REPORT OF THE PATENT COMMITTEE 7 



of your Committee, this operates as a severe handicap. In estimating 

 the needs of the Patent Office, there should be no discussion of the de- 

 mands, for example, of the Pension Office or the General Land Office. 

 As an independent institution, the needs of the Patent Office would be 

 judged on their necessity and the appropriation be determined by con- 

 sideration of general policy. 



As to personnel: the enhanced dignity and independence of the Patent 

 Office would render all positions of importance in it more attractive, and 

 particularly make it easier to secure and retain in office men of the neces- 

 sary qualifications to fill the difficult office of Commissioner. 



A copy of a proposed bill for making the Patent Office an independent 

 bureau is annexed to this report and its enactment is recommended by 

 your Committee. 



INCREASE IN FORCE AND* SALARIES OF THE PATENT OFFICE 



The third proposal which your Committee recommends is a sub- 

 stantial increase in the force and salaries of the Patent Office. The 

 patents granted by the United States Patent Office are of less average 

 probable validity than formerly, because the number of applications for 

 patent and the field of search are constantly increasing, while the ex- 

 amining force for many years has been insufficiently large and has not 

 been increased proportionately. The inducements are so unattractive 

 that 25% of the examining force has resigned within the past three years. 

 Your Committee finds that the Patent Office is suffering both from lack 

 of examiners and from inadequate compensation. 



The salaries of the Patent Office examiners have been increased only 10% 

 since they were fixed in 1848, when they were approximately the same as 

 those of members of Congress. At the time the salaries of the Examiners- 

 in-Chief were fixed, they were the same as those of Federal District Judges. 

 During the past seventy years, the compensation for technical service 

 in almost all other directions has been increased very largely. Congress, 

 in creating new positions, is willing to pay technical men salaries more 

 nearly approximating the usual compensation of such men in private 

 service, but, having started a position at a given salary, is very loth to 

 increase the salary. A Principal Examiner, to pass the entrance exam- 

 ination for the Patent Office, must himself have an education equivalent 

 to that of a college graduate, and yet his salary is so low ($2,700 a year) 

 that it is practically impossible for him to give his own sons a college 

 education. 



