Imperial Valley press. (El Centro, Calif.) 1907-current, 1942-04-21
CAPITAL TALKS
BY
Peter
Edison

oI1 Iltdl Vi HUN IL bt u SAIlNtoS
was that every small boy in this
great country had the opportunity
to grow up like Thomas A. Edison.
invent an electric light or n talk
ing machine. take out a patent and
sit back to live off the royalties
for II %ears. retiring gracefully into
Immortality and the history books
after death And every genius or
crackpot with an inventive frame
OF mind was supposed to add a
little P.S. to his "Now-I-lay- mes
Founding Fathers who. in their
at night, giving thanks to the
infinite wisdom. provided right in
the Constitution that Congress be
given the power Ito promote the
Progress of Science and the Use
full Arts. by securing for limited
times to Inventors the ex
elusive Right to ther respective. =.
Discoveries" Amen.
But in these times of all-out,
100 per cent two-hemisphere global
war for survival. it seems that this
old stuff is all wrong. The patent
law is presented as a curse, for
certain wicked parties, particularly
corporations, have conspired to do
inventors out of their just rewards
and. far worse, to deprive the pub
lie of the benefits they might be
enjoying if those patents were held
as a monopoly. Still worse, many
of these patents are held under
hidden German control in such a
way that the American war pro-
duction effort is handicapped be-
cause the U. S. government cam
not now legally obtain munitions
manufactured under these patented
processes.
OUT OF OBSCURITY
That-in brief and oversimplified
| statements what's behind the
current series of disclosures being
unfolded before the Senate Com
mittee on Patents For years con-
greSsional patent committees have
gone their routine ways. neglected
and ignored. Today, this Senate
committee is revealing the most
sensational stories in Washington.
The little committee room
on the first floor of the SEN
ate Office Building is over
crowded to S.R.O. as one law
yer after another from the
Department of Justice unfoIds
almost unbelievable stories on
monopoly controls of patents
on processes for increasing the
production of machine tools,
magnesium, aluminium, zinc,
plastics, munitions-basic ma
terials which the United States
must have to win this war.
The purpose of all these dis
closures is to build up case for
revision of the patent law of the
land and permit the United States
to secure full and unrestricted
benefits from these monopolT- held |
patents. The assumption is that |
the country now has an oxcart pat
ent law for an airplane civiliza-
ton. Last revisions on the basic |
patent laws were in 1910 and 1918. |
REMEDYING THE WRONG
To remedy what's wrong. there |
is proposed a new bill introduced |
by Senators Joseph C. O'Mahoney |
of Cheyenne, Wyo, Robert M. La
Toilette, Jr, of Madison, Wis. and |
Senator Homer T. Bone of Tacoma, |
Wash. In its present form, what |
this proposed bill would do is
briefly this:
Suppose the govern ment
wanted TO use a patented, mo-
nOpoly held process for the
manufacture of magnesium.
The President would be an
thorized to declare the need
of this material, then issue
license To anyone to produce
magnesium by this patented
process on payment of design
ated royalties, for specified
times.
Patent owners would be permit
ted to bring suit for payment of
royalties, but not for injunction
preventing use of the patented pro
cess during the emergency. After
such declaration, no one would
be prevented from going into the
magnesium production business. In
the case of patents held in such
a way that alien ownership can
not be established. the government
still be able to take the patents
b. condemnation proceedings, max
ing fair compensation
All this is pretty drastic medi-
cine in the eyes of patent holders
and old-line patent attorneys. But
it is war measure. From some
quarters. however, there may be
heard charges that it is the first
step toward Specialization of the
patent laws, or the seizure of pri-
vate property or franchise for the
use of the state.
METALS
Bureau of Mines reports u. S.
production worth S6.6 bill
lions in 194l, 18 per cent above
1910 Quantity was greatest on rec
ord though value was below 1920,
when prices were at record highs.
fuels, coal and oil, ac-
counted for more than half, S36
billions. aluminium was at 600 mil
lion pounds, so per cent above 1910
but still less than a third of the
ultimate goal of 81 billion pounds.
Only two metals declined in pro-
gold and silver-the former
2-10 of | npr rent the later. din