SEPTEMBER 6, 1918] 
PATENT OFFICE, WASHINGTON, D. C., 
July 29, 1917. 
Mr. F, F. Wirnrow, AND OTHERS, 
Patent Office, Dept. of Agriculture, 
Ottawa, Canada. 
Gentlemen: Below is submitted a general re- 
sponse to your valued letter of inquiry dated July 
4, 1918. You may find it largely an extenuation 
of present comparative inaction. 
The first definite steps toward the founding of 
our society were, in point of fact, taken by a 
group of assistant examiners more than a year 
since. Hon. Thos, Ewing, at that time commis- 
sioner of patents, lent some countenance to the 
movement, after ascertaining the favorable major- 
ity sentiment of the corps. The society and its 
work are still too undeveloped to justify much 
retrospect, but it is a matter of special gratifica- 
tion here that the membership has now been ex- 
tended to include not only all chiefs of examining 
divisions, and the vast majority of assistant ex- 
aminers, but also all chiefs of other divisions and 
all higher officials—thus including the present com- 
missioner, Hon. J. T. Newton, First Assistant 
Commissioner Whitehead, and Assistant Commis- 
sioner Clay—whose paper reproduced in the Sci- 
entific American Supplement for January 9, 1918, 
is enclosed herewith. : 
Provision is made for associate membership on 
the part of those not members of the examining 
corps, the present fee being one dollar per an- 
num; also for honorary membership, without fee. 
No honorary members have yet been elected. 
The general objects of the society. are perhaps 
best epitomized in the phrase ‘‘ Devoted to the Im- 
provement of the Patent System,’’ which its sta- 
tionery now bears. The society is of course in- 
terested in the promoting of mutual acquaintance 
within the office and with those who have business 
before it; in the elevating of standards of prac- 
tise, information and efficiency; in the improve- 
ment of working conditions, methods and equip- 
ment; in better opportunities and incentives; in 
better organization and informative resources; and 
(by no means least) in meeting more than half way 
efforts toward patent reform on the part of any 
and all who may appreciate the predicament of 
the office and the possibilities and public impor- 
tance of better patents and greater security therein. 
In conformity with a resolution adopted by the 
Patent Office Society and fully concurred in by 
Commissioner Ewing while in office, the National 
Research Council, with expanding offices now at 
1025 16th St. in this city, appointed, in 1917, a 
committee for the preliminary study of Patent 
SCIENCE 
251 
Office problems. Under the chairmanship of Dr. 
Wm. F, Durand (now in France), several meetings 
of this committee were held, at two of which there 
were presented discussions arranged for by a spe- 
cial committee of the Patent Office Society—al- 
though responsibility for views expressed was, of 
course, entirely personal. The first paper pre- 
sented as referred to was that of Mr. M. H. Couls- 
ton, at that time a law examiner (now chief clerk, 
and also president of our society), and it related 
to patent appeals. That paper, with slight 
changes -by its author, our committee in charge of 
the forthcoming Journal of the Patent Office So- 
ciety has decided to print in an early issue—moved 
thereto perhaps equally by the spirit in which it 
was prepared, by a subordinate in the ‘‘system,’’ 
and by the intrinsic importance of its topic. 
Other discussions presented at the meetings re- 
ferred to were as follows: 
Procedure and conclusions of the President’s Com- 
mission on Economy and Efficiency in their in- 
vestigation of the Patent Office in 1914; 
Needed legislation relating to assignments, or to 
the work of the assignment divisions; 
The needs of the Patent Office library; 
Suggested changes in the interference practise; 
Proper soliciting and adequate searches; 
The improvement of patent claims; 
The need of a secondary classification of patents, 
based on industrial arts; 
The essentials of a proper Patent Office building; 
Incentives and opportunities within the Patent 
Office ; 
A proposed reorganization of the examining corps. 
The mentioned committee of the N. R. C. (whose 
complete original membership, comprising some of 
the most noted of American scientists, engineers, 
inventors and authorities in patent law, was pub- 
lished in Science for December 26, 1917), is 
understood to have convened more recently at the 
New York offices of Mr. E. J. Prindle, the present 
chairman being Dr. L. H. Baekeland, of Yonkers, 
N. Y. Early enlargement of the committee was 
anticipated, and an additional committee of promi- 
nent engineers has in fact been appointed, under 
the chairmanship of Chas. A. Terry, E.E., by the 
United Engineering Societies, the last-named com- 
mittee having authority to cooperate with the N. 
R. C., and others, in patent reform efforts. 
As a consequence of the receipt of such infor- 
mation as the foregoing, and notwithstanding the 
fact that military and naval problems of the ut- 
most urgency do seem to have foreclosed a first 
mortgage upon the present attention of all those 
men upon whom successful patent reform must de- 
pend, the ‘‘small beginnings’’ mentioned are still 
believed here to afford some promise of real prog- 
