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sented by Mr. Jesse C. Adkins, who was continued specially in the case at my request by the Attorney General, and also by Mr. Webster S. Ruckman, chief law clerk of the Patent Office.

The investigation was very thorough and complete, and the conclusions arrived at by Mr. Billings are set forth in a very able decision, which will be found published in the Official Patent Office Gazette of the issue of October 24, 1911. The interferences in which the said Heany applications were involved were dissolved and patents to Heany were refused on the ground of fraud.

The conclusions reached by Mr. Billings and expressed in his decision meet my full and unqualified approval, and I wish also to express my appreciation of the very valuable assistance rendered by Messrs. Skinner, Campbell, and Sewall in detecting and bringing to the surface the very craftily disguised fraudulent sheets and inserted matter in these cases.

I also wish to certify in this report to the very able assistance given by Messrs. Adkins and Ruckman to Mr. Billings in the further investigation and decision reached in the subsequent case noted.

The department and the Patent Office are to be congratulated at the very satisfactory termination of the criminal case and the office investigations as well. As I stated in my previous report, and also to the press, that this is the only case of its kind that has ever occurred in the Patent Office during the 117 years of its history, a very wonderful record for a bureau, especially in view of the fact that there are so many possible temptations by reason of the great interests passed upon therein.

THE PATENT BAR.

I desire also to be permitted to invite your attention to the necessity for legislation which would result in the establishment of a patent bar. It is strongly urged that a law be enacted which will provide that before an individual shall be permitted to practice before the United States Patent Office he be required to pass an examination as to his moral, legal, and technical qualifications; that a committee be appointed by the Commissioner of Patents, composed of officials in the Patent Office and patent attorneys of well-known standing in the profession, who shall conduct the examination under the commissioner's supervision, the report of such committee to be subject to his approval.

Authority should be given by such legislation to an appropriate committee to regulate the advertising by attorneys practicing before the Patent Office, and also from time to time to pass upon all complaints of improper advertising and other matters which are considered outside of professional ethics. Such a bill was drafted and submitted to your predecessor, but apparently overlooked and was not forwarded to Congress. A redraft will be prepared and presented for your approval in a short time.

CHANGES IN THE TRADE-MARK LAW AND REORGANIZATION OF THE TRADE-MARK DIVISION.

A slight amendment was submitted by me to the trade-mark law of 1905, passed by Congress, and approved during the final session of the Sixty-first Congress. This change permits the registration of a technical trade-mark, although it forms a part of the name of the applicant.

Looking to the reorganization of the Trade-Mark Division, I recommended to Congress in my last report that a competent force of assistant examiners of trade-marks be provided. Appropriation was made for six examiners of trade-marks and designs at $1,500 each, striking out four of the higher grades, which I trust will be restored at the next session of the Sixty-second Congress. I have made recommendation therefor.

SCIENTIFIC LIBRARY.

I have also in mind the thorough reorganization of the scientific library in this bureau. That branch is of very great importance to inventors and the office, the number of volumes having reached between 40,000 and 50,000, all scientific works, which are constantly searched by interested people and the examining corps in the conduct of their work of examining applications for patents. It is my desire to thoroughly digest that whole subject matter, so that it will be readily accessible and will be a saving of much time and expense. I deem it quite necessary that an additional translator should be provided, as the present translator is compelled to do much translating for the various bureaus of this department, and in view of the great number of patents that are received in the scientific library from all parts of the world, and as all governments exchange patents, it is quite necessary that competent translators should be provided who are familiar with five or six languages at least. The present translator is familiar with 10 languages and has a working knowledge of half a dozen in addition.

Of course the number of foreign publications and patents increase each year, as a great many nations other than the larger countries, who have had patent systems for many years, are inaugurating them, and we are now receiving patents printed in many languages. It is highly important that assistant translators be provided who can translate these numerous languages in order that the patents may be at once classified and sent to the various examining divisions to be used as references in the examination of applications for patents. Translations are made for inventors and others, and the office receipts therefor would pay the salaries of this force.

An addition of five assistant examiners has been asked of Congress to assist the librarian in speedily digesting the library material. It

is quite necessary that we should have men who possess technical qualifications and knowledge to some degree of languages, as many of the works are in foreign tongues.

Since Congress allowed me a force for the purpose of bringing up the work of classification of United States patents, the extent of the work accomplished has been the classification of about half of the more than 1,000,000 United States patents. The very slight increase requested for the library will be sufficient to begin the classification of foreign patents and scientific works as above indicated. When this work is finished there will be an immense saving of time and money in the work of examining patents, and the patents when issued will have been more thoroughly searched and will of course have a greater degree of validity attached to them, which is a condition very desirable to be brought about in order to materially reduce the expenses of possible litigation to the patentee after the patent issues. It will not be necessary to so constantly apply to Congress for increases to the force of high-salaried examiners, as the field of search will be enormously lessened.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES AND TREATIES.

The Fourth International Conference of American States was held in Buenos Aires in the summer of 1910. The United States delegation to this conference consisted of ex-Ambassador Henry White; Judge Advocate Gen. Enoch H. Crowder; Prof. John Bassett Moore, of Columbia University, New York; Lewis Nixon, Esq.; Prof. Bernard Moses, of the University of California; Lamar C. Quintero, Esq.; Prof. Paul H. Reinsch, University of Wisconsin; and Prof. David Kinley, of the University of Illinois, and to which I had the honor to be appointed by the President as expert attaché.

