The operations of the Patent Office during the year 1844.

JANUARY 29, 1845.

Read, and ordered that a motion that it be printed, and that 5,000 additional copies be furnished for the use of the Senate, be referred to the Committee on Printing.

JANUARY 30, 1845.

Ordered to be printed, and that 20,000 additional copies (omitting the lists of patents) be furnished; 19,500 of which for the use of the Senate, and 500 for the use of the Commissioner of Fatents.

PATENT OFFICE, January 28, 1845.

The Commissioner of Patents has the honor to submit his annual report for the year ending with the close of 1844.

Five hundred and two patents have been issued during the year 1844, including seven reissues, twelve designs, and five additional improvements to former patents, of which classified and alphabetical lists are annexed, marked N and 0.

During the same period, five hundred and thirty-nine patents have expired, as per list marked P.

The applications for patents during the year past amount to one thousand and forty-five, and the number of caveats filed was three hundred and eighty.

The receipts of the office for the year 1844 amount to forty-one thousand two hundred and twenty dollars and six cents, from which are to be deducted, repaid on applications withdrawn, as per statement marked A, ten thousand and forty dollars.

The ordinary expenses of the Patent Office for the past year have been twenty-four thousand two hundred and twenty-eight dollars and four cents; to which add, for library and agriculture, two thousand and seventy-six dollars and forty-nine cents, leaves a nett balance of six thousand one hundred and sixty-four dollars and seventy-three cents, to be credited to the patent fund, as per statement marked B.

For the restoration of models, records, and drawings, under the act of 3d March, 1837, the sum of two thousand eight hundred and twenty-two dollars and sixty-six cents, as per statement marked C.

The whole number of patents issued by the United States, up to January, 1845, is fourteen thousand and twenty-four. Although the number of patents granted the past year is not so great as that of the year previous, it will be seen that there is an excess of applications to the amount of two hundred and twenty-six.

The increase of models renders daily the transaction of business more

difficult. The models of the patented inventions are crowded so much as to prevent classification; while models of rejected applications, equally important for exhibition, to enable supposed inventors to settle doubts as to originality, are not exhibited at all. It has been hoped that the large upper hall, designed originally for models, would not be diverted to other objects without some substitute being furnished. The beautiful collection of curiosities, however, from various parts of the world, forming the National Gallery, are too important and interesting to be crowded out. There seems to be no alternative but to extend the building. This can be done at a moderate expense, if the work is performed by contract, under careful supervision. No new plan need now be presented. The original design contemplated two additional wings, one of which, added on the west side, would give sufficient accommodation by furnishing continuous rooms for models and the gallery. The number of applications for the extension of patents during 1844 was twelve. Two were granted, and ten rejected.

The board of commissioners have extended seven patents since the act of Congress approved 4th July, 1836.

Patentees seem to think, that if they pay the fee required, and show that they have not made the patent profitable, (and especially if no objection is urged by the public against the extension,) that the extension will be allowed as a matter of course-forgetting that all patents granted prior to the reorganization of the Patent Office in 1836 were not subject to examination as to novelty; in other words, any applicant prior to that time, who was willing to swear that he was the first and original inventor, could demand a patent, leaving the courts to settle questions of utility and originality. Many patents granted prior to 1836 do not, therefore, contain any merit, and an extension of the same would only end in disappointment, if the originality were tested.

By reference to the decisions of the board of commissioners, composed of "the Secretary of State, the Commissioner of Patents, and the Solicitor of the Treasury," it appears that extension of patents cannot be expected when the invention is trivial, and where the right to use and vend the same has been unmolested; or where the machine is not complicated, and little expenditure of time or money is necessary to introduce it-they believing, it is supposed, that it would be better thus to place before the patentee (who can i deprive the public of the use of the invention) the strongest motives to bring the same into immediate use upon fair and equitable terms, rather than delay with indifference fourteen years, thinking that he can get an extension for seven years more. If patents were extended upon applications as a matter of course, it is evident most patentees would apply, and thus make the duration of all patents equivalent to twenty-one years-crowding too, upon the board of commissioners, an amount of extra labor which they could not possibly discharge.

It may here be remarked, that, however desirous Congress might have been to make the section of the patent law under which patents are extended clear and explicit, much litigation has arisen upon its construction; and I feel compelled to mention the contradictory decisions, that further legislation may be had, if deemed expedient.

