August 30, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



203 



the need for a Coirrt of Patent Appeals — ^for 

 whicli he also advocated that shifting person- 

 nel proposed by H. E. 5013 and apparently 

 regarded with some disfavor or doubt by the 

 members of the House committee. 



Dr. L. H. Baekeland, acting chairman of 

 the Patent Committee of the IST. E. C, pre- 

 sented the convincing testimony of a success- 

 ful individual inventor as to both the impor- 

 tance of patent protection and the wasteful- 

 ness of the present system — or lack of system 

 ■ — in patent litigation. He agreed with the 

 preceding speakers in urging the indispen- 

 sable importance of better support for the 

 Patent OiEce. Mr. Baekeland was followed by 

 former Commissioner Thomas Ewing, who 

 emphasized the essential distinction between 

 the registration system and the distinctively 

 American or examination system of patent 

 grants. Mr. Ewing pointed out that the 

 effect of inaction on the part of Congress is 

 the slow transformation of ours into a mere 

 registration system, very discreditably camou- 

 flaged. He strongly advocated separation of 

 the Patent OiRce from the Department of the 

 Interior as indispensable to the normal devel- 

 opment of the Office and the attracting of 

 strong men to its service. 



Mr. Ewing was followed by Mr. Wm. J. 

 Xent, an inventor from the development de- 

 partment of the U. S. Eubber Co., Mr. Milton 

 Tibbetts, Chairman of the Patents Committee 

 of the ISTational Association of Manufacturers, 

 and Mr. Elmer Sperry, whose inventions in- 

 clude many applications of the gyroscope. 

 Each of these contributed materially to a 

 composite but unitary picture of the present 

 deplorable patent situation. There was sub- 

 stantial agreement as to remedies. 



On July 11, Judge Learned Hand, of I^Tew 

 York, presented an earnest plea for the pro- 

 posed Court of Patent Appeals. He was fol- 

 lowed by the inventor Erank Sprague, who 

 related personal experiences of very great in- 

 terest and significance, and by Mr. W. G. 

 Carr and Mr. D. W. Holden, formerly of the 

 examining corps and now connected respec- 

 tively with the Westinghouse Electrical Co., 

 and with the office of the Thomas A. Edison 

 Co. All of these gentlemen, in addition to ad- 



vocating the bill under consideration, responded 

 to questions bearing upon the alleged practise 

 of suppressing inventions (of which Chairman 

 ISTolan presented the striking instance of the 

 automatic telephone) and, also to questions 

 bearing upon a proposal by Mr. Edison calcu- 

 lated to protect an inventor from the com- 

 plete alienation of his rights. 



On Saturday morning July 12, Mr. C. L. 

 Sturtevant, secretary of the American Patent 

 Law Association, presented several specific 

 amendments to H. E. 5011, relating to sepa- 

 ration, disbarments and the like, some of these 

 being matters of detail to which the Patent 

 Office Society had previously called attention; 

 and Commissioner Newton presented incontro- 

 vertible statistics as to the need of increases 

 in force and salary, mentioning that the rate 

 of resignation had risen to something like 25 

 per cent, per annum, and that, in response 

 to about one hundred calls made upon the 

 Civil Service Commission, that body had been 

 able to send him only about a half dozen 

 qualified men. 



On Thursday, July lY, Mr. Thomas E. 

 Eobertson, president of the American Patent 

 Law Association, reviewed the whole situation, 

 and on the day following he gave the com- 

 mittee a " demonstration " of the work of a 

 number of the examining corps. Mr. Bert 

 Eussell, secretary of the Patent Office Society, 

 was heard briefly in defense of a compromise 

 proposal regarding the personnel of the Court 

 of Patent Appeals, and in regard to specific 

 features of H. E. 5011, regarded by him as im- 

 portant incidents of the proposed separation. 



It is expected that the record of these hear- 

 ings will shortly be printed as a House Docu- 

 ment. 



On the whole, the attitude of Mr. IvTolan's 

 Committee was felt to be distinctly en- 

 couraging, ati least as to the reporting favor- 

 ably of some sort of a Patent Court bill and 

 some measure for the relief of the Patent 

 Office. 



ISTo doubt the prospect of an early and favor- 

 able report of the bills substantially as advo- 

 cated, and the prospects of passage when the 

 bills shall be so reported, are still somewhat 

 uncertain — especially since there exists a class 



