The Classification of Patents Part 4

17. Reworking. | 56. Roll adjustments-- 18. Concave and roll. | 57. Relief devices.

19. Platen and roll. | 58. Rolls-- 20. Platen rolling-- | .. ...

21. Disk platens. | 60. Processes-- 22. Axial rolling-- | .. ...

23. Pattern rolls. | 66. f.l.a.n.g.ed bars.

In this schedule the miscellaneous subcla.s.s is numbered 1, then follow three subcla.s.ses (2-4) of rolling plus another function, then four major subcla.s.ses (5-16) of rolling, merely, but applied to blanks of special form producing special products, then one special subcla.s.s (17) based upon a special cla.s.s of material treated, then five subcla.s.ses (18-31) specialized in type and mode of operation, then general types of rolling mills (32-40), then various parts and accessories (41-59), then processes (60-66). This is the usual arrangement and is an exhaustive division for the art of metal rolling. Had there been miscellaneous subcla.s.ses for all combined operations of rolling plus some other function, a miscellaneous subcla.s.s for all mere rolling machines, either special or general, and a miscellaneous subcla.s.s for all parts and accessories, the requirements of exhaustive division would have been also satisfied.

In the ill.u.s.trative schedule, there being no miscellaneous subcla.s.s for means having combined functions of rolling and another, any patent having claims for the combination of a means for rolling and a means for cooling would fall in subcla.s.s 1, Miscellaneous. In that subcla.s.s would also fall all "Mills," such as for rolling spiral conveyer-flights, the same not falling under any of the subcla.s.ses 32-40, no miscellaneous subcla.s.s of "Mills" and no special article-rolling subcla.s.s having been provided; also all parts or accessories, such as a water-cooled screen, peculiarly adapted to rolling-mills, there being no existing subcla.s.s of screens therein and no miscellaneous subcla.s.s of parts. The arrangement of subcla.s.ses in Cla.s.s 80 requires that the combination of a furnace and a rolling-mill shall be placed in subcla.s.s 2, even if the combination be designed and adapted for rolling annular bodies (subcla.s.s 5) or tubes (subcla.s.s 11). Means special to rolling a tube between a concave and roll must be placed in subcla.s.s 13 rather than in subcla.s.s 18. A work-reversing mill must be placed in subcla.s.s 33 rather than in subcla.s.s 34 even though it have three or more coacting rolls.

The rolling of "Screw-threads" having been given higher rank than a "Concave and roll" mechanism, any concave and roll mechanism limited for use in rolling screw-threads should be formed into a subcla.s.s indented under "Screw-threads" and not into a subcla.s.s "Screw-threads"

indented under "Concave and roll."

(10) Cla.s.s schedules are arranged with certain subcla.s.ses appropriately indented according to a commonly understood expedient. In a properly indented schedule subcla.s.ses in column at the extreme left are the main species (the proximate species) of the cla.s.s. The t.i.tles and definitions of all subcla.s.ses proximate to the cla.s.s (at extreme left) must be read with the t.i.tle and definition of the cla.s.s, as if indented under the cla.s.s t.i.tle one s.p.a.ce to the right; so also with the t.i.tles and definitions of subcla.s.ses indented under other subcla.s.ses. If a t.i.tle has no number (as in Cla.s.s 80, "Mills"), it represents merely a subject-matter to be divided, a.s.sumed to have no representatives other than those in the species indented under it. If a t.i.tle having indented species under it has a number, it not only represents a subject to be divided but also a subcla.s.s including all other species not falling within the indented t.i.tles. Indention does not indicate superiority or inferiority, but merely that the t.i.tle and the definition of the indented subcla.s.s must be read with the t.i.tle and definition of the subcla.s.s under which it is indented. A t.i.tle selected in a scheme of subdivision to be of first importance and placed, therefore, in advance, should not thereafter be indented under a t.i.tle selected to be of secondary importance and, therefore, having a lower position. (See Rule 8.)

(11) A group of material may be divided on several different bases.

