OCR Text |
Show Patent Office Was Established July 4, 1836 Article I, section 8 of the Constitution Consti-tution of the United States provided that congress shall have power "to promote the progress of science and the useful arts by securing for limited lim-ited times to authors and inventors the exclusive rights to their respective respec-tive writings and discoveries." The first act of congress, passed April 10, 1790, placed the granting of patents pat-ents in the hands of the secretary of state, the secretary of war and the attorney general. Thomas Jefferson, Jef-ferson, as secretary of state, per sonally examined many petitions for patents. By act of July 4, 1836, the patent office was established under un-der a commissioner of patents and the g'.neral outline of the patent law fixed. When the department of the interior was established by act of March 3, 1849, the patent office was transferred to its jurisdiction. On April 1, 1925, it was, by executive order of President Coolidge, transferred trans-ferred to the department of commerce. |