A"!vJouur-  pha0rm-)     Need  for  Patent-Law  Revision.  iqi 
March,  1918.     }  1  •LVi 
Against  Public  Interest. — Since  that  time  the  Council  has  con- 
tinued its  study  of  the  U.  S.  patent  law  as  it  applies  to  medicine  and 
has  become  convinced  that  in  many  instances  the  patent  law  or  its 
enforcement  is  contrary  to  the  best  interest  of  the  public,  both 
as  concerns  health  and  prosperity.  The  Council  feels  it  a  duty  at 
this  time  to  protest  against  the  provisions  of  our  patent  law,  or  the 
methods  of  its  enforcement,  which  permit  the  granting  of  patents 
without  thorough  and  scientific  investigation  of  the  claims  ad- 
vanced in  such  letters  patent.  As  one  means  of  improving  condi- 
tions the  Council  urges  that  the  U.  S.  Public  Health  Service,  the 
Bureau  of  Chemistry,  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture  and  other 
scientific  departments  of  the  United  States  government  conversant 
with  medicines  and  related  subjects  be  consulted  before  the  issu- 
ance of  patents  on  medicinal  preparations. 
In  support  of  the  Council's  contention  that  the  patent  law  pro- 
cedure requires  revision,  the  following  is  offered:  In  19 12  a  U.  S. 
Patent  (No.  1,031,971)  was  granted  on  a  cresol  derivative,  meta- 
cresyl  acetate,  a  product  described  in  chemical  literature  in  1903. 
When  the  Council  inquired  as  to  the  grounds  for  the  issuance  of  a 
patent  for  a  substance  known  to  science,  the  Patent  Office  replied 
that  it  was  not  familiar  with  the  publication  in  which  metacresyl 
acetate  had  been  described.  It  seems  evident  that  this  patent  would 
not  have  been  issued  had  the  application  first  been  submitted  to  a 
government  department  familiar  with  chemical  literature. 
An  illustration  of  the  granting  of  a  patent  on  the  use  of  well- 
known  chemical  bodies  which  present  no  discovery  or  originality  is 
the  patent  issued  for  the  use  of  peroxids,  perborates  and  percar- 
bona+es  as  ingredients  of  tooth  powders  (U.  S.  Patents  Nos.  760, 
397  and  802,099).  Regarding  these  patents  The  Journal  of  the 
American  Medical  Association  (Sept.  20,  1913,  p.  978)  commented: 
The  patents  held  by  McKesson  and  Robbins  give  this  firm  the^  exclusive 
right  of  manufacturing  tooth  powders  containing  peroxids,  perborates  and 
percarbonates.  It  is  another  illustration  of  the  unfair  monopolies  that  may- 
be secured  under  our  present  patent  laws. 
Granting  a  Patent  to  a  Nostrum. — Again  in  19 13  U.  S.  Patent 
No.  1,081,069  was  granted  to  a  citizen  of  Switzerland  (a  country 
which  does  not  grant  patents  on  medicinal  preparations)  for  a 
"  composition  which  is  intended  to  be  used  internally  and  which  con- 
fers to  the  organisms  immunity  against  the  following  microbial 
