FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 211 



life of a patent twenty-one years. In 1801 tlie power of extension was taken 

 from the commissioner for all patents granted after that date, and the term 

 of a patent was put at seventeen years. In 1870 the patent law was revised 

 and put into the form now in practice. This revised law describes the duties 

 of the various officers connected witli the patent office, and states what shall 

 bo the salary of each. It also states the requirements for a patent, and meth- 

 ods to be pursued in case of appeal, interference, or infringement. It de- 

 scribes, with much fullness, all matters relating to the duties of inventors or 

 of the public with respect to patents, and with rulings on doubtful points, 

 from the United States circuit and supreme sourts, determines the practice of 

 the patent office in respect to all matters connected witli the granting of 

 patents. 



The patent system, in some form, is adopted by most European nations. 

 Switzerland and Holland are the two prominent exceptions. In all of tliese 

 countries the system differs from that in the United States, and in no two 

 countries do we find the same system. By special treaty most of the countries 

 possessing patent systems grant the same privileges to the citizens of our 

 country as to their own in respect to patents, and the same privilege is accorded 

 by our government to the citizens of other countries. 



OUR TATEJSIT LAWS. 



The following is a brief summary of the laws of the United States in regard 

 to patents, together with some remarks regarding their practical application : 



The law provides for the employment of one commissioner and assistant, 

 sixty-six examiners in three grades, 108 clerks in four classes, one librarian, 

 one machinist, and such other clerks as may be needed from time to time. On 

 account of the various and exceedingly numerous applications for patents the 

 examiners are divided into various classes, which are defined on the basis of 

 the subject matter of the patents. Tlie work of any one examiner is usually 

 confined to a single class, and consequently he is in ignorance, to a greater or 

 less degree, of the nature of the patents granted in another class. 



AVIIO MAY OBTAIN" A PATENT. 



Any person not an employe of the patent office, whether citizen or alien, 

 whether a resident of this or a foreign country, who is the first discoverer of 

 anything patentable, may obtain letters patent therefor. 



The olaject of the law is to give to the original inventor the exclusive right 

 of ownership of his invention for a limited time, and consequently it provides 

 means for the sale or assignment of any patent or any portion of a patent. 



The law regards as the inventor liim wlio has first reduced the invention to a 

 practical form. He can employ for this purpose, without debarring liis rigiits 

 as an inventor, skilled mechanics from whom he may receive suggestions of 

 great value. The idea, however, must emanate from hini. He wiio merely 

 conceives an invention, without reducing it- to actual practice, is allowed no 

 credit by the law. 



Mil AT MAY IJE PATENTED. 



"Any new and useful art, machine, manufacture or composition of matter, 

 or any new and useful improvement thereof." 



By art is meant a mode, manner or process of doing a thing; by manufac- 

 ture, any product of industry, not including machines. By machine is meant 



