The Washington herald., 1922-07-06
Square Deal for Germans
Is Patent Policy, Says Miller
Custodian Denies Charges That Demand for
Return of Rights Sold to Chemical Foun-
dation is Unfair to Americans.

Filament Lamp Company. Of Eng
land. After later agreements be-
tween the English and American
Westinghouse companies and Led
erer and Westinghouse, 1t appears,
the American Westinghouse Com
pany agreed to take over the pat
ent. the assignment thereof being
made in May. 1916. and documents
relating to this assignment placed
In the overseas mail These docu-
ments did not show up in America,
due to war conditions. until after
the armistice had been signed. to be
recorded in the Patent ONCE.
While these documents were In
transit, the record shows. Palmer
disregarded the assignment to the
American Westinghouse Company
and seized them as belonging to
Lederer. Then Garvan, as success
sor to Palmer. transferred them to
the Chemical Foundation.
Insists Seizure Legal.
Miller's answer to the bill of COM
plant filed by the American West
inghouse Company contained the
statement that this concern had not
stated any facts which would en-
title 1t to an accounting from his
office or an injunction against the
Chemical Foundation. He also inti-
mated that he did not intend to go
back of the acts of his predecessors
and insisted that the seizure of the
patent as belonging to Lederer was
perfectly legal. He demanded that
the bill of complaint be dismissed.
Before the court could act on
Miller's motion to dismiss or the
American Westinghouse concerns
petition for an injunction and ac-
counting. the last-named concern
and the Chemical Foundation settled
their differences out of court. Gar
vans concern decided to recognize
the claim of the Westinghouse con-
cern and reassigned to them the
patent in question. The court rec
ords show that this was done. The
bill of complaint was accordingly
dismissed.
included in Bill of Sale.
Included in the bill of sale for the
patent in question were patents re-
lating to paint to protect metals
from rusting; the manufacture Of
fibrous material to be used as a sub
stitute for leather and other pur-
poses: process for the manufacture
of organic acids, especially acetic
acid: production of Preventative
preparations; highly refractory ar
ticle of tantalum and its alloys: art
of preparing organic compounds
containing arsenic; glycosid and
process of making same; mercury
preparation for therapeutic purposes
and process of producing same ::
methods of improving the permea-
bility to air of dry-plastering NOR
tar and blue Tetrakisazo dyes. All
are included in sale for the sum of
S250,O00.
Second Attack.
The second concern to attack the
Chemical Foundation in court was
the Nitrum .Aktiengesellschaft of
Zurich, Switzerland. manufacturers
of nitrates and nitric acid, which
claims FIVE letters patent. which
Garvan sold to his concern. No
price is mentioned in the bill of
complaint. The work of such in
ventors as Rudolf Muller Won Ber-
neck, Martin Moest, Hugo Graf and
Fritz Rothe is involved as well as
that of Werner Siebert. The patents
relate both to the manufacture of
pure nitric acid and the utilization
of nitrogen from the air. The Swiss
concern claims that both the seizure
by Palmer and the sale by Garvan
to his company were Illegal