Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub
[graphic][merged small][merged small]

OF THE

Patent Office Society

Published monthly by the Patent Office Society

Office of Publication 3928 New Hampshire Ave., Washington, D. C. Subscription $2.50 a year Single copy 25 cents

EDITORIAL BOARD.

E. D. Sewall, Chairman, Publicity Committee.

G. P. Tucker, Editor-in-Chief.

J. Boyle.

E. R. Cole.

E. S. Glascock.

W. J. Wesseler

F. W. Dahn.

W. I. Wyman.

M. L. Whitney, Business Manager, (Room 57, U. S. Patent Office.) 3928 New Hampshire Ave., 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. Copyright, 1920, by the Patent Office Society.

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. II.

MARCH, 1920.

EDITORIAL.

No. 7.

In the Commissioner's Report for 1919 and in connection with legislation to improve the Patent Office, the Commissioner expresses his personal gratitude to the representatives of the scientific, manufacturing and legal interests who have so unselfishly, laboriously and skillfully acted in behalf of the Patent Office.

The Patent Office Society desires here to express for itself the same feeling of gratitude and appreciation. The large representation of engineering societies, manufac

turers, and the patent bar at the hearing before the Rules Committee of the House was impressive and served to demonstrate to that committee and to all members of Congress that the manufacturing industry of the country is thoroughly aroused. It was heartening to the Patent Office Society to realize that the improvement of the patent system, the cause for which it was organized, had been taken up by and was in such capable hands.

But the battle is not yet won: H. R. bill 11,984 is, at the moment of writing, still before the Senate Committee on Patents. A hearing will probably be set for arguments on the merits of the bill, and it is hinted that objections to some sections will be made. It is understood the gentlemen who came before the Rules Committee of the House stand ready to appear again, and for this attitude our Society again extends its thanks. When the bill is passed and the added force and salaries become available, it will be up to our Society to help create and promote the greater efficiency honestly due from the office employees. That the Society will not fail in this is the firm belief of the writer.

DAVID P. HOLLOWAY

David P. Holloway, the ninth Commissioner of Patents, was born in Waynesville, Warren County, Ohio, on December 6, 1809. He moved with his parents to Cincinnati in 1813, and attended the common schools there. He learned the printer's trade at Richmond, Indiana, and for four years worked on the Cincinnati “Gazette". In 1832 he established the Richmond "Palladium" and was its editor for several years.

He was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives in 1843, and to the state Senate in 1844, serving there until 1853, when he was elected on the Republican ticket as a representative in the 34th Congress, serving from March 4, 1855 to March 3, 1857. He was Chairman of the House Committee on agriculture, and introduced a bill to establish a department of agriculture.

In 1861 he was appointed Commissioner of Patents by President Lincoln, serving through the entire period of the Civil War, from March 28, 1861, to August 17, 1865. He died in Washington, D. C., on September 10, 1883.

During his term the procedure in patent appeals took nearly its present form. The act of March 2, 1861, establishing a permanent board of examiners-in-chief, was passed just before his administration began. Prior to this time the Commissioner had appointed temporary boards to hear appeals, apparently following the practice still in use in Germany of selecting for appeals on any special subject a group of men skilled in that or related arts, but not concerned in examining applications therein. It was said in objection to this custom that each board had its own principle of action and, in many instances, this differed from the rules laid down by the Commissioner. The permanent board first appointed by Commissioner Holt and established by the act of 1861, was found satisfactory in this respect though Commissioner Holloway criticized it on the ground that it had increased the work of the Commissioner instead of decreasing it, and recommended that its decisions should be made merely advisory, the Commissioner to adopt them or not as he should see fit, whereby there would be but two appeals, i.e., from the primary examiner to the Commissioner, and from him to the circuit court.

The permanent Board of Examiners-in-Chief found great favor with applicants and attorneys and so many appeals were taken that it was necessary a few years later to impose an appeal fee of $10.00 to check the flood of appeals.

The practice in regard to appeals from the Commissioner was also modified slightly due t othe establishment of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. Appeals lay at first by the act of July 4, 1836, from the Commissioner to a board of three men appointed by the President, later to the Chief Justice of the district court of the United States for the District of Columbia by the Act of 1839, then by the act of August 30, 1852, also to either of the assistant judges of this court. Now the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia was established by the act of March 3, 1863, with the same powers and jurisdiction as previously exercised by the circuit court of the District of Columbia, the justices of the new court being also vested with the powers and jurisdiction. previously had by the circuit court, and the circuit, dis

trict and criminal courts of the District of Columbia were abolished.

By section 12 of the act of March 2, 1861, it was enacted

"That all applications for patents shall be completed and prepared for examination within two years after the filing of the petition, and in default thereof, they shall be regarded as abandoned by the parties thereto; unless it be shown to the satisfaction of the Commissioner of Patents that the delay was unavoidable."

This section was construed for a time as requiring also that rejected applications must be acted on within two years in response to the action of the Office, to avoid abandonment.

The act of March 2, 1861 provided a filing fee of fifteen dollars and a final fee of twenty dollars. It was found that many applicants failed to pay the final fee and permitted the allowed applications to lie in the Office for indefinite periods, and a law was enacted, March 3, 1863, providing:

"That every patent shall be dated as of a day not later than six months after the time at which it was passed and allowed, and notice thereof sent to the applicant or his agent. And if the final fee for such patent be not paid within the said six months, the patent shall be withheld, and the invention therein described shall become public property, as against the applicant therefor; Provided that in cases where patents have been allowed previous to the passage of this act, the said six months shall be reckoned from the date of such passage".

This provision for abandonment of the invention was found to occasion great hardship to persons who through ignorance or inadvertence failed to pay the final fee in time and was modified by the Act of June 25, 1864, to extend the time six months from the passage of that act, the assignee being also empowered to pay the final fee, and later was modified by the act of March 3, 1865, so as to apply only to the application, the right being given to "any person having an interest in the invention, whether as inventor or assignee * * to make an application for a patent for his invention the same as in the case of an original application, provided such application be made within two years after the date of allowance of the original application", and the act being made to apply to all cases on file or subsequently to be filed.

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »