PATENT OFFICE. The office through which applications for patents are made, and from which those patents emanate.
Some provision for the impose of issuing pat ents is, of course, found in every country where the system of granting patents for inventions pre veils; but nowhere else is there an estsblishment whioh is organized in all respects on the same scale as the United States Patent Office.
By the act of 1790, the duty of transacting this liusiness was devolved upon the secretary of state, the secretary of war, and the attorney-general. In the provision for a board for this purpose found in the act of 1793, the secretary of war is omitted. From that time during a period of more than forty years all the business connected with the granting of patents was transacted by a clerk in the office of the secretary of state,—the duties of the more tary this respect 'being little more than nominal; and the attorney-general acting only SS a legal adviser.
The act of July 4, 1836, reorganized the office and gave it a new nnd higher position. A com missioner of patents was constituted. Provision was made for a library, which has since become one of the finest of the kind in the country. The law authorized the appointment ,of four clerks, together with a draughtsman, machinist, and mes senger. One of these clerks was to he an examiner; but so rapidly has the business of the office in creased since that date that there are now pearly thirty examiners and assistants constantly em ployed, and nearly one hundred persons in all who are attached to the patent office.
The patent office, from being a mere cierkehip the state department, hemline almost a department of itself. It was, after its reorganization in 1836, attached as a bureau to the state department, and afterwards to that of the interior; but still it occu pied a station ,of little more thsn nominal depend ence upon eitlier. The commissioner bad the sols appointment of many of his subordifiates, and the reniainder were appointed by him subject to the approval of the secretary. All the funds of the office were placed under his exclusive control. His decisions in relation to the granting, re-issue, or extension of pntents were not subject jo the review of the secretary. He made his report not through the head of the departtnent, but directly to congress. The agricultural-division of the office was constitutdd a species of subordinate bureau, and the appropriations and management were placed by law under hie entire control.
The patent office is an office of record, in which assignments of patents are record'able; and the record is notice to all the world of the facts to be found on record. Under sec tion four of the act of 1793, an assignment was not valid unless recorded in the office of the secretary of state, 4 Blackf. Ind. 183; and this was held in the case of a suit upon a note given to an assignee whose assignment was not recorded, where the note was ruled void as being without consideration. In other cases, however, it was held that the assignee's rights were capable of being completed by recording, though until that took place the assignee was not substituted to the rights of the assignor 1 Stor. C. C. 296. The better opinion seems to be that, under section eleven of the act of 1836, recording is not necessary for completing the assignment as between the parties to the conveyance, that the provisions of the act are directory merely, and that the effect of the record, is inerely to give' notice to bind subsequent purchasers. Thus, it was said by Judge Story that " the provision of the sta tute is merely directory, and, except as to inter mediate bond fide purchasers without notice, any subsequent recording of the assignment will' be sufficient to pass the title to the as signee." 2 Stor. C. C. 542, 615, 618. And it has also been held that the record may he made even after suit brought ; and it is said to be like the case of a deed required to be ,registered. 2 Stor. 618. Other cases hold more strongly that recording is not necessary, but that the title passes as between the par ties by the assignment, though subsequent 5ont fide purchasers without notice are not bound without record. 2 N. H. 63 ; 3 Mc Lean, C. C. 429 ; 4 id. 527 ; 18 Conn. 388 ; 2 Am. Law Jour. 319. Three cases only are said to be provided for by statute: first, an assignment of the whole patent ; second, an assignment of an undivided part thereof ; and, third, a grant or conveyance of an exclusive right under the patent within a specified part or portion of the United States, 2 Stor. C.C. 542 ; 2 Blatchf. C. C. 148 ; 9 Vt. 177. A question may arise whether the act of 1860, in prescribing a tariff of fees for recording other papers, as agreements, etc., has not recognized the usage of the office in re cording them as within the meaning of the acts of congress, and rendered them record able.