorized and empowered to collect fees and royalties for licensing said inventions, patents and patent rights in such amounts and in such manner as the President shall direct, and shall deposit the same with the Treasurer of the United States; and of the total amount of such fees and royalties so deposited a certain percentum, to be determined by the President, shall be reserved, set aside and appropriated as a special fund to be disbursed as directed by the President to remunerate inventors for such of their inventions, patents and patent rights contemplated by this act as may prove meritorious and of public benefit.

3. That the appropriations of any governmental department, bureau, office, or establishment, are hereby made available for the payment of fees charged by the Patent Office for and in connection with the granting of patents contemplated by this Act.

The need for, and advantages of, this legislation have been summarized by Dr. F. G. Cottrell of the Bureau of Mines, as follows:

1. There is no fixed or general policy dealing with inventions and patents developed by Government employees in the course, or as a result of, their official duties, and consequently no governmental administrative machinery for translating such inventions and patents into actual public service.

2. In cases where patents are developed by the combined efforts of Government employees and others, difficulties at present arise concerning the administration of the same because of the conflict between the rights of the inventors and those of the United States.

3. There is no way at present by which patentees in or outside the Government service can dedicate their patents to the public with the assurance that the public will reap the full benefit therefrom, because an invention covered by a patent so dedicated does not interest capital, and because it may be excluded from public use by patents subsequently taken out by others.

4. Conditions brought about by the war, causing an undrecedented demand for inventions, and the industrial developments and readjustments now following the war. call imperatively for guidance. Also the host of inventions developed during the war in the many Government bureaus and other organizations, primarily for war purposes, but which have a peace

application of inestimable value, should be coordinated, conserved and translated into industrial use.

5. There is herewith provided a means aimed to be acceptable to the medical profession of patenting and consequently properly controlling inventions in the field of medicine and surgery, the control of patents by private interests being contrary to the ethics of the medical profession.

6. It is desirable to have governmental administration of a certain type of patents, not ordinarily attractive to manufacturers, in order to provide production of needed devices or materials for governmental or public purposes.

7. The President, under the authority of Congress, has set a precedent for the proposed legislation by authorizing and directing the Federal Trade Commission to administer enemyowned patents.

8. The patent administration here contemplated provides for revenue sufficient to cover the expenses of its operation.

9. Provision is made for some remuneration to patentees, to stimulate invention.

At the hearing above-mentioned, Dr. F. G. Cottrell, Mr. H. E. Howe, of the National Research Council, Dr. Carl L. Alsberg, Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, Department of Agriculture, and Hon. James R. Newton, Commissioner of Patents, spoke in behalf of the Bill, while a letter was received from Hon. Thomas Ewing, formerly Commissioner of Patents, favoring it. Mr. Edward G. Curtis, special assistant to the Attorney General in patent matters, and Maj. A. M. Holcombe, formerly Chief of the Patents Section in the War Department related incidents which had been brought to their attention where the Government had suffered because inventors in its employ had no means of applying for patents upon valuable inventions made by them in the line of their duties except at their own expense. The arrangements for the hearing were made by Dr. Andrew Stewart, of the Bureau of Mines, where, as is the case in other technical bureaus of the Government, many inventions are developed.

Of the Senate Patent Committee, Senator Norris, Chairman, and Senators Brandages and Knox were present at the hearing and showed marked interest in the objects and provisions of the proposed Bill, Senator Knox openly expressing his approval thereof.

RULES 70, 71, 72, 73, 74 AND 78.

(Read Before The Fourth Assistant Examiners).
By M. E. PORTER, Examiner.

AMENDMENTS.-NEW MATTER.-RULE 70.

70. In original applications all amendments of the drawings or specifications, and all additions thereto, must conform to at least one of them as it was at the time of the filing of the application. Matter not found in either, involving a departure from the original invention, cannot be added to the application even though supported by a supplemental oath, and can be shown or claimed only in a separate application.

When matter is shown or described the specification or drawing should be amended to correspond one with the other so that both shall be coextensive. Amendments containing matter not found in either, involving a departure from the original invention, can not be added to the application. The following cases are cited to more clearly define the line between these two classes of amendments:

"The applicant will not be permitted, under the guise of an amendment, to introduce into his application a wholly different invention nor to change the construction and operation of an invention which has been fully described and shown, nor to present a different or preferable form of his invention. He may be permitted, upon proper occasion, to supply suitable connections, to add a spring to a pawl, a handle to a crank, a belt to a pulley, teeth to a wheel, an outlet to a closed receptacle, or other manifest defects or omissions in features essential to the operation of the invention or to the completeness of the disclosure, and which were caused by a clerical error of the draftsman or the unfamiliarity of the inventor with official forms. These amendments, supplemental in their nature, may be made as completing the invention imperfectly shown and described. They add to the invention disclosed some part or feature which agrees with the construction and operation already presented. An applicant cannot be permitted, however, to erase the lines of his drawing and delineate anew the construction and operation of a part fully shown and described, or replace a well described but inferior arrangement by a preferable form of his invention."

Ex parte Snyder, 1882, C. D., 22.

"There is nothing in ex parte Snyder which warrants the conclusion that new matter may be inserted in a case whenever it is done for the purpose of making operative a supposedly inoperative device. New matter is no more admissible for that purpose than for any other purpose."

Ex parte Willits, 1905, C. D., 107.