Two conventions relating to patents and trade-marks and one relating to copyrights were prepared by me, and after thorough and protracted discussions by the committees and the conference they were finally adopted. These three conventions have all been approved by the United States Senate and ratified and are now awaiting ratification by the 20 Latin-American nations, several of whom I am informed have ratified them, and the others have the conventions still under consideration.

The register of copyrights, Mr. Solberg, and the Librarian of Congress, Mr. Putnam, pronounced the convention relating to copyrights one of the best ever formulated, and it is expected to be of great benefit to all the signatory countries when ratified.

The conventions relating to patents and trade-marks were made to harmonize with the provisions of the International Convention of Paris of 1883, and the subsequent amendments thereto, and also to the laws of the United States, so that when these shall have been

ratified the nations of the world will be in harmony as to these subjects. These conventions are of the greatest benefit to and are strictly in the interest of the manufacturers, inventors, and authors of the United States.

THE CONFERENCE AT WASHINGTON.

The International Union for the Protection of Industrial Property met in conference at Washington May 15, 1911, and held daily sessions until June 2, 1911. This union was first organized in Paris in 1883, under what is known as the Convention of Paris, which provided, among other things, for the establishment of an international bureau to be located at Berne, Switzerland. The bureau is a clearing house for patents and trade-marks and matters pertaining to them, in which are interested all the nations which adhered to the original convention. At the present time there are 25 adhering nations, each nation contributing to the support of the bureau. At the congress of Brussels in 1897, an invitation was extended by President McKinley to the union to hold its next conference at Washington, the date to be fixed later. The conference of Brussels accepted the invitation, subject to the approval of the respective governments, which was subsequently obtained, and the date fixed for May, 1910. Owing to the inability, however, of some of the nations to prepare for a conference at that time, the date was eventually set forward one year. For the expenses of entertainment of this important conference Congress made two appropriations of $10,000 each, and the President appointed as delegates on behalf of the United States Edward B. Moore, Commissioner of Patents, chairman; Frederick P. Fish, of Boston; Robert H. Parkinson, of Chicago; Melville Church, of Washington, D. C., and Charles H. Duell, of New York, ex-Commissioner of Patents and former justice of the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia. Maurice M. Moore was appointed secretary to the delegation and William Osborn was disbursing officer on behalf of the Department of State.

Delegations from 40 nations were present at the conference, including representatives of the adhering nations and those representing nations specially invited to participate but who had no plenary powers. Important conventions affecting changes in both the patent and trade-mark laws were discussed at the conference, and the final convention was adopted and signed by the delegates subject to the ratification of their various governments. The treaty of Paris provided that the language of the conference and all its publications, invitations, etc., should be in French.

The conference is expected to result in much good to the adhering nations. The French ambassador, M. Jusserand, the British ambassador, Mr. Bryce, the Mexican ambassador, Señor Zamacona, the minister of Portugal, Viscount de Alte, and the vice president

of the conference, M. Georges de Ro, of Belgium, all expressed themselves at the official banquet in very kind and flattering terms as to the work accomplished and also regarding the entertainment furnished the visiting delegates by the United States Government. The formal conference was opened by me as chairman of the United States delegation, and after addresses by the Secretary of State, Hon. Philander Chase Knox, and the Secretary of the Interior, Hon. Walter Lowrie Fisher, who welcomed the delegates on behalf of the United States, the chair was relinquished to the permanent president of the conference, ex-Ambassador Charlemagne Tower. The deliberations were presided over by M. de Ro, of Brussels, the vice president of the conference.

It was the announced opinion of all the delegates present that it was the most successful conference of the union ever held.

Aside from the very desirable changes of the laws of nations relating to patents and trade-marks, there is another important underlying reason why these conferences are desirable. They bring together men familiar with the subjects to be discussed and who become well acquainted and talk over their differences not only in formal session but in private conversations.

During the conference I received a cablegram which stated that the German Reichstag had passed a patent law which upheld the treaty between Germany and the United States providing that patents of American inventors should not be revoked by the German Government for failure to work or manufacture the same in Germany within four years, provided, however, the same is manufactured in the United States in the same period of time. This so-called "working clause" is embraced in the laws of nearly all nations, but since the treaty with Germany has been entered into, several of them have modified their laws in this respect. In addition to negotiating the treaty with Germany, I also visited several other countries at the direction of Secretary of State Knox and Assistant Secretary Huntington Wilson, and the result has been the revision of the laws relating to the working clause in Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland, so that the manufacture of patented inventions in these countries by United States citizens is no longer required in order to sustain their patents. It is thought that several other countries will speedily ollow this example.

NEED FOR ADDITIONAL SPACE FOR THE PATENT OFFICE.

In my previous fiscal year reports to the Secretary of the Interior and in the reports to Congress which the Commissioner of Patents is required by statute to make in the month of January of each year, I have strongly advocated the provision of more room for housing the United States Patent Office. I now wish to urge this in the strongest possible terms,

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