1315. The warrants for bounty lands are issued to persons entitled by law to the same by the Commissioner of Pensions. The persons so entitled are described under the head of "bounty lands," in treating of the duties of the Commissioner of the General Land Office. The assignment and location of these warrants are made by the lastnamed officer.

VI. THE WIDOWS' DIVISION.

1316. In this division are examined all claims for pensions made on behalf of widows, heirs, or dependent relatives of deceased soldiers who were in the service of the United States in the war of the rebellion of 1861. This division also reviews claims of the same classes arising out of the previous wars.

VII. THE SPECIAL SERVICE DIVISION.

1317. This division is charged with all business connected with the investigation of frauds or attempted frauds upon the Government in the matter of procuring or continuing in the enjoyment of pensions. It aids in the detec tion and prosecution of offenders against the pension laws and in the recovery of money wrongfully obtained. A number of clerks and special agents are placed under the direction of this division, who are detailed, according to the authority given by section 4744 of the Revised Statutes, to investigate suspected attempts at fraud.

1318. This division gives its attention to questions affecting the status of attorneys making application for pensions or concerned therein. It also inquires into the official character and status of magistrates before whom papers and proofs are executed, and generally concerns itself with all violations of law in claims or other matters before the Pension Office.

The printed regulations of the Commissioner of Pensions relative to pensions and bounty lands, a copy of which may be obtained by any applicant, furnish all the information, in addition to the blank forms, necessary to enable such applicant, if of ordinary intelligence, to perfect his application and to establish his claim. If he cannot do this unaided, by reason of his absence from the seat of government or other cause, the law protects him from imposition by restricting the fees of his attorneys to an amount mutually agreed upon, or by limiting the fee to ten dollars where no agreement is on file in the Pension Office. The act of June 20, 1878, before referred to, limits the fee, however, to this amount in all cases occurring after that date. Severe penalty is inflicted in case of imposition, exorbitant charges, or the withholding wrongfully from a pensioner or claimant the whole or any portion of the pension or claim allowed.

1319. The statutes provide that there shall be in the Department of the Interior an office, known as the Patent Office, where all records, books, models, drawings, specifications, and other papers and things pertaining to patents shall be safely kept and preserved. (R. S., § 475.)

1320. This office was established by act of July 4, 1836, as a bureau of the Department of State, but was subsequently, by act of March 3, 1849, transferred to the Department of the Interior. By the original act of April, 1790, patents for inventions were granted on application to the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, and the Attorney-General as a board of adjudication. This continued until the 21st of February, 1793, when, by act repealing the former, applications were required to be made to the Secretary of State alone, who, after a reference to and examination by the Attorney-General, was authorized to cause letters-patent to issue. This system continued until the act of 1836, before referred to, which provided for a Patent Office, to be attached to the Department of State, and a head denominated Commissioner of Patents.

1321. The right to a patent is derived primarily from the provision of the Constitution giving power to Congress to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. (Art. I, § 8.)

1322. The express power conferred by this instrument was taken up by the first Congress in the act of 1790, entitled "An act to promote the progress of useful arts," wherein provision was made for the issue, for any term not exceeding fourteen years, of letters-patent, guaranteeing to the petitioning inventor or discoverer of any useful art, manufacture, engine, machine, or device, or any improvement thereon not before known or used, his heirs, &c., the sole and exclusive right and liberty of making, constructing, using, and vending to others such invention or discovery.

1323. This period of duration-with a provision for an extension at its termination, under certain restrictions, for an additional term of seven years-continued to be the law until the act of March 2, 1861, when a radical change was made, limiting the duration of a patent to an absolute term of seventeen years and prohibiting any extension thereof.

The present system is based on the act of July 8, 1870, made "to revise, consolidate, and amend the statutes relating to patents and copyrights." The same term of duration was provided for, and this provision, as re-enacted in the Revised Statutes, continues to be the law. The Commissioner has authority under those statutes, derived from the same act, to extend, under certain limitations, for the term of seven years a patent granted prior to March 2,

1861.

1324. All patents are issued in the name of the United States of America, under the seal of the Patent Office, signed by the Secretary of the Interior, countersigned by the Commissioner of Patents, and recorded, together with the specifications, in the Patent Office.

1325. The specific requirements of law as they now exist are contained in the following provisions:

Any person who has invented or discovered any new and

useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, not known or used by others in this country, and not patented or described in any printed publication in this or any foreign country, before his invention or discovery thereof, and not in public use or on sale for more that two years prior to his application, unless the same has been proved to have been abandoned, may, upon paying the fees required by law and other due proceedings had, obtain a patent therefor.

1326. The following are the rates of fees as provided by law :

On filing each original application, except in design cases... $15
On issuing each original patent, except in design cases..
In design cases for three years and six months.........

20

10

On every application for the reissue of a patent......

On filing each disclaimer.......

10

30

10

On every application for the extension of a patent.....
On the granting of an extension........

50

50

On an appeal for the first time from the Primary Examiners to the Examiners in Chief..........

On an appeal from the Examiners in Chief to the Commissioner.......

.........

Certified copies of patents and papers, per hundred words, ten cents.

For recording an assignment, agreement, power of attorney, or other paper of three hundred words or under, one dollar; of over three hundred and under one thousand words, two dollars; of over one thousand words, three dollars. For copies of drawings, the reasonable cost of making them. (R. S., § 4934.)

Registration of a trade-mark (R. S., § 4937)..

Entry and registry of a print or label......

1327. To obtain a patent, he must further make appli