WHAT THE CHEMISTRY STUDENT SHOULD KNOW ABOUT PATENT PROCEDURE. 11. ORGANIZATION OF THE PATENT OFFICE
The passage of the Act of 1836, with which our present series of numbering began, marked a new era in the procedure by which patents were granted. Prior to that time there was practically no examination. But patents had been granted long before the Revolutionary War in Massachusetts and Connecticut under the old British system, and they were there granted by the respective legislative bodies following a conference with the inventor. The Act of 1790 attempted, in a measure, to ascertain the utility and state of the art, but these efforts were far from all that might be desired. The institution of the examination system was in marked contrast to the previously existing registration method and there were provided a t this time the facilities and organization to initiate and carry on this type of system which entailed an examination and determination of the utility, novelty, and patentability of an alleged invention. There was provided also the means for collecting the art, both patent and publication, and a personnel properly trained to examine the applications intelligently, and the machinery and procedure for giving effect to the purpose of the law. In other words, there was placed upon the Patent Office the burden which the courts had previously performed, in order, as it has been stated, "to eliminate litigation before it begins." The procedure provided for in the Act of 1836 gave to the grant of a patent the standing of grima facie validity. Since 1836 more than 1,700,000 patents have been granted. At the beginning, the Patent Ofice personnel consisted of a commissioner of patents, one examiner, and three clerks, two of whom should be qualified
draftsmen. At the present time, the personnel includes a commissioner, two assistant commissioners, a solicitor, five law examiners, a board of appeals of five members, sixty-two primary or principal examiners, something over five hundred assistant examiners, and a clerical force of over six hundred. Each of the primary or principal examiners is in charge of an examining division in which a certain definite art is examined, and each principal has under him perhaps eight to ten assistant examiners. The sixty-two divisions in their art represent the whole realm of human endeavor; and whether the invention is for a hair pin or a cantilever bridge; a perfume, a dyestuff, or a deadly gas; a process for mounting jewels or for extracting and refining metals; a new toy or a new sixteen-inch naval gun; be it a mechanical, a chemical, or an electrical invention; be it as simple as a pin or as complex as a newspaper printing press or an adding machine, there is among the corps in the Patent Officeone who has the expert knowledge necessary to understand the invention, its operation, and the field covered by similar attempts. I t is required that all material devices, operations, and processes, and every development pertaining thereto, must come before the examining force of the Patent Office for critical scrutiny before being protected by a patent. It may he rejected or objected to and in view thereof amended and finally accepted; or i t may be accepted a t once, although this is rather the exception than the rule. In order to become a member of the examining corps of the Patent Office, one must pass a civil-service examination, and this examination is of such nature that nearly all the members of the corps have college degrees. Many of them hold degrees not only in arts or sciences hut in law as well. as it has been found that such a combination is highly desirable for proper conduct of the duties which fall to them. It is necessary for the assistant examiner, who must pass on the questions of utility, novelty, and patentability, to know the "art," that is, patents and literature, foreign and domestic, relating to the invention described. Accordingly, he must be familiar with the patents and publications in various languages covering the particular field of invention. He must have full knowledge of the principles in accordance with which the inventions which he is examining operate, and must have knowledge of related or analogous inventions throughout the Patent Office. The assistant examiners are in correspondence with the attorneys representing the largest manufacturing and industrial interests in this country and abroad, and they must therefore be so familiar with the principles and decisions of patent law as to he able to carry on such correspondence and to maintain their end of the controversy. The principal examiners, or heads of various divisions, are the superiors of the assistant examiners. They have charge of the various classes
