Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 113, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1910 — OUR PATENT SYSTEM FAULTY. [ARTICLE]

OUR PATENT SYSTEM FAULTY.

Sixty Per Cent ot Issues Are Valueless, In Whole or Part. "We are handing out to-day, in 60 per cent of the cases, patents that are almost worthless, in whole or in part,” was the declaration made by Commissioner of Patents Moore at a hearing before the House committee on patents, the Washington Star says. “No other country does that,” he added. ‘‘We are away back in that matter. We have been asleep. Germany has a vastly superior system to ours. So has Great Britain. I have been over there three times to investigate conditions in Europe. We are trying to build up this system so that it will be worth something. “It is unwieldy now and if not braced in many directions it will fall of its own weight. The German pat ents are better, because their applications are mqre thoroughly searched before patents are granted, owing, of course, to the better facilities afforded by the German patent office.. The German patent is regarded as of greater validity because they have the facilities for searching as to novelty. Their examination exhausts everything and Germany is thus enabled to guarantee the novelty of the invention; the government makes that guaranty of the patent, throwing the burden of proof on the infringer. The board of examiners in chief Is a judicial body and passes upon a great quantity of cases, where large monetary interests are at work. I could cite you many cases where influences are brought to bear. 1 have been approached. There is hardly a day passes that some sort of influence is not brought to bear upon some one in our office, upon me, and, I suppose. every commissioner has felt the same thing." X 7== ===== : — Commissioner Moore was advocating proposed legislation to amend the patent laws and practices.