WOMEN as PATENT ATTORNEYS ELIZABETH HUNTER2 General Printing Ink Corporation, New York City
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ERY soon after the creation of the Patent Office, and the establishment of a system of registrationof patent attorneys, women became active in both the examining and soliciting branches of the system. The first woman examiner was appointed in 1873, and in 1897, a woman was registered to practiceas an attorney before the Patent Office. A limited number of women have continued to explore the field since this time, but despite this early start, women have not exploited its possibilities to any great extent. Less than one hundred women have been active in this work since the creation of the patent system, and to the best of my knowledge, there are less than thirty-five women in the United States today, who are engaged in patent work. Of these, nine are examiners in the Patent Office, the remainder are patent solicitors, either practicing independently, or affiliated with a patent law firm or corporation. In the entire number, I have been able to discover only five chemists; one in the Patent Office, and four in soliciting work.
proach and enter the patent field, and they lie a t diametrically opposite poles of the system. At the entrance to each is a Civil Service examination. One avenue leads to the Patent Office, as examiner of patent applications, the other to patent solicitor, as drafter and prosecutor of applications. The first, and usual, course, heretofore, for most men entering the patent field, has been to obtain a position as examiner in the Patent Office by taking the appropriate Civil Service examinations, and being subsequently appointed to the Patent Office as vacancies in the examining corps occurred. After several years in the Patent Office many young examiners accept positions with patent law firms, and proceed to the solicitation of patents. Three years' successful work in the Patent Office entitles an examiner to automatic registration without the necessity of taking another examination. This approach, through the Patent Office, is temporarily closed by the current recession. The last examination, given in the Spring of 1937, produced such a tremendous crop of qualified persons, that i t will REQUIREMENTS probably take years to use them up. In the latter part The initial requirements to qualify for patent work of June of this year, the number of qualified persons on are relatively simple. One must be a graduate of a the list waiting for appointments, stood a t between recognized college, with a major in either chemistry, eight hundred and nine hundred. As vacancies are physics, or engineering. Naturally, the more scientific now occurring only a t the rate of some ten or fifteen a training one has, the better, and emphasis is placed on year, one can estimate about how long i t will take to the practical aspects of technology. Mechanical draw- exhaust this supply. Meantime, no examination will ing is absolutely essential, as the law requires that every be given until the present qualified list is exhausted. patent be illustrated by a drawing wherever the nature The second avenue of approach, leading to the r6le of the invention allows it. Coniequently, one must be of patent solicitor, is somewhat more promising. able, quickly and accurately to interpfet the mechanical The patent departments of many corporations are drawings which accompany almost every patent. open to technically trained people, even though they Languages-specially German and French--are very are not lawyers. Sometimes graduates are taken diimportant, as any phase of patent work requires the rectly from school into patent departments-ftener examination and consideratioh of foreign they are taken from another part of the organization. Law is not essential-either for the work of examinine This latter fact suggests -that the most favorable in the Patent Office, or for soliciting patents in practice method for women chemists to enter the field should he before the Patent Office. But it is essential, of course, by way of a position in some other department, such as for litigation of infringement suits and the like before the library or laboratory, or through secretarial work. the courts. However, knowledge of law is very helpful, Of these, I think the library is the most effective route. and most patent attorneys eventually obtain a law de- There, one has an opportunity to read patents, to get gree, and are admitted to the bar. the "feel" of the language used, and often to make patent searches in conjunction with literature searches. AVENUES OF ENTRY INTO THE PATENT FIELD In this way a gradual familiarity with patents can be There are two main avenues by which one may ap- gained while learning the background of the company's technical processes and products. A position as Contribution to the Symposium on Training and Opportuni- secretary to a patent attorney, either in a corporation ties for Women in Chemistry, conducted by the Division of or in a patent law firm, may very readily materialize Chemical Education at the ninety-eighth meeting of the A. C. S., into advancement to the r81e of patent searching and Boston. Mass., September 14, 1939. finally patent prosecution. Patent Department. 589
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Transfer to the Patent Department, then, entails posts ceased to be appointive. She is now practicing learning to draft and prosecute patent specifications patent law under her own name in Washington, lecturand claims under the guidance and supervision of a ing on patent law a t the Washington College of Law, competent patent attorney. After sufficient experience. and is president of the Women's Patent Law Associathe new recruit will qualify to take the Civil Service tion. examination required for registration as a patent agent Mrs. Jessica D. Stewart, another practicing attorney to practice before the Patent Office. This examination in Washington, is a physicist, a graduate of Wellesley is given twice a year, in the Spring and Fall. I t includes College, and a former examiner. She specializes in questions on the Rules of Practice, and requires the electrical and radio work, and for many years was redrafting of a simple patent application and claims from tained by the Atwater Kent Corporation. a set of drawings given out a t the examination. The women chemical patent attorneys, besides myself, are: Mrs. Alma Diner, with the Carborundum Company, a t Niagara Falls, Dr. Ruth Merling, in the WOMEN PATENT ATTORNEYS Patent Department of the Eastman Kodak Company, in The few women who have found their way into patent Rochester, and Mrs. Marjorie Snelling, in private pracwork, have apparently enjoyed i t as a profession, and tice with her husband in Allentown, Pennsylvania. have been quite successful a t it. Although few in CONCLUSION number, they are quite widely distributed geographically. Of about thirty women whom I know to be Colleges looking toward the possibility of placing actively engaged in the profession-twelve are in Wash- their women technical graduates in the patent field, ington, including the nine examiners-seven are in New could very readily expand the courses now given in York City; three in Boston; and one each in Cincin- library work, to include sufficient information about nati, Cleveland, Chicago, St. Louis, Niagara Falls, patents, their history, prosecution, and use, to enable Rochester, New York, and Allentown, Pennsylvania. the student to decide whether she wishes to make this One of the most outstanding of the women patent field her lifework. I believe that the patent field is attorneys is Marie K. Sannders, formerly an examiner one of the most fascinating. still to be exploited by in the Patent Office,and the first woman to pass the women generally, and that i t offers especial induceCivil Service examination for this position after these ments to the woman chemist.