of inventions being examined in their division and it is their decision, whether favorable or otherwise with respect to the application, which is final. It has been estimated that these decisions of the principal examiners involve property rights which rnn into many millions of dollars annually. As examples, reference may be made to such outstanding inventions as that of Hall for the winning of aluminum; Goodyear for the vulcanization of rubber; Baekeland for the manufacture of bakelite; Acheson for the manufacture of graphite; Hyatt for the manufacture of celluloid; Edison for the incandescent lamp; Just and Hanaman for tungsten filaments; Langmuir for the nitrogen-filled incandescent bulb; De Forrest for radio; and the list could be extended almost indefinitely. It, however, should not be gathered from this that all of the applications which mature into patents are valuable and reap a fortune for their inventors. The percentage of such applications is quite small. Other than the examining and clerical staffs above referred to, the organization of the Patent Office includes two interference examiners, one with reference to patents, the other with reference to trade-marks, a trademark examiner, and a classification examiner. The examiners of interference pass upon the question as to who is the earlier inventor when it appears that the claims of two inventors are directed to the same invention. The classification examiner has in his charge what is perhaps the most complicated work in the Patent Office. We have seen that 1,700,000 patents have been granted. These patents must all be classified properly with respect to the art to which they pertain, as obviously, otherwise, it would be impossible for any examiner to make anything like a real examination in the art. In this 1,700,000patents there are several million facts disclosed, each one more or less concrete and all more or less associated in various combinations, which combinations involve several more million arrangements of a greater or lesser number of units. The importance of a real scientific classification of the millions of facts disclosed in the patents will be quite evident when it is realized that the effectiveness of the examiner's search is entirely dependent on the thoroughness and character of this classification. This work has been going on for more than twenty years and has cost considerably more than half a million dollars, and while as yet it is not wholly complete, nevertheless the system is a t present a most workable one and eventually completeness will be secured1. Of the sixty-two examining divisions, there are perhaps ten of these divisions in which applications relating to chemistry are examined. These divisions are the following, being known by numbers: 2, 3, 6, 15, 31, 43, 50, 55, 56, and 59. In the belief that the types of inventions which are examined in the aforenlentioned divisions will he of interest, there is given herewith the various classes examinable in these divisions. Not all of these 1
Wyman, I. Pat. O f i c e Soc., 9 , 71 (1926-27).
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divisions are wholly chemical; however, it may quite properly be said that divisions 6, 31, and 59 are wholly chemical. Division 2: examines inventions pertaining to bee culture; dairy; preserving; presses; tobacco. Division 3: heating; metal founding; metallurgy; metal treatment. Division 6: carbon chemistry; dyeing; explosives; sugar and starch. Division 15: glass; plastic block and earthenware apparatus; plastics. Division 31: ammonia, water, and wood distillation; charcoal and coke; gas, heating and illuminating; mineral oils. Division 43: baths, closets, sinks, and spittoons; sewerage; electricity, medical and surgical; medicines; surgery; dentistry; artificial body members. Division 50: plastic and liquid coating compositions; coating: Division 55: bread, pastry, and confection making; cutlery; designs. Division 56: electrochemistry; laminated fabrics; paper making; substance preparation. Diwision 59: chemistry; alcohol; fertilizers; oils, fats, and glue; cement and lime; hides, skins, and leather; fuel. When an application pertaining to an invention is received by the Patent Office, it is given a cursory examination to determine the art to which it relates and then is referred to the division in which that art is examined. For example, a process which has to do with the manufacture of alcohol would he referred to Division 59 for examination, whereas a process having to do with the manufacture of a dyestuff, say of the alizarine type, would be referred to Division 6 for examination, and so on. It may not be amiss to include a t this point a list of books which will he found suitable for correlated reading. Bibliography "What a Business Executive Should Know about Patents," by R. S. Hoar, The Ronald Press Co., New York, 1926. "Patent Law for the Inventor and Executivc." by H. A. Toulmin. A number of r New York, 1928. charts or data forms. H a r ~ e Bros., "Patent Office Practice," by A. R. McCrady, H. D. Williams Co., Washington. D. C., 1928. "The Law of Chemical Patents." . hv . Edward Thomas. D. Van Nostrand Ca.. New York, 1927. "Inventions and Patents."~. by Milton Wright. . . McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York. 1927.
"Pioneer Inventions and Pioneer Patents," by Frank Keiper. Pioneer Publishing Co., Rochester, N. Y., 1924. "Text Book of the Law of Patents for Inventions," by A. H. Walker (5th ed.). Baker, Voorhis & Co., New York, 1917. "Patentability of Inventions and the Interpretation of Patents," by G. L. Roberts, Little, Brown & Co., Boston, Mass., 1927.
"The Laws of Patents for Useful Inventions" (3 Vols.), by W. C. Robinson, Little, Brown & Co., Boston, Mass., 1890. "Patent Essentials for the Executive, Engineer, Lawyer and Inventors," by J. F. Rohb, Funk & Wagnalls Co., N. Y., 1928.
British Practice "Patents and Chemical Research." by H. E. Potts. University Press of Livcrpaol, 1921.
"The Law and Practice Relating to Letters Patent for Inventions" (7th ed.), by Thomas Terrell, Sweet & Maxwell, London. 1927.
