Patent office

“ From a small State Department bureau in 1836, the Patent Office has expanded until in 1939 over 40,000 patents were granted-in 1838, 515 were granted. Although of immense importance, the system has become exceedingly complex. Questions relative to reissued patents have long been vexatious to those immediately concerned with administration of the patent laws. ”

“ In this and other ways there arises constantly in the United States Patent Office a large number of contested cases, called "Interferences," where applications for patents covering the invention of a similar device have been independently filed by two or even more persons. In such cases only one patent can be issued, and that to the inventor who on the taking of testimony shows priority in date of invention. ”

“ Applicants for a patent are required to file in the Patent Office a written description of their invention, and of the manner and process of making, constructing, and using the same, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art or science to make, construct, and use the patented improvement. Rights of the kind are given only to inventors or discoverers of some new and useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or some new and useful improvement thereof ”

“ They know, theoretically, that a patent, to be sustained in the courts, must be for an invention which is "new and useful"; but fail, practically, to apply the test. Evidently the existing system tends to betray an over-sanguine inventor. A solicitor of patents will cheerfully take a fee and undertake to obtain letters. The patent-office will accept further fees; will make an examination for novelty, which is good, as far as it goes, and in some measure a protection against launching an unprofitable venture; and will grant a patent. ”

“ For two centuries, the United States Patent Office has played a vital role in the scientific, technical, and economic development of our Nation by granting inventors patents for their inventions. As Abraham Lincoln once stated, patents "added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius." ”

“ Those who have any experience in business at the Patent Office know the fact, that the constant struggle between the office and applicants for patents has reference to the claim. The patentee seeks the broadest claim he can get. ”

“ It is too common a case that associated companies, in order to maintain some valuable monopoly, look about to see what abandoned invention or rejected application, or ineffective patent, can be picked up, revamped, and carried through the Patent Office, and by the aid of ingenious experts and skilful counsel succeed in getting the desired protection. ”

“ Having done that, it is necessary for the right inventor, who has received due notice from the Patent Office, to come and defend his title to his patent, in spite of the fact that the patent has been issued to him after the customary and usual formalities in due legal form, and payment of all legal fees. ”

“ The question of priority of invention shall be determined by a board of patent interferences * * * whose decision, if adverse to the claim of an applicant, shall constitute the final refusal by the Patent Office of the claims involved, and the Commissioner may issue a patent to the applicant who is adjudged the prior inventor. ”

“ The practice of granting patents for microscopic structural or mechanical improvements inevitably must reduce the United States Patent Office to a mass production factory for unearned special privileges which serve no purpose except unfairly to harass the honest pursuit of business. If the patentee here has 'discovered' anything, it is that the creamy substance in a dry cell will not leak through a steel jacket which covers and is securely fastened to the ends of the cell. ”

“ But it is to be remembered-at least it may be assumed that congress was advised-that action by the patent office upon applications for patents was often unduly and purposely delayed by applicants until they could reap the full benefit of the monopoly obtained by them in foreign countries before taking out an American patent. ”

“ Patents of invention are issued from the patent-office; whoever wishes to obtain a patent for an invention, is obliged to deliver a model or an accurate drawing of it. These models are exposed in an appropriate place, where they remain until the expiration of the time for which the patents are granted ”

“ A large library, of great value, is attached to the Patent Office, containing many volumes of the highest scientific value. Under judicious arrangement, a collection already rich and ample is forming, of every work of interest to the inventors, and that new, increasing, important class of professional men—the attorneys in patent cases. Upon its shelves may be found a complete set of the reports of 445the British Patent Commissioners, of which there are only six copies in the United States. ”

“ To make matters worse, the inadequate patent protection currently available is difficult for innovators to obtain: India's patent office suffers from a backlog of 30,000 patent applications and a severe shortage of patent examiners. ”

“ for I knew that a country without a patent office and good patent laws was just a crab, and couldn’t travel any way but sideways or backways. ”

“ Thornton was solely responsible for receiving and recording patent applications and issuing patents, and his office effectively became the first patent office. From this simple beginning, the Patent Office has grown to become a modern institution of ideas and innovations.
For 200 years, millions of inventors have sought to protect their inventions through the American patent system. ”

“ Power of Central Government to use inventions for purposes of Government
(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, at any time after an application for a patent has been filed at the patent office or a patent has been granted, the Central Government and any person authorised in writing by it, may use the invention for the purposes of Government in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter. ”

“ It defines what the office, after a full examination of previous inventions and the state of the art, determines the applicant is entitled to. The courts, therefore, should be careful not to enlarge, by construction, the claim which the Patent Office has admitted, and which the patentee has acquiesced in, beyond the fair interpretation of its terms. ”

“ He sees as we do the difficulty, every year on the increase, of making satisfactory searches in the matter of novelty. But his deductions vary from ours. To us it appears on its face an impossibility for satisfactory searches to be made in the case of every individual patent by the Patent Office. The examinations have repeatedly been proved valueless. We know by our own and others' experience that the searches as at present conducted are of comparatively little accuracy. Patents are declared to be anticipated continually by our courts. ”

“ All officers and employees of the patent office shall be incapable, during the period for which they hold their appointments, to acquire or take, directly or indirectly, except by inheritance or bequest, any right or interest in any patent issued by that office. ”