1339. At any time during six months before the expiration of the thirty years application may be made for a renewal, under regulations to be prescribed by the Commissioner of Patents, and a renewal may be granted for a further term of thirty years upon payment also of a fee of twenty-five dollars. (R. S., § 4941.)

1340. The head of the Patent Office is denominated the Commissioner of Patents. The statutes provide also for an Assistant Commissioner, a Chief Clerk, and three Examiners in Chief. Besides these superior officers, provision is made for an Examiner in Charge of Interferences, a Trade-mark Examiner, twenty-two Principal Examiners, twenty-two First Assistant Examiners, twenty-two Second Assistant Examiners, twenty-two Third Assistant Examiners, a librarian, a machinist, a number of clerks of the different classes, and for three skilled draughtsmen.

1341. The office is organized into divisions, according to the demands and nature of the business transacted. Each of the examining divisions has its specialty of manufactures and arts. It has the supervision of a Principal Examiner, who has the aid of Assistant Examiners of the different classes.

1342. The clerical divisions, as now arranged, are as follow:

1344. These divisions need not be further specially described. As regards the examining divisions, it should be stated that the men who do the substantial work of the same are supposed to be skilled in mechanical, scientific, and philosophical subjects, particularly of the special class to which they are assigned. They receive from the Division of Applications, which has charge of the distribution, such subjects as appropriately pertain to their duties according to the arrangement named, and they are expected to give the matters so in their charge skillful, patient, careful, and thorough investigation.

1345. The statutes require of the Examiners in Chief that they shall be persons of competent legal knowledge and scientific ability, and that their duty shall be, on the written petitions of the applicants for a patent, to revise and determine upon the validity of the adverse decisions of Examiners; and, when required by the Commissioner, to hear and report upon claims for extensions and to perform other like duties which may be assigned them. (R. S., § 482.)

The duties of the Commissioner of Patents, as they are specified by statute, are as follow:

THE COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS.

1346. This officer, as well as the Chief Clerk of the office, is required to give bond to the Treasurer of the United States for the faithful performance of his duties. and for the proper rendition of his accounts of moneys received. (R. S., § 479.)

1347. He is required, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, to superintend or perform all duties respecting the granting and issuing of patents directed by law, and to have charge of all books, records, papers, models, machines, and other things belonging to the Patent Office. (R. S., § 481.)

1348. Subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, he is empowered to make from time to time proper regulations for the conduct of proceedings in that office. It is his duty to cause to be classified and arranged in suitable cases, in the rooms and galleries provided for the purpose, the models, specimens of composition, fabrics, manufactures, works of art, and designs which are deposited in the office. (R. S., §§ 483, 484.)

1349. He may restore to applicants such of the models belonging to rejected applications as he deems unnecessary to preserve, or he may sell or otherwise dispose of them after the application has been rejected for one year. The proceeds are to be paid into the Treasury as other patent moneys are directed to be paid. (R. S., § 485.)

1350. He may, for gross misconduct, refuse to recognize any person as a patent agent, either generally or in any particular case; the reasons therefor to be duly recorded, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior. (R. S., § 487.) ·

1351. He may require all papers filed in the Patent Office, if not correctly, legibly, and clearly written, to be

printed at the cost of the party filing them. He may print or cause to be printed copies of the claims of current issues and copies of such laws, decisions, regulations, and circulars as may be necessary for the information of the public. He is authorized likewise to have printed from time to time for gratuitous distribution, not to exceed one hundred and fifty copies, the complete specifications and drawings of each patent issued, together with suitable indexes,-one copy to be placed, for free public inspection, in the capitol of each State and Territory; one in the clerk's office of the District Court of each judicial district of the United States, except when such offices are located in State or Territorial capitols; and one in the Library of Congress. These copies are to be certified under his hand and the seal of his office.

He is also authorized to have printed such numbers of specifications and drawings for sale, so certified, as may be warranted by the demand therefor, at a price not to exceed the contract price, and to furnish a complete set to any public library which will pay for binding the same into volumes to correspond with those in the Patent Office, and will also provide for their proper custody, and for convenient access for the public thereto, under regulations to be prescribed by that officer. (R. S., §§ 488, 489, 490, 491.)

1352. The price to be paid for uncertified printed copies of specifications and drawings of patents is to be determined by the Commissioner, within the limits of ten cents as the minimum and fifty cents as the maximum price. (R. S., § 493.)

1353. He is required to lay before Congress in the month of January annually a report giving a detailed statement of all moneys received for patents, for copies of records or drawings, or from any other source whatever; a detailed statement of expenditures for contingent and mis

cellaneous expenses; a list of all patents granted during the preceding year, designating under proper heads the subjects of such patents; an alphabetical list of all the patentees and their places of residence; a list of all patents which have been extended during the year, and such other information of the condition of the Patent Office as may be useful to Congress or to the public. (R. S., § 494.) 1354. He is required to have the care and management of the collections of the exploring expeditions. (R. S., § 495.)

1355. Written or printed copies of any records, books, papers, or drawings belonging to the Patent Office, and of letters-patent authenticated by the seal and certified by the Commissioner or Acting Commissioner thereof, are entitled by law to be received as evidence in all cases wherein the originals could be evidence; and any person making application therefor and paying the required fee is entitled to such copies. (R. S., § 892.)

1356. All patents signed by the Secretary of the Interior are required to be countersigned by the Commissioner, and recorded, together with the specifications, in his office. (R. S., § 4883.)

1357. On the filing of an application for a patent and on payment of the fees the Commissioner is required to cause an examination of the alleged new invention or discovery, and if it shall appear that the claimant is justly entitled and that his invention is sufficiently useful and important the Commissioner is required to issue a patent therefor. He may, if satisfied that the delay was unavoidable, regard an application as not abandoned because the same is not completed and prepared for examination within the two years required by law after the filing of such application. (R. S., §§ 4893, 4894.)

1358. It is his duty to notify claimants when their