6 REPORT OF THE PATENT COMMITTEE 



barment or reinstatement after disbarment of attorneys are passed upon 

 finally by the Secretary. All matters of discipline are under the Sec- 

 retary's jurisdiction. The Secretary of the Interior must approve all 

 changes in the Rules of Practice of the Patent Office, but he cannot 

 compel the Commissioner to make any change whatsoever. 



No appeal lies to the Secretary from any decisions of the Commissioner, 

 either in matters of merit or practice. All such matters, as far as they 

 are reviewable, rest with the Courts of the District of Columbia. 



The Secretary of the Interior no longer signs the patents, and has no 

 jurisdiction to grant or refuse them. 



Thus, it will be seen that the Secretary of the Interior is not required 

 to know anything about patents or patent law. He is not selected 

 because of any qualifications for the granting of patents or supervision 

 over the Patent Office. The Secretary of the Interior has less influence- 

 over the Patent Office than over any other bureau of the Interior De- 

 partment, because there are appeals to him from all the other bureaus. 

 Nor is the Patent Office related to any other bureau of the Interior 

 Department. 



The Secretary of the Interior has recently moved out of the Patent 

 Office building, thus severing physical contact with the Patent Office, 

 which is but a type of the lack of mental contact between the office of 

 the Secretary of the Interior and the Patent Office. 



The experience of many Commissioners over a period of several gen- 

 erations has shown that, no matter how pleasant the personal relations 

 may be, the Commissioner of Patents cannot expect any real benefit to 

 the Patent Office to flow from its connection with the Interior Depart- 

 ment. There is nothing in common between the interests of the In- 

 terior Department and those of the Patent Office, and, consequently, 

 nothing to produce any advantage from the amalgamation of the Patent 

 Office into the Interior Department. 



Your Committee believes that to make the Patent Office an inde- 

 pendent bureau would greatly increase the respect of the public and 

 Congress and the courts for it, and would make it easier to pro- 

 cure enlarged appropriations and better salaries than under present 

 conditions. 



As to appropriations, under present conditions the demands of the 

 Patent Office for equipment, personnel, and salaries are necessarily 

 subjected to comparison both by the Secretary of the Interior and by 

 Congress with those of several other unrelated bureaus, each pressing its 

 own demands and criticising any apparent preference. In the opinion 