"Use" or "purpose" or "object treated" may be adopted only when the "use" or "purpose" or "object treated" stamps upon the invention such peculiarities of operation or construction as to limit the applicability of the invention to the use or purpose named. (See Basis of Cla.s.sification, Rule 1.) A group based upon mode of operation also may be divided into subcla.s.ses (1) with a "functional" t.i.tle, usually participial in form, and adapted therefore to receive machines, processes, and tools; (2) with special use, purpose, or object-treated t.i.tle containing the name of the use, purpose, or object; (3) with "type" t.i.tle, usually a name or a name with a qualifying adjective; (4) with a t.i.tle of a part or subcombination, also a name.

Example: In Cla.s.s 90, Gear-Cutting, Milling, and Planing, are to be found subcla.s.ses ent.i.tled "Gear-cutting," certain machines being peculiar to that use; also other subcla.s.ses with the general functional t.i.tle "Planing," subordinate to which are the special use subcla.s.s "Planing, Soft metal,"

and the type subcla.s.s "Planers" divided into two coordinate subcla.s.ses, "Reciprocating bed" and "Reciprocating cutter,"

and several subordinate "part" subcla.s.ses, including "Tool-feeds" and "Tool-heads." The adjective form of the t.i.tle "Planers, Reciprocating bed," indicates a type subcla.s.s. If the t.i.tle had been Planers, Reciprocating beds, the indication would be that the subcla.s.s was a part subcla.s.s to receive planer beds only. In the cla.s.s referred to for ill.u.s.tration, "Tool-feeds" and "Tool-heads" indicate subcla.s.ses for parts and not for types of planers having tool feeds.

(12) In arranging the divisions of a cla.s.s, such arrangement should be sought as will minimize the need of cross-references. Search for any particular matter can not always be limited to one group without such extensive cross-referencing as would in some cases defeat the purpose of cla.s.sification. Forming the subdivisions of a cla.s.s according to the total similarities of the inventions, rather than according to some selected more or less important characteristic, and arranging them in the correct order of superiority and inferiority, with care to maintain throughout the schedule the relative positional values of the several selected bases of division, will ordinarily in a closely bonded cla.s.s limit the search for any single invention to the subcla.s.s particularly suited to receive it and some subcla.s.ses preceding that one, excluding from the necessity of search the subcla.s.ses succeeding.

Example: In Cla.s.s 80, Metal-Rolling, it would not be expected to find any tube-rolling mill lower in the schedule than the tube-rolling subcla.s.ses, but a tube-mill might be found higher up in "Heating and rolling," "Drawing and rolling," etc. No concave and roll combination should be found succeeding the subcla.s.s of "Concave and roll," but it may be found under subcla.s.ses above, such as "Tubes, Screw-threads," etc. No rolls should be found lower than the subcla.s.s of "Rolls," but they may be found in many subcla.s.ses above.

DEFINITION.

(13) Having some knowledge of the nature of the materials about to be cla.s.sified, a tentative definition of a cla.s.s to be formed may be framed, which may be either written down or merely carried in mind, to serve as a tentative guide. This tentative definition must be considered as subject to change to any extent by the fuller knowledge obtained by careful consideration of the material. After a full knowledge of the materials to be cla.s.sified has been acquired, it will be necessary to frame a careful definition of the cla.s.s, and also of each subcla.s.s whose t.i.tle does not unequivocally indicate what is contained in it.

(14) A definition of any cla.s.s should state the "qualities and circ.u.mstances possessed by all the objects that are intended to be included in the cla.s.s and not possessed completely by any other objects." A proper definition should not ordinarily contain the name of the thing defined. "Definitions in a circle" are, of course, worthless.

A definition should be exactly equivalent to the species defined and should not be expressed in obscure or ambiguous language, but should employ terms already defined or perfectly understood. It should not be in negative form where it can be affirmative. If the cla.s.s of objects has a peculiar property, the naming of that may serve as a definition.

If no peculiar property can be detected, the definition should name more than one quality or property. Several different cla.s.ses may have one or more properties alike, but as the number is increased the likelihood of there being others having the same properties is decreased. The briefest possible statement of such properties or qualities as are possessed by all the objects of a cla.s.s and not completely possessed by any other objects, which will suffice to distinguish the cla.s.s from other cla.s.ses and determine its position in the general cla.s.sification, will be most satisfactory. To define any species, the genus having been defined, the genus should be named and the difference added. Of course, no generic definition should contain any limitation not characteristic of every species of the defined genus. In seeking qualities by which to describe a genus or species, no accident should be selected.

