Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1878 — Report of the United States Commissioner of Patents. [ARTICLE]

Report of the United States Commissioner of Patents.

The United States Commissioner of Patents has recently sent life annual report to Congress. He suggests some important changes in the present l’alent laws, which, in soriie cases, the Courts have declared defective. He thinks that tinder certain conditions it will be better to dispense with models in applications for patents. They form no part of the palc.ntjwhcn issued. The law makes it essential to the validity of a patent that the spcciflcation and drawing thereof shall disclose fully the invention to those skilled in the art to which it pertains. He believes that, it will be necessary only that the provision .-be made requiring models in cases where the capability of the machine to operate is called in question, or where the Examiner is in doubt as to sufficiency of the drawing, or where models may be necessary for ready illustration on appeals or in interference cases. This will relieve the inventor of a large part of the expense attending the applications for patents, aud will tend on the whole to make the drawings and specifications more explicit and better understood. He would, however, advise the collection at the Patent Office of articles of manufacture and working models of such operating machinery as manu-facturers-or-inventors may desirtrtcr place on exhibition. A collection thus made up of working models confined to inventions actually in use would be of value as illustrating the state of the art throughout the country, and would require much less space for many years than that- «mij>ie<i by the motl'els recently destroyed. Reformation is also suggested in what is now a source of much complaint. This is the reissue of old patents with claims covering machines subsequently invented, and practically the first to operate successfully. To such an extent has this been carried that when a man had really made a valuable invention it was necessary for him to examine the records of the office and ascertain what old patents could be found-which might be reissued to cover his invention; and it has been a matter of prudence to secure such patents before investing in the manufacture of an invention liable to be dominated in that way] Further than tins, there are patents granted for improvements more or less trivial, differing in comparatively small particulars from machines or articles preceding them. That which seems but a trivial change may amount in practice to a very important and valuable improvement. Since the grant of such patents cannot always be avoided, the question arises Whether their duration* may not be abridged, and for this purpose some process of natural selection be applied to the patents issued by the Government. It has therefore been thought desirable to require, at certain periods in the lifetime of a patent, the payment of fees as a necessary condition to the continuance of the life of the patent. Such a provision would, in the opinion of the Commissioner, tend to remove useless and frivolous patents, without imposing any serious burden upon those that prove meritorious. "The wicked stand in slipperyplaces," but * for a perfect picture of reckless insecurity, you want to look at a frightened woman trying to stand on a camp-stool to keep out of the way of a mouse. —Danbury News. The survival of the fittest is illustrated i» the case of a Leavenworth tailor, who is years old.