Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1872.djvu/15

Rh head of this Bureau, and the intelligent promptness with which the duties of his office have been discharged. By his unremitting efforts, seconded by the cheerful industry of his clerical force, not only has the rapidly increasing current business of the office been expeditiously attended to, but the accumulated acrearages of years have been brought up to date, thus placing this important branch of the public service in a condition eminently satisfactory to all who have to do with it.

Needed reforms have been made in the condition of the Patent-Office during the past year, the most noticeable and important of which is the abolition of the old form of Patent-Office reports, and the substitution therefor of the Official Gazette of the Patent Office. Defective as the old reports were, and published from two to three years after the date of the issue of the patents reported in them, their discontinuance seemed to greatly alarm the inventors and manufacturers of the country, and the demand for their restoration, or an adequate substitute, was so great as to require prompt action in that direction. During the last session of Congress authority was given for the publication of the Patent-Office Official Gazette, comprising the Commissioner's decisions, the decisions of the Supreme Court and the circuit courts in patent-cases, all changes in the rules of practice of the Office, notice of all applications for extension of patents, a brief of the specifications, and the full claims of all the patents issued, together with such illustrations, taken from the drawings of the patents, as would give to the public a clear idea of what is patented. It will thus be seen that these publications embrace very much more than was contained in the old Patent-Office reports; and, instead of being two or three years behind date, as the old reports were, they are issued within three days of the delivery of the letters-patent. This work seems to meet the demand, and is received with universal favor.

The number of applications for patents, including re-issues and designs, during the year ended September 30, 1872, was 19,587; the number of applications for extension of patents, 284; the number of applications for the registering of trade-marks was 589. During the same time there were issued 13,626 patents, 233 extensions, 556 certificates of registry of trade-marks, and 3,100 caveats have been filed. This shows a small increase over the number of the preceding year. The fees received during the same period, from all sources, amounted to $700,954.86, and the total expenditure to $623,553.90, making the receipts in excess of the expenditures to the amount of $77,400.96.

It will at once be perceived that the addition of about twenty thousand applications for patents every year must greatly increase the work of the office. Over 200,000 applications for patents have been filed since 1836, and about 133,000 patents have been granted. The drawings, models, and files accompanying these applications must be so classified and arranged as to facilitate access to them, otherwise there