Example: Suppose there be marked out and defined as a genus all means whereby one form of energy is transformed into another form of energy and no more, and the genus be named energy-transformers. We may then name, as species, energy-transformers that are motors and energy-transformers that are not motors. Motors may be defined by merely naming the genus energy-transformers, and stating the difference, to wit, continuously transforming energy into cyclical mechanical motion. Then the definition will be: Energy-transformers that are adapted to continuously transform energy into cyclical mechanical motion. The non-motor division will retain the genus definition.

It would not be illuminating for a searcher having little familiarity with the textile arts to look under the t.i.tle "Carding" and find that carding is defined as a means for carding fiber.

Even though the first steam-engine invented had been used to run a gristmill, the accident of its use as a part of a gristmill would hardly warrant the definition of a steam-engine as a means to grind corn. Nor would a hammer be properly defined as an instrument to drive nails or to crack nuts or to forge horseshoes, even though a patent should not mention any use other than one of these and should lay heavy emphasis on the special value of the hammer as a nut cracker, nail driver, etc.

(15) In those cases where the t.i.tle is so obvious that definition is superfluous, explanatory notes may be subst.i.tuted and will usually be found helpful.

CROSS-REFERENCES AND SEARCH-NOTES.

(16) Inasmuch as nearly every patent discloses unclaimed matter that is cla.s.sifiable separately from the claimed matter, it is clearly impossible to cross-reference every disclosure of every means in every patent. Many things must be taken as conventional, obvious, or well known, and the good judgment of the cla.s.sifier is bound to be exercised in cross-referencing matter disclosed but not claimed to be the invention of the patentee.

(17) A mere part or element should rarely be cross-referenced from an element cla.s.s to a superior combination cla.s.s. An element forming part of a combination in a superior cla.s.s should, if claimed, be cross-referenced to the element cla.s.s and also if not claimed if it seems to be not merely a conventional form, and patents having claims for more than one differently cla.s.sifiable invention should always be cross-referenced unless such an arrangement of subcla.s.ses with search-notes is subst.i.tuted as will guide the searcher to all places where the material may be found. Claimed matter additional to that which controls the cla.s.sification, if belonging in the same cla.s.s, should be cross-referenced into a _succeeding_ subcla.s.s. Cross-references of unclaimed disclosure may be in either direction.

(18) To supplement or take the place of cross-referencing, more or less elaborate search-notes are needed, giving directions and suggestions for further search, setting out the relationship between cla.s.ses and subcla.s.ses, and drawing distinctions by example. Search-notes should indicate other cla.s.ses or subcla.s.ses in which the subject-matter of the group to which the search-notes are appended is likely to form a part of a more intensive combination, also a.n.a.logous matter that might serve as a reference for a broad claim. They need not, in general, indicate where parts or elements of the subject-matter which are common also to other cla.s.ses can be found, because the index of cla.s.ses contains the necessary information. For example, it is not necessary in every machine-cla.s.s to indicate by search-notes where machine-elements and static parts may be found, nor in a cla.s.s of wooden boxes to point out where the nails, screws, hinges, or locks that may form a part of the box are cla.s.sified.

DIAGNOSIS TO DETERMINE CLa.s.sIFICATION.

(19) Inasmuch as nearly every patent contains disclosure that is claimed and also disclosure that is not claimed, it has been deemed advisable to establish the general rule that where the claimed and unclaimed disclosures are cla.s.sified in different cla.s.ses or subcla.s.ses the invention both disclosed and claimed shall determine the placing of a patent (or a pending application) rather than any selected invention that may be disclosed but not claimed. "Not claimed" covers means that may form an element only of a claim as well as means not referred to in any claim. (See exceptions in Rules 21 to 22 inclusive.)