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Rayon through the Microscope Rayon (with the possible exception of Bemberg) can readily be distinguished from silk hy means of the microscope because of the fact that the fibers are larger and present a peculiar texture of outline with which one becomes familiar by careful study. The Bemberg fiber is so fine that it requires considerable practice to be able to distinguish it microscopically. Cross-section views reveal the fact that the fibers are not quite as regular as they appear when looked a t longitudinally. These irregularities occur as the liquid is squeezed out through the orifices of the spinneret. These do not interfere with the luster of the fiber, however, since the fibers still present an excellent mirror-like surface for the reflection of light rays in parallel lines. Identifying Rayon Chemically The following simple qualitative procedure, based either on comparative solubilities, or upon comparative dyeing qualities will form a satisfactory method of distinguishing the four types of rayon chemically: Reagcnt
viscose
Acetone no change ljl, Carminic acid. Allow fibers pink to remain in soln. 5 min., then dip in distilled water pink Ruthenium red 0.1 g. in 10 cc. water
Tubire
Bemberg
no change deep pink
no change no change or slightly colored light blue
red-violet
Celsnese
dissolves no change
yellow
New Wrinkles in the Rayon Industry Hollow rayon fibers have recently been produced by application of sodium carbonate, or a similar substance, to the digested liquor. This generates carbon dioxide when the filament hits the acid-hardening bath, which causes the production of a channel through the tube. This hollow tube will then collapse somewhat into a ribbon-like fiber, which has increased elasticity and improved drying qualities because of the in-
* This article is an elaborated revision of a paper read before the Institute of Chemistry at State College, Pennsylvania, July 26, 1927. The original paper was published in the Chemistry Lea,#& 1, No. 14 (Jan. 14, 1928).
crease in interior and exterior surface. La Compagnie Nouvelle des Applications de la Cellulose, of Gouchy, France, is marketing a tubular fiber made with bubbles, under the trade name of Celta. Among other new developments in the rayon industry, we find the introduction of delusterized rayon. No sooner had the human race produced a fiber that surpassed all previous fibers in luster, than a clamor was set up to remove some of the luster. This has been done, and lusterless rayon (produced by precipitating barium sulfate or some other similar compound in the fiber) is on the market. Another new wrinkle in rayon manufacture is the production of immunized rayon. Immunized rayon can be made in such a way that it is immune to all dyes, or it can be made to resist some dyes and take on others. This product is being used with non-immunized rayon in the production of fancy two- or three-color patterns on fabrics. The modem tendency in rayon manufacture is toward the production of threads with a larger number of fibers per thread. Ordinarily 24 filaments are combined together and twisted into one thread. The modern so-called super extra yams have 60 or more filaments in the thread. This gives a softer, finer appearing thread with an excellent covering power and a more subdued sheen. Cornstalks and Cane
A few years ago attention began to be drawn to the advisability of finding out how to utilize farm wastes as a means of helping to improve the status of agriculture in this country. Congress appropriated $50,000 for research in this field, and designated the Bureau of Standards as the agency for carrying out this program. Dr. Warren E. Emley, Chief of the Organic and Fibrous Materials Division of the Bureau, entered into a cooperative agreement with Iowa State College, a t Ames, whereby the Chemical Engineering Laboratory a t this college (under the direction of Professor 0. R. Sweeney) should conduct a piece of research on the utilization of cornstalks. The first work done a t Ames has been the production of an insulating and building board from the cellulose fibers of cornstalks. Boards suitable for serving as the raw material in the rayon and other cellulose industries will be worked on in their turn in this laboratory. An Indiana Company has already been capitalized for the exploitation of the cellulose of cornstalks. Rayon is the chief product which the members of this company hope to make when they pass from an experimental to a commercial basis. A German syndicate proposes to establish a rayon plant in Jamaica which will attempt to develop a process for the utilization of fibers from waste cane, as a raw material for their industry.
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The Natural and the Synthetic Combined One of the chief uses of rayon is in combination with other fibers. Rayon has really been an inspiration to the cotton goods manufacturer. It has enabled him to create many new designs and new patterns by combining rayon with his less interesting cotton fabrics. Rayon has been artistically combined with wool in "silvertone" and striped materials, and with silk in many novelty cloths. Silk-plated rayon hose, in which silk is superimposed on rayon gives one of the sheerest kinds of hosiery to be desired. Far from being a competitor of silk, rayon has rather worked out a new field for itself and is no longer called or looked upon as "artificial silk." Hot Dogs and Hats The production of synthetic clothing has not been restricted to the human race. Hot dogs, once trimly clad in shirts made of intestines, are now more conveniently dressed in tight-fitting jackets of Visking, a synthetic cellulose product. A recent practice in this connection is to encase sausage and '
