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skilled professional employees. Even in the best equipped and arranged divisions it has been necessary to assign two examiners to each cubicle measuring 7 x 13feet, or a net space allocation of only 47 square feet per examiner. A good mental picture of just what this means may be formed by envisioning a man, his desk and chair perched on the top of a standard sized ping-pong table.

The average patent examiner must work in cramped and cluttered quarters which are suggestive of the habitat of the legendary garret inventor. Yet the patent examiner of today is an important link in the ever-expanding, vast complex of scientific research and development projects and the operations of applying new knowledge and techniques to our industrial system. It is he who undergirds the system conceived by the framers of the Constitution to provide for patents as a prime incentive to promote the useful arts and sciences. With the Nations's technological and industrial leadership being openly challenged by a major world power, the incentives for progress inherent in the Patent system must be fully exploited. It naturally follows that the professional persons who perform the examining job must have adequate accommodations and working facilities if they are to remain with the Patent Office and be expected to pursue vigorously the programs for insuring timely processing of patent applications.

From time to time I have occasion to talk to visiting lawyers, other professional people, and Government officials from foreign nations. When I mention some of the conditions in the Patent Office (well known throughout Government and in the American Bar) these visitors are amazed and appaled. Their typical reaction goes somewhat like this: "Surely the nation that leads the world industrially and emphasizes technological progress so much would have the most modern patent facilities in the world. I have not observed such conditions in any of your other Government agencies which I have visited."

The existing accommodations problem is not confined to overcrowding of available space. There are problems resulting from the characteristics of the space that rival the scarcity situation in terms of inadequacy of working environment. The Commerce Building lacks both controlled winter ventilation and central air conditioning. Added to overcrowded space is a motly collection of electric vall and floor fans which add to the background noise level, cause employees endless annoyance in keeping papers from blowing about, and, almost incidentally, produce some movement of the sultry air which characterizes Washington summers.

In addition to the summer heat, humidity, and locally generated noise, there is a sustained volume of traffic noise produced on the heavily travelled streets which encompass the building. The limited defense against street noise available via closed windows in winter cannot be used in summer. Only in scattered areas of heavy concentration of mechanical office equipment is there any appreciable sound conditioning of ceilings or walls. Although much improvement in lighting is evident, about half of the Patent Office employees still work in areas artificially lighted according to the standards of 1930 in a building so designed as to be heavily dependent upon artificial illumination.

The characteristics of the space now in use cannot be fully appreciated without directing some attention to the broad environment in which it is located. In addition to the factor of traffic noise mentioned earlier, the matter of reasonably convenient access by employees and others warrants consideration of importance. In spite of other advantages which may exist, the Patent Office location in the heart of the congested area of Washington cannot be regarded as convenient to a large majority of its employees.

Access is less a matter of distance than it is a problem of traffic density. There is no need to belabor the well known deficiencies in the public transportation systems in the area or the lack of arterial streets, bridges, etc., for accommodating traffic flow. However, it is quite obvious that a person who must expend two, three, or more hours each day, with the attendant tensions and frustrations, getting to and from his employment is dissipating energy that might otherwise serve to increase his effectiveness on the job. In order to ameliorate to a degree the problem of transportation, a limited number of Patent Office employees have organized carpools. Extension of this relieving measure is effectively blocked by the unavailability of reasonably priced parking facilities in the vicinity. As I pointed out in an interim report, about 75 parking spaces are being provided for the Patent Office which has over 2,400 employees. Each of about a third of the parking spaces is restricted to use by the same automobile rather than permitting alternate use of automobiles by drivers in a pool arrangement. For the other two-thirds, each space accommodates an average of four employees by carpool and alternate driving arrangements. In all, only about 10 percent of Patent Office employees are accommodated by parking facilities.

Much attention has been devoted in recent years to the inadequacy of Federal salaries. This has resulted in some leasening of the disparity between private and public compensation. However, much too little attention apparently has been given to the working environment in the Federal service. This factor has not escaped the attention of realistic private employers. It is well known that working conditions traditionally have been coupled with compensation in trade union philosophy and certainly the human needs of professional employees in the Federal service are quite as real as those of skilled craftsmen.

The Patent Office role in the scientific and technological development of the country is primarily one of human endeavor. It calls for persons whose application of intellectual effort in the most effective manner demands a suitable working environment. Unless this demand is met, the Patent Office can not expect to attract, retain for career service, and fully utilize the amount and type of professional skills on which it must depend. Long overdue is the removal of both the operational and the psychological disadvantages of inadequate accommodations for the professional skills for which there is strong competition with other employers.

The fact must be faced that the patent system and Patent Office operations will continue to grow with advancing science and technology. The Patent Office also must look forward to a much broader role in stimulating the technological development so vital to sustaining our way of life in the challenging years ahead. The solutions to many vital technical problems in industry and in research and development fields will need expediting by vastly improved general access to the rich storehouse of scientific and technical knowledge contained in the working tools of the Patent Office.

