rse of invention. Furthermore, a presumption of novelty
attaches to the claimed matter; no such presumption attaches to the
unclaimed. The law requires every patent for improvement to show so much
of the old as is necessary to explain the uses of the improvement. In
practice much more than that is disclosed. Questions as to the proper
placing of patents and cross-references would be diminished by the
strict enforcement of Rule 36 of the Rules of Practice requiring that
the description and the drawings, as well as the claims, be confined to
the specific improvement and such parts as necessarily cooeperate with
it. In any event both the claimed disclosure and that which is unclaimed
must be taken care of, one by cross-reference, and the disclosure
selected for cross-reference is that to which no presumption of novelty
attaches.

This practice of placing patents by the claimed disclosure is sometimes
misunderstood. Its chief application is in determining classification in
case of disclosures involving a plurality of main classes. Furthermore,
the mere letter of the rule is not to be applied in preference to its
spirit. Subcombinations claimed may be placed with the combinations, and
in subordinate type subclasses patents must be placed sometimes by
claimed and sometimes by not-claimed disclosures.

_Diagnosis of pending applications._--What has been said relates to
patents. The bearing of the practice of adopting the claimed disclosure
as the basis of assignment of applications for examination has also to
be considered.

Two pending applications claiming the same means very commonly differ
in the kind and extent of disclosure. One application may disclose
several inventions. Which of the several disclosures shall be selected
as the mark by which to place the application? For instance, the typical
wire-nail machine has a wire-feeding mechanism, a shearing mechanism, an
upsetting (forging) mechanism, side-serrating mechanism, and pointing
mechanism; it may also have a counting mechanism, a packaging mechanism,
an electric motor on its frame for furnishing power; and, in addition,
numerous power-transmitting and other machine parts, such as bearings,
oil-cups, safety appliances, etc. The applicant may have made a complete
new organization of nail-machine and may seek a patent for the total
combination. He may have invented a new shearing mechanism and have
chosen to show it thus elaborately in the place of use he had in min