GENERAL REVISION AND AMENDMENT OF THE PATENT LAW WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 1932 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON PATENTS, Committee on Patents this day met at 10 o'clock a. m., Hon. William I. Sirovich (chairman) presiding. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. The reporter will, at this point of the hearing, insert the resolutions (H. R. 10152, 10153, 10154, 10155, 10156, 10157, 9448, 10741, 6677, 7428, and 7245 72d Cong., 1st sess.). (The following bills under discussion were reintroduced under different numbers after amendments by the committee:) H. R. 10152, March 4, 1932, reintroduced as H. R. 11018, March 31, 1932. [H. R. 10152, Seventy-second Congress, first session. as H. R. 11018] Reintroduced after being amended A BILL To empower assignee of inventor to file divisional, continuation, renewal, or reissue application Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 4895 of the Revised Statutes (U. S. C., title 35, sec. 44) be, and the same is hereby, amended to read as follows: "Patents may be granted and issued or reissued to the assignee of the inventor or discoverer, but the assignment must first be entered of record in the Patent Office. And in all cases of an application by an assignee for the issue of a patent the application shall be made and sworn to by the inventor or discoverer unless the application is based entirely on matters disclosed by a previously filed application made by the inventor, in which event the application may be made by the assignee of the entire interest, if any; and in all cases of an application for a reissue of any patent the application may be made and signed and sworn to by the inventor or discoverer; or such application may be signed and sworn to by the assignee of the entire interest, if any, provided the matter claimed in the reissue application has been disclosed in the application for the original patent; and when the application is made by such assignee the statements required to be made in the application shall be so varied in form that it can be made by him." 1 [H. R. 11018, Seventy-second Congress, first session. Amending H. R. 10152] A BILL To empower assignee of inventor to file divisional, continuation, renewal, or reissue application Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 4895 of the Revised Statutes (U. S. C., title 35, sec. 44) be, and the same is hereby, amended to read as follows: "Patents may be granted and issued or reissued to the assignee of the inventor or discoverer; but the assignment must first be entered of record in the Patent Office. And in all cases of an application by an assignee for the issue of a patent the application shall be made and sworn to by the inventor or discoverer unless the application is based entirely on matters disclosed as a part of the invention by a previously filed application made by the inventor, in which event the application may be made by the assignee of the entire interest, if any; and in all cases of an application for a reissue of any patent the application may be made and signed and sworn to by the inventor or discoverer; or such application may be signed and sworn to by the assignee of the entire interest, if any, provided the matter claimed in the reissue application has been disclosed in the application for the original patent as a part of the invention; and when the application is made by such assignee the statements required to be made in the application shall be so varied in form that it can be made by him." [H. R. 10153, Seventy-second Congress, first session. Reintroduced after being amended as H. R. 11016] A BILL To limit the life of a patent to a term commencing with the date of the application Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 4884 of the Revised Statutes (U. S. C., title 35, sec. 40) be, ad the same is hereby, amended to read as follows: "Every patent shall contain a short title or description of the invention or discovery correctly indicating its nature and design, and a grant to the patentee, his heirs or assigns, of the exclusive right to make, use, and vend the invention or discovery (including in the case of a plant patent the exclusive right to asexually reproduce the plant) throughout the United States and the Territories thereof, referring to the specification for the particulars thereof. The term of such patent shall begin with the issuance thereof and shall terminate at a date not more than twenty years from the date of filing by the applicant in the United States Patent Office of his earliest application disclosing the invention covered by any of the claims of said patent: Provided, That for cause shown in the case of applications which have been involved in interferences or in which appeals have been taken, the Commissioner of Patents, or any court which may have had jurisdiction of the application, may, in passing on the case before the patent issues, extend such period by adding time not to exceed two years to compensate for delays during pendency of the application not caused by applicant; but in no case shall such term be more than seventeen years. A copy of the specification and drawings shall be annexed to the patent and be a part thereof." 4 [H. R. 11016, Seventy-second Congress, first session. Amending H. R. 10153] A BILL To limit the life of a patent to a term commencing with the date of the application Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 4884 of the Revised Statutes (U. S. C., title 35, sec. 40) be, and the same is hereby, amended to read as follows: "Every patent shall contain a short title or description of the invention or discovery, correctly indicating its nature and design, and a grant to the patentee, his heirs or assigns, of the exclusive right to make, use, and vend the invention or discovery (including in the case of a plant patent the exclusive right to asexually reproduce the plant) throughout the United States and the Territories thereof, referring to the specification for the particulars thereof. The term of such patent shall begin with the issuance thereof and shall terminate at a date not more than twenty years from the date of filing by the applicant in the United States Patent Office of his earliest application disclosing the invention covered by any of the claims of said patent: Provided, That for cause shown the Commissioner of Patents, or any court which may have had jurisdiction of the application, may, in passing on the case before the patent issues, extend such period by adding time not to exceed two years to compensate for delays during pendency of the application not caused by applicant, but in no case shall the term of any patent be more than seventeen years. A copy of the specification and drawings shall be annexed to the patent and be a part thereof." (H. R. 10154, Seventy-second Congress, first session. Reintroduced after being amended as H. R. 11017] A BILL Permitting single signature in patent applications and validating joint patent for sole invention Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 4888 of the Revised Statutes (U. S. C., title 35, sec. 33) be, and the same is hereby, amended to read as follows: "Before any inventor or discoverer shall receive a patent for his invention or discovery he shall file application therefor in the Patent Office, which application shall give the name, citizenship, residence, and address of the inventor andshall include a written description of the invention or discovery, and of the manner and process of making, constructing, compounding, and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art or science to which it appertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make, construct, compound, and use the same; and in case of a machine he shall explain the principle thereof, and the best mode in which he has contemplated applying that principle, so as to distinguish it from other inventions; and he shall particularly point out and distinctly claim the part, improvement, or combination which he claims as his invention or discovery; and said application shall conclude with a statement that the applicant does verily believe himself to be the original and first inventor or discoverer of the invention for which he solicits a patent; that he does not know and does not believe that the same was ever known or used before his invention or discovery thereof, and that to the best of his knowledge and belief the invention has not been in public use or on sale in the United States for more than two years prior to his application, or patented or described in any printed publication in any country before his invention or more than two years prior to his application or patented in any foreign country on an application filed by him or his legal representatives or assigns more than twelve months prior to his application in the United States. The application shall be signed at the end thereof by the inventor and sworn to by him. No plant patent shall be declared invalid on the ground of insufficient description if the description is made as complete as is reasonably possible. If the application includes an oath and specification separately signed it shall be a compliance with this statute. "Whenever without any fraudulent or deceptive intention two or more persons have heretofore made or hereafter make application for letters patent as joint inventors, when the subject matter defined by the claims of the patent in whole or in part is the invention of a lesser number of said parties applicant, any patent heretofore or hereafter granted on such an application shall not be invalid because of such misjoinder of parties applicant and shall have the same force and effect as if the patent had been granted to the grantee or grantees on an application or applications executed by the true inventor or inventors of the subject matter defined by the claims thereof." SEC. 2. That section 4892 of the Revised Statutes (U. S. C., title 35, sec. 35) be, and the same is hereby, amended to read as follows: The application may be sworn to before any person within the United States authorized by law to administer oaths, or, when the applicant resides in a foreign country, before any minister, chargé d'affaires, consul, or commercial agent holding commission under the Government of the United States, or before any notary public, judge, or magistrate having an official seal and authorized to administer oaths in the foreign country in which the applicant may be, whose |