2. Read the words from the text, make stress on the right syllable.

widely	century
may	gyrocompass
primary	lawyer
society	system
by	year

Text the u.S. Patent system

Patents are widely regarded as being a means of protecting inventors. A patent gives an inventor exclusive rights to something he has invented and thereby enables him to share in whatever rewards the invention may bring. That is certainly one of the functions of a patent, but it is only a secondary one. The primary function is social: the society that issues the patent gains access to the invention. If there were no patents, the inventor would benefit most if he could exploit his invention while keeping it secret.

By the 16th century several nations were issuing patents that granted exclusive privileges of manufacture and sale to citizens who had invented new devices or processes. The patent law of 1770 stipulated that patents would be granted for "any useful art, manufacture, engine, machine or device or any improvement thereon not before known or used". In the same year the first U.S. patent was issued to Samuel Hopkins of Philadelphia for "the making of Pot-ash by a new Apparatus and Process", Hopkins' patent was signed by President Washington.

The facts are that about 25 per cent of the U.S. patents issued annually go to individuals and that half of the patents issued to private industry go to small companies. Private industry receives about 70 per cent of the patents issued. In this century alone individual inventors and small companies have made such outstanding inventive contributions as the vacuum tube, xerography, DDT, metallic titanium, the zipper, automatic transmissions, the gyrocompass, frequency-modulation radio, the self-winding wristwatch, the helicopter, power steering, air conditioning and the Polaroid camera.

The period between the filing of an application and the issuance of a patent now averages two and a half years. In a substantial number of cases the period is considerably longer. A recent increase in fees has raised the cost of obtaining a patent. The filing fee averages $85; the fee to be paid when a patent is issued averages $ 140. These are only the Government fees; most applicants also pay for the services of patent lawyers.

Under present law pending applications for patents are kept secret until a patent is granted. A new bill proposes that a pending application be published 18 to 24 months after its effective filing date. The purpose of the change would be to speed the disclosure of new knowledge.

The term of an American patent now extends for a period of 17 years from the date of issuance.

Notes to the text:

1. inventor	винахідник
2. to exploit	використовувати
3. sovereign	повелитель
4. patent law	патентне право
5. Pot-ash	поташ (вуглекислий калій)
6. to issue	видавати
7. nonprofit institutions	неприбуткові організації
8. substantial number	значна кількість
9. private industry	приватне виробництво
10. vacuum tube	електронна лампа
11. gyrocompass	гірокомпас
12. requirement	вимога
13. purpose	мета