December 28, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



631 



solicit the concurrence therein of both the local 

 and the national scientific and engineering so- 

 cieties, and to jiublish the same generally, or in 

 its discretion, always with careful regard to the 

 aims of those to whom the project is due. 



The following questions raised in a report 

 made to the Patent OiBce corps by a special 

 committee charged to cooperate "with the per- 

 sonnel committee of the National Research 

 Council will indicate something of the tend- 

 ency of measures for which it is hoped to 

 gain early consideration: 



What does the Patent OfSce need besides men 

 and materials? 



Feeling that the time is at hand when the Pat- 

 ent Office must enter upon either a period of very 

 rapid decline or else upon a period of revitaliza- 

 tion and expansion, shall we not test the notion 

 that it may actually be easier, and in every re- 

 spect better, for the office, exhibiting a new vi- 

 sion of its task, to ask a great deal more, rather 

 than to continue its petition for the very, very 

 little that has so often been denied it? 



Relying upon the assistance of the composite 

 committee generously formed by the National Ee- 

 seareh Council — - 



Can assistance be got, even now, in the making 

 of a genuine advance in the indispensable work of 

 reclassification of patents and of literature? 



Can all who are employed in the work of exami- 

 nation be in any way further encouraged and aided 

 to become specialists in one or another of the 

 branches of applied science — rather than mere 

 rule-parrots and picture-matchers? And would a 

 proposed departmental organization of the office 

 aid to this end? 



Can these gains against dilatory prosecution . 

 made under the energetic efforts of Commissioner 

 Ewiug be rendered secure for the future by {e. g.), 

 dating the terms of patent monopolies from the 

 date of filing — in order to create an incentive for 

 diligent rather than dilatory prosecution? 



Could any adjustment of extra fees for extra 

 claims discourage the "fog-artists" and create an 

 incentive for a more genuine effort on the part of 

 attorneys to find the meat of the coconut — instead 

 of puttmg it up to the office, the courts or the pub- 

 lic to do so? 



Can any elevation of the standards of practise 

 (effected perhaps with the assistance of the pat- 

 ent bar) relieve the office at the same time from an 

 undue burden of editorial work and from any 

 suspicion of complicity in the wholesale netting of 



' ' suckers ' ' by men who indulge in misleading ad- 

 vertisements or contingent jirosecution? 



Can the divisions of the office advantageously be 

 grouped into departments, each comprising sev- 

 eral divisions handling analogous problems — a 

 chemical department, an electrical department, an 

 "instrument" department, a motive power de- 

 partment and the like, each under some expert of 

 distinction in a particular field, and this body of 

 experts having not only authority within their re- 

 spective departments, but exercising collectively 

 an enlightened and final appellate jurisdiction? 



Can the salaries of these proposed department 

 heads (constituting an enlarged and strengthened 

 board) and the salaries of chiefs of divisions, and', 

 of others, be made such as to justify able and! 

 provident men in remaining for a much longer 

 average term within this branch of the service f 



Could the establishment in Washington of some 

 great related institution, such as the proposed In- 

 stitute for the History of Science, aid materially 

 by an assembling, in this vicinity, of permanent 

 exhibits genuinely illustrative of the advance of, 

 e. g., the chemical arts, the electrical arts, the mo- 

 tive power arts, the transport arts, etc., with a 

 corresponding assembling and arrangement of 

 pertinent literature from all the world, and with 

 such an administrative organization as shall 

 supplement the resources of this office, among 

 others, sustaining its standards, while at the same 

 time providing, in support of those who can main- 

 tain their scholarly interests and professional in- 

 stincts, something of the stimulus and the oppor- 

 tunities of a true national university? 



The mentioned special committee of the 

 Patent OlSce Society takes this means of urg- 

 ing upon all interested the forwarding of any 

 patent reform suggestions at once to Dr. Wm. 

 F. Durand, National Research Council, Wash- 

 ing-ton, D. C. It is not expected that patent 

 reform can claim primary consideration dur- 

 ing the continuance of the war, but it is felt 

 that the time is ripe for at least a study of 

 conditions and a renewed consideration of 

 certain fundamentals from which it is felt that 

 the office — charged " to promote the progress 

 of science and the useful arts " — ^has de- 

 parted through lack of information and sup- 

 port. 



Bert Russell, Secretary, 

 H. J. Jewett, Chairman, 

 Special Committee, Patent Office Section 



