Streamlining patent procedures

Abstract

It's a rare system, whether devised by nature or by man, that can function effectively without significant change for more than a few decades. Man himself generally must expect some diminution of faculties by the traditional three-score-and-ten, while most of the machines he builds are outworn or outmoded within a fraction of his lifetime. Only his institutions tend to outlive him, and then, for the most part, only through continual modification and adaptation to meet the demands of the times. Rare among the rare is the U.S. patent system, the general character of which has undergone no basic change in 130 years. But change is in the wind. The President's Commission on the Patent System, established in the spring of 1965, has issued its report (CE its series of interrelated recommendations if adopted together, the commission suggests, would strengthen the patent system and thus assist in the ...