Example: A patent discloses and claims a dash-pot but ill.u.s.trates it in such relation to a metal-planing machine as to utilize it for checking the movement of the bed at one end of its path, or in connection with an electric generator to aid in effecting the brush adjustment; the patent should be cla.s.sified in the subcla.s.s of Dash-pots.

If the cla.s.sifier finds the disclosed organization of dash-pots and planer or dash-pot and generator more than a conventional ill.u.s.tration of an obvious use, he should note a cross-reference to Planers or Electricity, Generation. A patent discloses an internal-combustion engine a.s.sociated with a specific form of carbureter; the claims relate to the engine parts only; the cla.s.s of Internal-Combustion Engines should receive the patent, and a cross-reference should be placed in Carbureters. A patent discloses and specifically claims the combination of a rail-joint comprising ab.u.t.ting rails, fishplates, and specific bolts; the patent goes to an appropriate cla.s.s of rail-joints, and if the bolt is more than a mere obvious conventional bolt, a cross-reference should be noted for the appropriate subcla.s.s of Bolts.

(20) The totality of the claimed invention should be selected when possible to determine the appropriate cla.s.s in which to place a patent.

The entire expression of the invention will usually be set forth in the most relatively intensive claim.[1] In a properly drawn patent there is at least one claim that will serve as a mark to indicate the cla.s.sification of that patent.

(21) Where a patent discloses but does not claim a combination of proper scope to be cla.s.sified in a combination subcla.s.s and claims merely a detail cla.s.sified in a subcla.s.s lower in the schedule, both in the same cla.s.s, if the subcla.s.ses are so related that the combination always involves the detail so that a search for the detail must necessarily be made in the combination subcla.s.s, the patent may be placed in the combination subcla.s.s. This avoids the need of a cross reference into the combination subcla.s.s, and a lack of a copy in the detail subcla.s.s is immaterial, as it is seen in the completion of the search through the combination subcla.s.s. (See Rule 19.)

Example: A patent for a saw-making machine discloses dressing, jointing, and gaging mechanisms; it claims dressing and jointing only. There is a subcla.s.s for dressing, jointing, and gaging, and a subcla.s.s for dressing and jointing. In this case the patent may be placed in the first-mentioned subcla.s.s, as that must be searched always when the second-mentioned one is searched, cross referencing in this situation being of little value.

(22) Where a subcla.s.s with a generic t.i.tle has indented thereunder a species type-subcla.s.s bearing the t.i.tle of the generic subcla.s.s qualified by a difference, any patent which claims an invention falling within the genus subcla.s.s and discloses the qualification of the species type-subcla.s.s should be cla.s.sified in the latter whether or not the entire disclosure is claimed. (See Rule 19.)

Example:

Cla.s.s 29.--METAL WORKING.

Machine chucks and tool sockets-- Cam closing-- 126. Scroll-- 127. Bevel pinion or ring.

If a patent claimed only the scroll of a scroll-chuck, but disclosed it in connection with a bevel pinion and ring, it should be cla.s.sified in subcla.s.s 127, Bevel pinion and ring, and not in subcla.s.s 126, Scroll, although if there were no disclosure of the bevel pinion and ring it would go in subcla.s.s 126. Any search for scrolls must be prosecuted through all subcla.s.ses that include "Scroll" in the t.i.tle.

(23) Where, as in the case of patents that show and claim a combination that as matter of common knowledge is not new except in one of its elements, to cla.s.sify a patent strictly in accordance with rule would result in placing the patent where it would serve no useful purpose as a reference and having to cross-reference it to a cla.s.s where it would serve a useful purpose, it is best to cla.s.sify the patent in the cla.s.s to which the element would take it. (See Rule 19.)

Example: A patent claiming a wheeled vehicle, broadly, in combination with an internal-combustion engine comprising a cylinder, a crank-case, a piston and suitably-connected crank, a valve opening into the crank-case, and a valve in the piston opening into the cylinder, may be advantageously cla.s.sified as an internal-combustion engine notwithstanding the alleged invention is for a motor vehicle.

(24) In order to meet the situation respecting the cla.s.sification of those patents that indiscriminately claim an article of manufacture defined only by the material of which it is made and those patents that claim those materials, leaving to the specification information regarding the designed uses, patents for articles defined only by their ingredients specifically set forth may be placed in the composition of matter or material cla.s.s. (See Rule 19.)