To be near a state of adequacy in today's operations, the Patent Office would need to occupy suitably characterized space equivalent to about threefourths of the Commerce Building. Since it is not possible to accept a premise that the scientific and technological development of our country has reached its "plateau", it is not possible to ignore the realism of further growth in Patent Office operations. Hence, it is not difficult to anticipate that the necessary growth within the next decade may find the Patent Office requiring at least as much suitably characterized space as is contained in the entire Commerce Building

a little over one million square feet.

Projections into the future extend

these requirements well beyond the limits of the Commerce Building.

This Management Survey group would not presume to express detailed specifications concerning the space and facilities needed. This is a specialized task for architectural and engineering personnel. However, it is possible to set forth some basic factors which are so pertinent to the solution as to constitute a general framework around which detailed plans and specifications may be developed.

The amount of space provided for each employee should meet the prevailing current standards of private industry for broadly comparable types of work. The space should also meet generally accepted standards as to illumination, allseason air conditioning, and adjacent parking facilities. Beyond those conventional elements are requirements generated by the specialized nature of the owrk of the Patent Office. Prominent among these is the need for an auditorium as well as Smaller assembly accommodations, and several conference rooms to accommodate training classes and other meetings which serve to help maintain the adequacy and consistency of patent examining practice among the numerous examining divisions; the need for a testing and demonstration laboratory that would permit the running of routine tests where they would expedite the resolving of question of patentability; the need to expand the area available to the public for making patent literature searches; and the providing of expansion of the scientific library.

It would be indeed shortsighted to ignore the probability that in the near future the Patent Office will make extensive use of electronic devices to aid the examiner in his searching endeavor and probably to supply on demand reproductions of patent copies. Anticipation of these developments should have a strong influence in planning adequate space and facilities.

The quest for solution to this pivotal problem of inadequate space and facilities seems to suggest two approaches. One approach would lead to unrestricted occupancy of the Commerce Building, about half of which is now occupied by the Patent Office and about three-fourths of which is presently needed. The other inevitably leads to the construction of a building designed to meet the present Patent Office needs and to provide for expansion in the future.

That the Patent Office should be brought and kept together in one location is axiomatic. There also appears to be a preponderance of reason in favor of maintaining its offices and facilities in the greater metropolitan area of Washington, D. C. Both of these perhaps basic criteria can be met under either approach by introducing the availability of such a site as exists in the Langley area of Fairfax County, Virginia. Near the newly completed CIA building is Federal land, commonly referred to as the "Commerce Campus", to which it is understood that access by circumferential highway will be possible in the near future. Other sites near the perimeter of the Washington area probably would present equal advantages for fulfillment of Patent Office needs in an optimum manner.

Unrestricted occupancy of the Commerce Building would appear to offer, at best, a limited solution. In-building needs could be achieved only by wholesale remodeling, with many structural obstacles to be overcome. Particularly is this believed to be so for the installation and broad usage of advanced electronic communication and information retrieval systems and devices to which the Patent Office must inevitably turn in its work. Structural limitations also

appear to preclude eventual expansion of facilities to meet the growing demands of the future. Realistically, any appreciable relief of present out-of-building inadequacies, such as employee and public parking facilities, cannot be readily visualized. The approach to occupancy of the Commerce Building carries with it, of course, the necessity for other units of the Commerce Department to be relocated elsewhere.

At this point, we must recognize that, according to the General Services Administration, the availability of existing space throughout the Washington area is far short of that needed to supply the needs of Federal agencies today. Hence, the problem of relocating into existing space which can be acquired by lease appears to have only piece-meal and partial solution. The situation strongly supports additional construction of Federal buildings, however.

The other approach leading to the construction of a new building for the Patent Office would open up about half of the Commerce Building for other occupancy. There are presently housed, in scattered locations throughout the area, units of the Department of Commerce, which, taken together, are occupying space approximately equivalent to the amount which the Patent Office occupies in the Commerce Building. These could be brought together in the Commerce Building to relieve the total Federal space problem by nearly one-half million square feet.

All factors considered, it is my conclusion that only the construction of a new building designed for Patent Office use would offer the permanency of solution needed for its heretofore chronic inadequacy of space and facilities. Such a building should provide for a reasonable amount of future growth, and be so designed and located as to permit enlargement to accommodate further growth. In treatment of this problem, it is of more than passing significance that most of the leading European countries (Russia, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, England, etc.) have found it necessary to provide modern buildings architecturally suited to the unique requirements of a patent office. The United States leader of scientific and technological advancements to do no less.

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The urgency of getting started now is underlined by the fact that occupancy of a new building is perhaps four or five years away under the best circumstances of progress on authorization, planning, and construction. In the interia, and all opportunities for temporary relief, either within the Commerce Building or st nearby locations, will need to be fully exploited. The actuality of necessary authorization for undertaking the construction of a new building, and the evidence of its progress toward reality, would serve in the interim period as a powerful asset to the Patent Office for laying the groundwork of other lasting improvements in operation, so heavily dependent upon adequate space and facilities.

Sincerely,

Earl W. Kintner

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