REPORT OF THE PATENT COMMITTEE 5 



Courts as a whole would not be changed to any substantial extent, 

 because all appeals must now be heard by the present courts and Judges 

 and, if there were a single Court of Patent Appeals, the Courts of 'Appeal 

 in the nine circuits would be relieved of just as many appeals as were 

 heard by it. The Judges in some of the circuits are much overworked, 

 but this is not true of many of the circuits. The Chief Justice of the 

 United States Supreme Court, in selecting these Judges, could, if he 

 chose, take into account the work of the different circuits and whether 

 one circuit or another could best spare a Judge. 



As the law now stands, Judges from one circuit may be called upon, 

 and not infrequently are called upon, to go into other circuits which are 

 short-handed. In this way, any undue pressure upon the Judges in 

 any particular circuit, by reason of the loss of any single Judge who went 

 to the Court of Patent Appeals for six years, could be relieved. 



Moreover, it is no hardship to increase the number of Judges where 

 necessary. The whole judicial system of the United States is said not 

 to cost as much as it does to run one first-class battleship, and the ad- 

 dition of a few Judges would be a negligible burden upon the Treasury. 



A further advantage of a single Court of Patent Appeals would be 

 that it would see clearly where there were defects in the statute and in 

 the conditions and practice in the Patent Office, and would speak with 

 authority on all matters which affect the theory and practical working 

 of the patent system. 



THE PATENT OFFICE A SEPARATE INSTITUTION, AND INDEPENDENT OF THE 

 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 



The second proposal which your Committee recommends is that the 

 Patent Office be made a separate institution, independent of the Interior 

 or any other department. 



The Patent Office was originally in the State Department, but, on the 

 formation of the Interior Department in 1849, it was made a bureau of 

 that Department and has been so ever since. 



The only matters connected with the Patent Office with which the 

 Secretary of the Interior has anything to do are the following: The Sec- 

 retary of the Interior must submit to Congress all estimates for appro- 

 priations. All appointments, excepting those of the Commissioner, 

 two Assistant-Commissioners, and five Examiners-in-Chief, are made by 

 the Secretary but only on the recommendation of the Commissioner. 

 The eight places named are Presidential appointments, but the Secre- 

 tary makes recommendations to the President. All matters of dis- 