The 18th section is in the following words:

"And be it further enacted, That whenever any patentee of an invention or discovery shall desire an extension of his patent beyond the term of its limitation, he may make application therefor, in writing, to the Com

missioner of the Patent Office, setting forth the grounds thereof; and the Commissioner shall, on the applicant's paying the sum of forty dollars to the credit of the Treasury, as in the case of an original application for a patent, cause to be published in one or more of the principal newspapers in the city of Washington, and in such other paper or papers as he may deem proper, published in the section of country most interested adversely to the extension of the patent, a notice of such application, and of the time and place when and where the same will be considered, that any person may appear and show cause why the extension should not be granted; and the Secretary of State, the Commissioner of the Patent Office, and the Solicitor of the Treasury, shall constitute a board to hear and decide upon the evidence produced before them, both for and against the extension, and shall sit for that purpose at the time and place designated in the published notice thereof. The patentee shall furnish to said board a statement, in writing, under oath, of the ascertained value of the invention, and of his receipts and expenditures, sufficiently in detail to exhibit a true and faithful account of loss and profit in any manner accruing to him from and by reason of said invention. And if, upon a hearing of the matter, it shall appear, to the full and entire satisfaction of said board, having due regard to the public interest therein, that it is just and proper that the term of the patent should be extended, by reason of the patentee, without neglect or fault on his part, having failed to obtain, from the use and sale of his invention, a reasonable remuneration for the time, ingenuity, and expense, bestowed upon the same, and the introduction thereof into use, it shall be the duty of the Commissioner to renew and extend the patent, by making a certificate thereon of such extension, for the term of seven years from and after the expiration of the first term; which certificate, with a certificate of said board of their judgment and opinion as aforesaid, shall be entered on record in the Patent Office; and thereupon the said patent shall have the same effect in law as though it had been originally granted for the term of twenty-one years; and the benefit of such renewal shall extend to assignees and grantees of the right to use the thing patented, to the extent of their respective interests therein: Provided, however, That no extension of a patent shall be granted after the expiration of the term for which it was originally issued.”

It may not be improper here to notice the construction of this section by the board of commissioners, whose duties are defined by it, viz: that the benefit of the extension inures to assignees according to their respective interest in the thing patented, be it more or less, whether it be a right to use the specific machine or article sold, or a right to make and sell in a town, county, or State.

Had the board doubted upon this point, I feel no hesitation in saying that they never would have consented, "having a due regard to the public interests," to the extension of several patents which have been extended.

If the benefit of extension were confined to the patentee alone, assignees, however late their purchase, and however much they might have expended in fixtures, might be at once enjoined even from using the very article purchased a result certainly wholly unexpected to the assignee when he entered into covenant with the patentee..

In the district embracing New England, assignees have, by the circuit judge of that district, been enjoined fully, in numerous cases, and compelled to purchase even the right to use the invention after extension of the patent.

It is not required that beef and pork should undergo a public inspection, as we consider that the best security of their marketable character is found in the obvious interest of packers to furnish such an article as will earn a good name for their brand, and obtain the highest current rates.

Fine leaf lard, if unmixed and well managed, will, we think, be a profitable article for shipment. It is put up in neat white kegs, containing about 40 lbs. each. The lard is poured into the kegs at the head, and, so soon as it has cooled and settled down, the surface is made level, and covered with white paper, which prevents it from adhering to the lid when opened for inspection in our market. It is also put up, to a considerable extent, in bladders, and shipped in hogsheads packed with bran or cut straw. It is important that the bladders should be well cleaned, by scraping and the use of acids, so that they may be tolerably transparent. The inferior lard may be put up in packages of any size, which, when large, should be iron-hooped.

We call the attention of curers in the United States to the fact, that while bacon and hams when dried pay a duty of 14s. per cwt., if shipped in pickle, they will be passed by our customs at the pork duty of 8s. As a set off, however, against the 6s. per cwt. saved in duty, it must be recollected that pork cured in pickle is inferior in quality to that cured in dry salt, and will not bring an equal price; that it is shipped in that form at an increased cost of packages and freight; and that it pays a duty on a greater weight than when dried. We give these considerations, that shippers may decide for themselves which is the preferable mode of ship

ment.

By the subjoined extract from the tariff, it will be seen that the different, duties in favor of colonial produce are so great as to give a decided advantage to Canada in the shipment of all provisions for our home consumption. Thus, in beef and pork, while foreign is subject to a duty of Ss. per cwt., colonial is admitted at 2s. ; but it is understood that, by the repeal of the 42d clause of the 3d and 4th William, cap. iv., 57, both foreign and colonial will now be admitted, for ship stores, free of duty. This feature in the bill we consider most important to America, and would call the attention of curers there to the altered position of the trade in that particular.

Lard is also admitted on favorable terms; and, as our demand for that article for machinery and manufacturing purposes is very large, we would strongly recommend that the soft pork should be melted down, and shipped in that form.

The high duty on foreign butter being retained, will prevent any regular trade in that article from America, except when prices are so low as to make it an object of attention for shipment of grease. Under this name, it is liable to a duty of 1s. and 8d. per cwt. only. In Canada, the soil appears to be very favorable for the production of this article; and, under the present modified colonial duty, it will become, we think, one of very large export. The principal fault in Canadian butter at present is, that the milk is not sufficiently pressed out, and. consequently, when shipped on a long voyage, it becomes rancid before it can be consumed. It should be packed in casks containing from seventy to eighty pounds, which must be air-tight.

Cheese has already been shipped extensively; and, as the quantity produced is increasing every year, it is likely to become an item of con