COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE/PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE DEPARTMENT OF COMMER * TENT AND TRADEMARK OFF U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE Patent and Trademark Office Lutrelle F. Parker, Acting Commissioner of March 1978 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 Stock No. 003-004-00552-4 OMMISSIONER'S ANNUAL REPORT FISCAL YEAR 1977 Mission The Patent and Trademark Office has three primary functions: (1) to examine patent applications and grant patents; (2) to collect, classify and disseminate technology disclosed in patents; and (3) to examine trademark applications and register trademarks. The first patent law was enacted in 1790. It was enacted under the authority of Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution "to promote progress of... useful arts, by securing for limited times to . . . inventors the exclusive right to their . . . discoveries." The Patent and Trademark Office has been a bureau in the Department of Commerce since 1925. The patent system is designed to encourage technological progress. It provides incentives for making inventions, investing in research and development, commercializing inventions, and disclosing new inventions to the public instead of keeping them secret. The Office also administers the Federal trademark registration statute. The trademark statute is intended to protect business investments and help avoid confusion or deception of consumers, by providing for registration of marks used in commerce subject to Federal regulation (usually interstate or foreign commerce). The Office examines patent applications and issues patents; publishes scientific and technical information contained in patents; maintains public search files of patents and literature; sells copies of patents and other documents to the public; and performs various other functions to stimulate new technology. Similar functions are carried out under the trademark law. The Office registers trademarks, service marks, certification marks and other special kinds of marks that qualify under the Federal trademark system. |