Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1871.djvu/16

14 end, prove to be measures of actual economy, beside securing a more efficient execution of the important work of that Bureau, I have no hesitation in giving them my hearty approval.

The Bureau, under the control of the present Commissioner, has been improved in many important features, tending to insure greater efficiency in the discharge of its important and delicate trusts, and the general 'administration of the affairs of the Bureau has been entirely satisfactory.

There were filed in the Patent Office during the year ending September 39, 1871, 19, applications for patents, including reissues and designs 3,337 caveats and 181 applications for the extension of patents. Twelve thousand nine hundred and fifty patents, including reissues and designs, were issued, and 147 extended 514 applications for trademarks were received, and 452 trade-marks issued. The fees received during said year amount to $671,583 81, and the expenditures for the same period were $560,041 67, leaving a surplus of $111,542 14 of receipts over expenditures. The appropriation asked for the next fiscal year is $606,400.

The number of applications for patents, including re-issues and designs, received during said year, is a small increase over the number received the preceding year, while the number of patents issued is not quite so great. It is worthy of remark, however, that the labors of the clerical force of the office are increased proportionally more than the number of applications would seem to indicate, inasmuch as each yearns operations add about twenty thousand to the number of patented and rejected applications, with which the examining corps must become familiar, in addition to those previously filed. The examiners are, generally, men of distinguished ability and untiring industry, but their number is inadequate to properly and promptly discharge the increasing duties demanded of them.

The act of January 11, 1871, abolished the old form of annual report of the Patent Office, and authorizes the Commissioner to substitute therefor full copies of the specifications and drawings of all patents issued, these to be deposited in the clerk's office of each United States district court, and in certain libraries. This law was passed in the belief' that there was very little public demand for, or interest in, the annual reports of the Patent Office, which belief the Commissioner thinks was not well founded, although approving of the law, and regarding it as means of placing fuller information before those interested, and at a much less cost than before. Beside copies of the specifications and drawings for disposition under the law, other copies are printed for subscribers. These publications are rapidly becoming popular among those interested in patents, and will be of great benefit to the office in various ways. For the convenience of subscribers, the publication of the specifications and drawings has been arranged into one hundred and seventy-six