Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be appointed, in the manner provided in the second section of the act entitled "An Act to promote the progress of useful arts, and to repeal all acts and parts of acts heretofore made for that purpose," approved July fourth, eighteen hundred and thirty-six, two principal examiners, and two assistant examiners, in addition to the number of examiners now employed in the Patent Office; and that hereafter each of the principal examiners employed in the Patent Office shall receive an annual salary of twenty-five hundred dollars, and each of the assistant examiners an annual salary of fifteen hundred dollars: Provided, That the power to extend patents, now vested in the board composed of the Secretary of State, Commissioner of Patents, and Solicitor of the Treasury, by the eighteenth section of the act approved July fourth, eighteen hundred and thirty-six, respecting the Patent Office, shall hereafter be vested solely in the Commissioner of Patents; and when an application is made to him for the extension of a patent according to said eighteenth section, and sixty days' notice given thereof, he shall refer the case to the principal examiner having charge of the class of inventions to which said case belongs, who shall make a full report to said Commissioner of the said case, and particularly whether the invention or improvement secured in the patent was new and patentable when patented; and thereupon the said Commissioner shall grant or refuse the extension of said patent, upon the same principles and rules that have governed said board; but no patent shall be extended for a longer term than seven years.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That hereafter the Commissioner of Patents shall require a fee of one dollar for recording any assignment, grant or conveyance, of the whole or any part of the interest in letters patent, or power of attorney, or license to make or use the things patented, when such instrument shall exceed three hundred and shall not exceed one thousand words; and the sum of three dollars when it

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shall exceed one thousand words; which fees shall in all cases be paid in advance.

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That there shall be appointed in manner aforesaid two clerks, to be employed in copying and recording, and in other services in the Patent Office, who shall each be paid a salary of one thousand two hundred dollars per annum.

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That the Commissioner of Patents is hereby authorized to send by mail, free of postage, the annual reports of the Patent Office, in the same manner in which he is empowered to send letters and packages relating to the business of the Patent Office.

Approved, May 27, 1848.