Agencies shred past by the ton

Federal agencies trying to expand and modernize face a dilemma about what to do with tons of historical documents acquired over two centuries.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has begun shredding about 35 million patent documents — some dating back to the agency’s creation on July 30, 1790 — as it moves toward full electronic processing.

Meanwhile, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Postal Museum is being criticized for its plans to sell or destroy millions of stamps once used to prove that taxes had been paid on whiskey, tobacco and playing cards.

“Every stamp collector recoils in horror at the suggestion of shredding or incinerating stamps. It gives you an awful feeling,” said Rob Haeseler, a senior editor at Linn’s Stamp News, a newspaper for collectors.

But Ted Wilson, registrar of the National Postal Museum, said, “We’ve been sitting on some of these stamps since 1954,” and it’s always been recognized that eventually some would have to be disposed of.

Rupert Brady Jr., a patent researcher in Chevy Chase, calls the shredding “extremely arrogant” and unnecessary. He charged that the Patent Office is “shredding the patent files, including lithographs, which date from the 1800s.”

But Brigid Quinn, spokeswoman for USPTO, countered: “Nothing valuable is being disposed of. There is nothing original. These are paper copies of copies of copies. Nothing is historical or archaeological, and we’ve been doing this for years.”

The patent office announced its latest removal efforts on March 9, saying it would involve “only the classified collections of U.S. paper utility and design patents from its Public Search Facilities” — specifically, the Trademark Search Library and the Patent Search Room. In this case, the term “classified” does not mean “top secret.” It means patents are categorized or cross-referenced, which helps expedite patent searches.

As for what happens to historical patents, Ms. Quinn said, “The original patent goes to the patent holder, and original copies are kept in our warehouse for 10 years. Then they go to the Federal Records Center, where they are kept for 40 years. They are then examined by the National Archives,” which decides if they should be preserved or destroyed.

Ms. Quinn said the National Archives signed off on the patent paperwork being shredded and pointed out that all patents are housed in a cave at Iron Mountain near Pittsburgh.

Any patent can be found online, she said, if a person knows the patent number or has other information, such as an inventor’s name, place of work, or the classification of a product.

John Petrakes, a former patent examiner who is now a patent researcher for businesses and law firms, said he was initially wary of the shift away from paper, but no more.

“Some had the opinion that the integrity of the files would not be as complete as it used to be, but actually it’s much better.”

With the computerized system, Mr. Petrakes said, “The complete patent files are available to anyone. You can access classes and subclasses, and the results are instantaneous.”

Meanwhile, the revenue stamps the Smithsonian is trying to dispose of are from the 1950s through 1970s and were given to the museum by the U.S. Treasury.

While taxes on tobacco, whiskey, playing cards and other products are still in place, the stamps are no longer used.

The 7.8 million revenue stamps are spread among 1,858 varieties with thousands of copies each, according to Mr. Wilson, the postal museum’s registrar.

“Some of these stamps are worth just pennies, but there are two stamps in the collection that are in the $10,000 [value] range,” he said.

While some enthusiasts feel all the stamps are sacred and none should be destroyed, the museum wants to restrict sales of the most valuable ones to protect the value of stamps in existing collections.

“We don’t want to devastate the market by flooding it” with stamps that are now rare, Mr. Wilson said.