Citizens of the United States 16,239
Subjects of Great Britain 511
Subjects of France 104
Subjects of other foreign governments 172
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Total 17,026
The number of applications for patents was a little less than during
the previous year. The Commissioner suggests that Congress should
appropriate $50,000 to promote the printing of the old patents; that
additional examiners be employed, and more clerks, for the purpose of
expediting the business of the office; that the price of the Official
Gazette be reduced, also the fee for trade mark registration; that the
library fund be increased; that more space be provided for models, and
for the transaction of business.
In respect to the Centennial, the value of new improvements, and the
service of the Patent Office in stimulating discovery, the Acting
Commissioner speaks as follows:
"The display made at the Exposition by the Patent Office was
creditable in every respect, and excited general attention.
About 5,000 models of inventions, representing the leading
branches of the arts and manufactures, were exhibited in
suitable cases, and properly labeled, the various publications
of the Office were displayed, its practice fully explained to
all inquirers, and copies of the Patent Laws and the Office
regulations and forms freely distributed. The knowledge of our
patent system thus imparted to foreigners and all others unable
to visit Washington has more than repaid the small cost
attendant upon the representation. The exhibits were sent from
and returned to the Office with scarcely any damage being
suffered.
"But the array of models, etc., made by the Patent Office at the
Exposition was not needed to illustrate the value of our patent
practice. The wisdom of that system was demonstrated in the most
practical and triumphant manner in nearly every branch of that
munificent enterprise. Not only in the grand display of
labor-saving machinery, but in the vast collection of
manufactured articles, and even in the department of fine arts,
were seen the fruits of that provision in our Constitution
giving to Congress the power 'to promote the progress of science
and the useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and
inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and
discoveries.'
"Whatever persons may do in a 'perfect condition of society' in
sharing, without price, the fruits of their labors with others,
it must be apparent to the dullest observer that the wonderful
growth of the useful arts in this country is due, thus far, to
the protection given by our Government to property in
inventions--a property as sacred as any other class of property,
and whose value is determined by the same general law of supply
and demand.
"It may be safely said that two thirds of the manufacturing
interests of the country are based upon patents, and the welfare
of all such interests are intimately connected with the welfare
of the patent system. During the past seven years a larger
number of applications for patents were filed and patents
granted than during the entire seventy-eight preceding years,
reaching back to the enactment of the first patent law. The
needs of the Office have advanced in proportion to this sudden
and vast increase of work, but have been but partly supplied.
Nay, in fact, its already scanty force and accommodations have
been actually reduced at a time when most required. If these
vast interests, and the future promotion of science and the
useful arts are to be encouraged, a liberal recognition must be
made of the wants of this Office.
"The Examining Corps, the duties in which are most arduous and
exacting, comprises gentlemen of legal, as well as scientific,
attainments. It should be re-inforced by more of the same
character. They should be relieved, by legislation, of continual
embarrassment by reason of meager salaries and fears of removal
incident to merely political changes. The Office would then be
spared the continual loss of its most experienced and efficient
men."
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