Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1930 [PAGE 250]

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1929]

U N I V E R S I T Y O F ILLINOIS

247

of the Chemistry Department, who has developed a process for the plating of metallic surfaces with molybdenum, be permitted to take out a patent on his own account i he f wishes, since the process does not appear to be of sufficient public interest to warrant the University in acquiring a patent right. O n motion of M r . Fisher, this release w a s approved. PATENT ON BABBITT PROCESS (15) On recommendation of Professor W. C. Huntington, Head of the Department of Civil Engineering, concurred in by the same committee, I recommend that Professor H. E. Babbitt, Professor of Sanitary Engineering, who has developed a process for the treatment of sewage which he feels should be made available to the municipalities of the state without restriction, be authorized to apply for a patent to be transferred to the University, under our regulations. This process is a two-stage method whereby the sewage sludge and the liquid are treated separately. This method makes it possible to use smaller tanks and reduces certain troubles caused by foaming and grease accumulations. This process in no way conflicts with the recent patent secured by Dr. A. M . Buswell of the Chemistry Department as his process requires construction of two sludge digestion tanks, whereas this requires only one sludge digestion tank; nor does it infringe on the Imhoff patent because there is no continuous flow of sewage in the Babbitt process which treats sludge and not the sewage. O n m o t i o n of M r . Barr, Professor Babbitt w a s authorized to m a k e application for a patent, as r e c o m m e n d e d .

FOREIGN PATENT ON SEWAGE TREATMENT

(16) The following communication from Messrs. Brown, Jackson, Boettcher, & Dienner, patent attorneys, concerning the application of Professor A. M . Buswell and Mr. Sidney L. Neave for a patent on sewage treatment which they havefiledin accordance with the action of the Board of Trustees on February 13 (Minutes, pages 135-6): Chicago, Illinois, M a y 31, 1929 Board of Trustees, University of Illinois

Gentlemen:

W e are in receipt of notice from the Patent Office that the application of Arthur M . Buswell and Sidney L. Neave, Case 1, for patent on Sewage Treatment, was filed on M a y 9, 1929, and received Serial No. 361,570. According to the latest published report, the division in charge of this application m a y not reach it for about eight (8) months, although it often happens that the Examiner acts at an earlier date. In the most important foreign countries, publication or use of the invention will deprive you of the right to protection, except that within a year afterfilingthe above mentioned U. S. Application, an application on the same invention can befiledin such foreign countries with the same effect as iffiledat the same time as the U. S. Application. W e are advising you of this at present so that you m a y not unintentionally lose any of your rights, and so that you m a y consider carefully whether protection in foreign countries on this invention is likely to be worth while. If you are interested, let us know, and we will send you a reminder before the time limit expires for obtaining protection abroad. Otherwise w e shall assume you do not care to protect this invention outside the United States. Yours very truly, Brown, Jackson, Boettcher, & Dienner Professor White, Chairman of the Committee on Patents, reports that it was impossible to have a meeting of the Committee in time to make a recommendation on the matter because Professor Parr, of the Committee, and Professor Buswell were out of town. However, Dean Ketchum, another member of the Committee, expresses the following opinion, that it would be wise to obtain a CanadianThe in the United States above might be is interested principally inconcurs: the publiconly exception to the and University in which Professor United protecting "The this will be accomplished by a White States patent. patent. The Uni-