Example: A patent having a claim for a cutter made of an alloy of iron, tungsten, and manganese would be cla.s.sified with Alloys; a patent claiming a box made of paper composed of two layers united by a solution of asphaltum should go to the cla.s.s of Laminated Fabric and a.n.a.logous Manufactures, rather than to paper boxes; and a patent for a house having its exterior coated with equal quant.i.ties by volume of carbonate of lead and oxid of barium suspended in a vehicle of linseed-oil would be cla.s.sified as a paint rather than as a house.

(25) An alleged process of utilizing a specifically-defined composition or material which consists in merely applying it to the use it was designed for may be cla.s.sified as a composition or material rather than as a process. (See Rule 19.)

Example: A process of painting the bottom of a marine vessel which consists in applying thereto a composition consisting of sulphate of copper, powdered metallic zinc, chlorid of antimony, and hyposulphite of soda, in a vehicle of linseed oil, would be more usefully cla.s.sified as an antifouling paint than as a ship, as the invention would hardly be distinguishable from a paint claimed as such and described for use on submarine surfaces.

(26) An alleged process consisting merely in the use of a particularly-defined machine or similar instrument operating according to its law of action will ordinarily be cla.s.sified in the cla.s.s or subcla.s.s where the machine belongs. But if in addition to defining the operation of a particular machine the claim also specifies acts not performed by the machine, the cla.s.sification should be in the cla.s.s or subcla.s.s in which the process belongs. (See Rule 19.)

Example: Thus a claim for a method of rolling an iron plate which consists in pa.s.sing an iron blank between a pair of rolls arranged horizontally in juxtaposition one above the other and geared together so as to rotate in opposite directions, and causing an idle roll supported in bearings on the roll-housings to bear against the central portion of the surface of one of the first pair of rolls on the upper side thereof, should be cla.s.sified as a rolling-mill, while if to that claim were added the steps of doubling the sheet after one pa.s.sage between the rolls, again pa.s.sing between the rolls, again doubling, and then pa.s.sing the now four-ply pack between the rolls sidewise or turned 90 per cent to the direction in which it had previously been fed, the cla.s.sification should be with processes of sheet-metal manufacture.

(27) In the absence of settled rules defining permissible joinder of inventions, there may be in one patent claims for one or more or all of the cla.s.ses of invention named in the statute, to wit, machine, art, manufacture, and composition of matter. There may also be claims to several more or less related inventions in the same statutory cla.s.s of invention but each belonging to a different industrial art. (1) Where different main cla.s.ses are involved, the patent will be cla.s.sified by the most intensive invention, without regard to the statutory cla.s.s to which it belongs. (2) Where different subcla.s.ses of the same cla.s.s are involved, the patent will be cla.s.sified in that one of the several subcla.s.ses defined to receive the several inventions which stands highest in the schedule of subcla.s.ses.

(28) Where a patent contains claims for all or a plurality less than all of the statutory cla.s.ses, the general rule of preference or superiority of the several cla.s.ses of subcla.s.ses is that represented by the following order, to wit: (1) Machine (or other operative instrument); (2) Art; (3) Manufacture; (4) Composition of matter. This order is, in a general way, the order of intensiveness of the several kinds of invention. (See Rules 29-35.)

Example: An automatic screw-machine, peculiarly adapted to carry out a process of making a novel form of machine-screw out of a new iron alloy, and having a claim to the machine, to the process, to the screw, and to the alloy, would be a.s.signed to Metal-Working, Combined machines, and, if all claims were allowed, cross-referenced to Bolt and rivet-making processes, to Bolts, and to Alloys. If the claim to any one or two of the subjects were eliminated, the order of preference or superiority and the order of cross-referencing would remain the same.

(29) Patents containing a plurality of claims for several different statutory kinds of invention that are cla.s.sifiable in different main cla.s.ses, and wherein the rule of relative intensiveness varies from the order Machine, Art, Manufacture, and Composition of matter, may be diagnosed and cla.s.sified as directed in the following paragraphs (30 to 35).