correctly, legibly, and clearly written, to be printed at the cost of the party filing them.

PRINTING COPIES OF CLAIMS, LAWS, DECISIONS, ETC.

SECTION 489. The Commissioner of Patents may print, or cause to be printed, copies of the claims of current issues, and copies of such laws, decisions, regulations and circulars as may be necessary for the information of the public.

PRINTING SPECIFICATIONS AND DRAWINGS.

SECTION 490. The Commissioner of Patents is authorized to have printed, from time to time, for gratuitous distribution, not to exceed one hundred and fifty copies of the complete specifications and drawings of each patent hereafter issued, together with suitable indexes, one copy to be placed for free public inspection in each capitol of every State and Territory, one for the like purpose in the clerk's office of the district court of each judicial district of the United States, except when such offices are located in State or territorial capitols, and one in the Library of Congress, which copies shall be certified under the hand of the Commissioner and seal of the (e) Patent-Office, and shall not be taken from the depositories for any other purpose than to be used as evidence.

COPIES OF SPECIFICATIONS AND DRAWINGS FOR EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS.

SECTION 12. That it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of Patents to furnish free of cost, one copy of the bound volumes of specifications and drawings of patents published by the Patent Office, to each of the Executive Departments of Government, upon the request of the head thereof.

JOINT RESOLUTION RELATIVE TO THE DISPOSITION OF PATENT SPECIFICATIONS AND DRAWINGS IN

THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF

PENNSYLVANIA.

(Res. No. 35 of June 28, 1902, 32 Stat. L. 746.)

(DISPOSAL OF PATENT SPECIFICATIONS AND DRAWINGS IN THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA.)

That the set of United States patent specifications and drawings now on deposit in the clerk's office of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, pursuant to section four hundred and ninety, Revised Statutes, be removed therefrom and deposited in the patent department of the Carnegie Library, in the City of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, subject to the uses specified in sections four hundred and ninety and eight hundred and ninety-four, Revised Statutes; and that hereafter the said patent department of the said Carnegie Library of Pittsburg shall be the place of deposit for the United States patent specifications and drawings referred to in section four hundred and ninety, Revised Statutes, instead of the Clerk's office of the United States Disrtict Court for the Western District of Pennsyvania.

ADDITIONAL SPECIFICATIONS AND DRAWINGS.

SECTION 491. The Commissioner of Patents is authorized to have printed such additional numbers of copies of specifications and drawings, certified as provided in the preceding section, at a price not to exceed the contract price for such drawings, for sale, as may be warranted by the actual demand for the same; and he is also authorized to furnish a complete set of such specifications and drawings to any public

library which will pay for binding the same into volumes to correspond with those in the Patent-Office, and for the transportation of the same, and which shall also provide for proper custody for the same, with convenient access for the public thereto, under such regulations as the Commissioner shall deem reasonable.

LITHOGRAPHING AND ENGRAVING.

SECTION 492. The lithographing and engraving required by the two preceding sections shall be awarded to the lowest and best bidders for the interests of the Government, due regard being paid to the execution of the work, after due advertising by the Congressoinal Printer under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing; but the Joint Committee on Printing may empower the Congressional Printer to make immediate contracts for engraving, whenever, in their opinion, the exigencies of the public service will not justify waiting for advertisement and award; or if, in the judgment of the Joint Committee on Printing, the work can be performed under the direction of the Commissioner of Patents more advantageously than in the manner above prescribed, it shall be so done, under such limitations and conditions as the Joint Committee on Printing may from time to time prescribe.

The Co-power to waive advertisement arises in the case of an exigency of the public service.3 PRICE OF COPIES OF SPECIFICATIONS AND DRAWINGS. SECTION 493. The price to be paid for uncertified printed copies of specifications and drawings of patents Letting Contracts, 15 Op. Atty. Gen., 549.

shall be determined by the Commissioner of Patents: Provided, That the maximum cost of a copy shall be ten cents.

SECTION 494. ANNUAL REPORT OF COMMISSIONER. CUSTODY OF COLLECTIONS OF EXPLOR

ING EXPEDITIONS.

SECTION 495. The collections of the Exploring Expedition, now in the Patent-Office, shall be under the care and management of the Commissioner of Patents.

DISBURSEMENTS FOR PATENT-OFFICE.

SECTION 496. All disbursements for the PatentOffice shall be made by the disbursement clerk of the Interior Department.

AN ACT FOR REVISING AND PERFECTING THE CLASSIFICATION OF LETTERS PATENT AND PRINTED

PUBLICATIONS IN THE PATENT OFFICE.

(Act of June 10, 1898, ch. 423, 30 Stat. L. 440.) SECTION 1. Classification of Letters Patent and Printed Publications. That for the purpose of determining with more readiness and accuracy the novelty of inventions for which applications for letters patent are or may be filed in the United States Patent Office, and to prevent the issuance of letters patent of the United States for inventions which are not new, the Commissioner of Patents is hereby authorized and directed to revise and perfect the classification, by subjects-matter, of all letters patent and printed publications in the United States Patent Office which constitute the field of search in the examination as to the novelty of invention for which applications for patents are or may be filed.

SECTION 2. ADDITIONAL EMPLOYES. That for the purpose of enabling the Commissioner of Patents to carry out the provisions of this act, the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to appoint from time to time, in the manner already provided by law, such additional number of principal examiners, assistant examiners, first-class clerks, copyists, laborers, assistant messengers, and messenger boys as he may deem necessary; provided, however, that the whole number of additional employes shall not exceed three principal examiners, two first assistant examiners, two second assistant examiners, six third assistant examiners, five fourth assistant examiners, four firstclass clerks, four copyists, six laborers, six assistant messengers, and six messenger boys; that the annual expenses for this additional force shall not exceed the sum of $62,880.

PATENTS, HOW ISSUED, ATTESTED, AND RECORDED.

SECTION 4883. All patents shall be issued in the name of the United States of America, under the seal of the Patent Office, and shall be signed by the Commissioner of Patents, and they shall be recorded, together with the specifications, in the Patent Office, in books to be kept for that purpose.

A patent is a contract and its construction is governed by the same canons of interpretation that control the construction of other grants and agreements. Congress, having created the monopoly, may put such limitations upon it as it pleases. A patent is void unless all the statutory requisites are complied with. The United States may maintain a suit in

• National Hollow Brake Beam Co. vs. Interchangeable Brake Beam Co., 106 Fed. Rep., 693.

5 Most vs. Stover Mfg. Co., 177 U. S., 483.

• Roener vs. Simon, 95 U. S., 214.