| Administrative History Note: | The Patent and Trademark Office granted patents for the protection of inventions, registered trademarks, and advised the Department of Commerce and other agencies of the Government in matters involving patents and trademarks. The Patent and Trademark Office examined applications and granted patents on inventions when applicants were entitled to them. It published and disseminated patent information, recorded assignments of patents, maintained search files of U.S. and foreign patents, and maintained a search room for public use in examining issued patents and records. It also supplied copies of patents and official records to the public. Similar functions were performed relating to trademarks.
Granting of patents for inventions was made a function of the Federal Government by Article I, section 8, of the Constitution. The Patent Board, consisting of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, and the Attorney General, was established by the Patent Act of 1790 (1 Stat. 109), approved April 10, 1790. This was abolished by the Patent Act of 1793 (1 Stat. 318), February 21, 1793, which transferred responsibility for issuing patents to the Secretary of State. A Superintendant of Patents was appointed by the Secretary of State in 1802, and he and his staff, collectively called the Patent Office, functioned in the immediate office of the Secretary of State from 1802 to 1836. By the Patent Act of 1836 (5 Stat. 117), July 4, 1836, the Patent Office was established as a separate organization within the Department of State, with a Commissioner of Patents as its head. The Patent Office was transferred to the newly established Department of the Interior by an act of March 3, 1949 (9 Stat. 395), then to the Department of Commerce by Executive Order 4175, dated March 17, 1925, effective April 1, 1925. It was renamed the Patent and Trademark Office by the Patent Office Name Change Act (88 Stat. 1949), approved January 2, 1975.
Most original patent records were destroyed by fire, December 15, 1836. Reconstruction of the records was authorized by the Patent Act of 1837 (5 Stat. 191), March 3, 1837, which permitted inventors who had letters patent either to submit the originals, or certified copies of the originals, to the Patent Office; or, in the absence of documentation, to create a new patent document furnished under oath as conforming to original drawings and specifications. Arbitrary numbers suffixed with "X" were assigned by the Patent Office to the restored drawings and specifications.
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