MARCH, 1951 0
A PATENT ASSIGNMENT] BERTIN L. EMLlNG St. Vincent College, Latrabe, Pennsylvania
TEEimportance of patent protection for new or improved processes or products is quite generally recognized by the chemical industries. A progressive organization will nearly always protect the results of its research by means of patents. It therefore follows that students of chemistry who later in their careers may be a t least instrumental in and often responsible for advances in applied science should have some knowledge of what a patent is. This is true not only for graduate students but also for undergraduates. One way to learn something about patents is to study a copy of an actual patent. It is the author's contention that every student who will graduate with a bachelor's degree in chemistry should a t least study the structure of one original patent and analyze it from the viewpoint of good practice. For this purpose the following class assignment is proposed. The student is first required to familiarize himself with Chemical Abstracts and the practice of this journal of abstracting patents. Chemical Abstracts covers all the important chemical literature of the world, including patents, and publishes this material in abstract form arranged in thirty-one distinct sections. Under each section are contained the abstracts of material peculiar to that section. The individual abstract consists of the patent title, the names of the patentees and assignees (if any), the patent number, the date of issue, followed by a brief synopsis of the subject matter of the patent. From these abstracts the student selects a patent that interests him and secures a copy of the patent by sendmg twenty-five cents to the Commissioner of Patents, United States Patent Office, Washington 25, D. C. The following assignment is then made. Supply the following information concerning a patent in which you are interested and a copy of which you have secured from the United States Patent Office: Based on s. paper presented before the Division of Chemical Education at the 118th meetine of the American Chemical Society, Chicago, September, 195g
1. Patent title. 2. Chemical Abstracts reference. 3. Names of the patentees and assignees, if any. 4. Date of application and date of issue of the patent. 5. Patent number and serial number. 6. First state in one sentence, as briefly and inclusively as possible, what the invention is. Then give a short summary of the specification of the invention. Classify the invention as art, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, improvement, or two or more. 7. Clearly show what is useful and new in the invention. 8. Briefly state the claims made and whether in your opinion the claims are sound.
Give reasons for all your statements. The copy of the patent must be submitted with the assignment.
An explanation of most of the concepts covered in this assignment can be found in a pamphlet, "General Information Concerning Patents," a copy of which can be obtained without charge from the Commissioner of Patents. This booklet briefly describes the rights granted by a patent, the qualities necessary for a patentable invention, and the structure of specifications. It will be quite worth while for the student to read this pamphlet before he attempts to carry out the assignment. Some teachers of chemistry have used assignments similar to that recommended here hut they usually confined them to courses in chemical literature. The assignment, however, can easily be adapted to any chemical curriculum. It may be used in any advanced undergraduate course by simply correlating the subject matter of the patent with the general content of the course. Thus in a course in advanced organic chemistry the student might be limited in his selection of the patent to those abstracted in section ten (organic chemistry) of Chemical Abstracts.
