142 
Urdahl—Historical Survey of Fee Systems. 
lected for each extension. This schedule remained in force up 
to 1861. Congress then passed an act which reduced most of the 
old fees by one-half, but enlarged the fee bill so as to require 
payments for official acts which up to that time had been free. 1 
The discriminations against foreigners were also repealed. 
With slight changes this schedule has remained in force up 
to the present. New duties are gradually taken over by the 
patent office, because the sphere of invention becomes broader 
with every new discovery in science, and the technicalities of 
patents and patent rights become more complicated. New fees 
are therefore constantly being introduced to pay for the more 
elaborate and thorough examination which must be taken in the 
interests of the patentees. 
The copyright law has been subject to less change than the 
patent law, and the fees have remained uniform almost from the 
beginning. The first act, passed in 1790, fixed the copyright 
fee at fifty cents, and provided for a re-issue on payment of an¬ 
other fee of the same amount. These charges continued un¬ 
changed in all the subsequent acts, except that a recent law has 
taken all the fees out of the Librarian’s salary 2 and required 
their payment into the treasury. 3 
B. CUSTOM HOUSE AND OTHER IMPORT FEES. 
The very first law levying import and tonnage duties made 
provision for the payment of all officers connected with the cus¬ 
tom house by means of fees. Surveyors, weighers, gaugers, in¬ 
spectors, and collectors, each had their own fees defined by this 
early act of 1787. Clearance and entrance fees for ships were 
1 Ibid., XII, 246, each caveat, $10; each original application, $15; issuing 
each original patent, $20; each application for reissue, $30; each ap¬ 
plication for extension, $50; recording assignments, etc., extra. 
2 Revised Statutes, U. S., 1891, p. 951. 
3 The applicant for a copyright is required to deposit two copies of his 
book with the librarian, the cost of which may in one sense be reckoned 
as a part of the copyright fee. There are, however, other fees collected 
by the librarian, which are not absolutely necessary to the validity of the 
copyright. As such may be mentioned a fee of fifty cents for each copy of 
the certificate; and one of a dollar for recording the assignment of a copy¬ 
right. 
