• LAW OFFICES OF 

FISOHER,WILLIS AND PANZER 

HENRY G" FISCHER 

JOHN W WILLIS 

IRVING R M PANZER 

Mr. Wilham F. Friedman 

424 N. George Mason Drive 

Arlington, V1rg1n1a 

Dear Mr Friedman 

REF ID:A70872 

• ADAMS 3400 

DUPONT CIRCLE BUILDING 

1\7.a.s:e:zNGToN a, D a 

May 3, 1950 

Enclosed herewith are copies of the correspondence that 

I promised to send to you. 

HGF el 

@'pp roved for Release by NSA on 08-30-2013 pursuantto E .0. 1352a 
CSJ.AGP 50/2221 

Kr. Henry o. 1:1.scher 

Fischer, Willis and Panzer 

Dupont Circle Building 

Washington 6, D. C. 

Dear Jlr. Fischer 1 

I 

REF ID:A70872 

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8 APRllll 

Your letter or 10 .llar'ch 19.SO to the Secreta17 of De.tense, together with :f.nclosures, relating to certain pendi~ United States patent 

applications on inventions made b,y Kr. William F. Friedman, Director 

of Comnunications Research, Detenee Security Agenc;r, and nmr ret&l.ned 

1n a secret status, has been referred to this office tor necesaar;r 

action and direct repl:r • 

.According to your letter the Government permitted Mr. Friedman, 

alone or together with his collaborators, to retain the commerci&l 

or foreign lights pertaining to these inventions. 

Your letter also states tba.t in view of the facts set forth 

1;here1n, including Mr. Friedman's present illness and ita effect upon 

his earning capacit;r, aoo your statement that the inventions 1n question 

probably 1lill not be released from secrec7 tor many years, the question 

has arisen wbether, in equity, an attempt is not warranted to have the 

Coq;ress paas legislation authorizing the Department o£ De.tense to 

purchase from Jfr,. Friedman such r.i.ghts as the Government permitted 'ru.m. 

to retain in these inventions. 

Pursuant to the request in your letter that a representative be 

designated to whom you would be authorised. to present this matter in 

.f'ull and who would have the author! ty to ascertain am inform 70\1 or 

the dieposi tion o.t the mtter by the Department o! Defense, you aTP 

in.f'omed that this office has been designated for this purpose • 

• 
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REF ID:A70872 

ihi• office ie mak1ni a p:el1minary investigation ot this atter .. presented in your latter, above mentioned, in order that it may be 

better inf'ormed u to the taot11 and oiroumatancea at the •tter alread1' 

ot record be.tore the desJ.red further and more complete pre1entation 

thereof h made to tbia office. lt 1• belined thia will be to the 

ldvan'bage ot all concerned and will expedite final disposition of the 

matter on behalf' of the Department ot De.tense. 1'bie ot.fica will 

:oot:l.fy you, probably within the next week or two, when prel.im1na.J7 

corud.deration of the matter ha11 been completed. 

__ .,... ......... _ 

lincerel.1" yours, 

JAUES R. MIIJB 

Ma,jor, JJ.00 

Cbie.t, Patents Divie1on 

c:• '"~ *SZPt 1\251 a a: a 4WW-PMWit£$2f 
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• REF ID:A70872 

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE 

Washington 

15 March 1950 

Dear Mr. Fischer, 

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Reference is made to your letter of March 10 to the Secretary of Defense 

relative to patents on inventions by Colonel Wilham F. Friedman, which you 

handed to me 

After looking it over, it appears that this is a matter for the Army to handle 

since Colonel Friedman was a member of that service and his inventions pertain to 

an agency which was under the Army at the tune in question 

Under the National Security Act, the military departments are "administered 

separately by their respective secretaries " I am, therefore, referring your letter 

with its enclosures to the Secretary of the Army for his consideration and with the 

request that you be advised as to the proper office to which you could present the 

matter in full. 

Yours very truly, 

LEVEN C. ALLEN 

MaJor General, USA 

Executive Secretary 
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FISCHER, WILLIS & PANZER 

Hon. Louis A Johnson 

Secretary of Defense 

Washington 251 D. C 

Dear Sir 

March 101 1950 

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This letter is written on behalf of Mr. Wilham F Friedman, 

Director of Communications Research, Defense Security Agency. He 

is ill and has received permission to retain us to pursue the matter 

about which this communication is concerned 

Mr Friedman is responsible individually and in collaboration 

with others for the invention and development of systems and devices 

in the field of military communications which have proved to be of the 

utmost importance to the defense of our country. For his efforts in 

this direction, he has received the Medal for Merit from President 

Truman, and also the Commendation for Exceptional Civilian Service 

from Henry L Stunson, Secretary of War. Copies of both are attached hereto. 

In connection with these inventions, patent applications have been 

filed, the government allowing Mr Friedman, alone with respect to some 

of the applications, and with collaborators with respect to others, to retain 

commercial and foreign rights. All of these patent applications have been 

placed in secrecy status, one of the inventions has been 1n secrecy now for 

over sixteen years and a second for over thirteen years. It is highly unlikely that any of the inventions will be released from secrecy, at least for 

a great many years to come 

It has already been indicated that Mr Friedman is now ill and in the 

largest measure, his illness 1s due to the unusually severe strain imposed 

upon him by the nature of his work. Indeed, it is probable that his earning 

capacity has been permanently and heavily impaired. In the light of these 

facts, the question has arisen whether, in equity, an~ attempt 1s not warranted 

to obtain from the Congress an act authorizing the Department of Defense to 

purchase from Mr. Friedman all the rights he has been allowed to retain in 

the inventions which have been placed 1n secrecy status by the government for 

a token payment that would help in easing the concern he might have about his 

hvehhood 1n the future, even though such a payment had little relation to the 

high value we understand such rights might have under different circumstances. 

There are precedents for such awards in the communications field, even in the 

absence of any property rights 1n the 1nvent1ons. 
TO Hon Louis A J.on REF ID :A70872 

March 10 1950 .Page Z of Z pages 

It has occurred to us that the ordinary procedure in pursuing 

a matter such as this may not be available in this case because of the 

dehcacy of the subject matter of the inventions involved In any case 

we believe it to be best to discuss the matter with a rep esentative of 

your office before proceeding further It is therefore the purpose of 

this letter to request that you designate a ep esentative to whom we 

would be authorized to present the matter in full and who in turn would 

have authority to ascertain and inform us of the disposition of the 

Department of Defense in that connection 

Because we have no way of knowing whether the Department 

wishes to treat this request in a manner not routine we are debvering 

this communication and attachments by hand to Major General Levene 

Allen in order that we will not be 1D the position of having embarrassed 

you decision on that score 

Very truly yours 

Hen y G Fischer