The Federal System. 
141 
CHAPTER VIII. 
THE FEDERAL FEE-SYSTEM. 
A. PATENT AND COPYRIGHT PEES. 
To the public generally the best known system of fees col¬ 
lected under the federal laws, is undoubtedly that connected 
with the National Patent Office. This office is one of the insti¬ 
tutions which were conceived and established by Jefferson in 
1790. Before that date some of the states had by legislative 
acts granted patents and copyrights for short periods of years, 
but none of them had any complete system. 1 True to the ideas 
then current, that fees should pay salaries directly, and should 
only be sufficient to make the public institutions self-support¬ 
ing, Jefferson made the patent office fees very low, and al¬ 
lowed all of them to be collected as salaries by the patent office 
officials. 2 But the receipts were found to be inadequate to pay 
expenses; so in 1793 a law was passed which increased the fees 
to six times the former amount. This continued in force up to 
1836, when a new act was passed which provided that patent 
officials should be paid salaries, and that all the fees collected 
should be paid into the treasury. The Patent Office fees re¬ 
mained about the same for United States citizens, but foreign 
applicants were compelled to pay much larger sums for patent 
rights. 3 Provision was also made for the right to extend the 
the life of a patent, and a fee of forty dollars was to be col- 
1 Statutes , N. Y., p. 274; Copyright act, 1777. Massachusetts patents, 
1639; Colonial Laws , p. 182. 
Governor and council have power to encourage inventions in Pennsyl¬ 
vania. Laws , Duke of York, p. 251; charter of Province of Philadelphia. 
2 Jefferson’s schedule was as follows: Filing petition, 50 cents; filing 
specification, 50 cents; making out patent, $2; affixing seal, $1; endorsing 
and delivering, 50 cents. 
3 Statutes at Large, U. S., V, 513. Citizens of Great Britain, applica¬ 
tion fee, $500; any other country, $300; citizen U. S., $30; caveat, $20; ex¬ 
tension of patent, $40; appeal from examiner’s decision, $25. 
