Evening star., 1943-06-18
u. 5. Patents Injured
By Foreign Contracts,
Commission Finds
Law Is Urged to Force
Firms to Record All
international CurteIs

and even illegal agreements" have
operated adversely on the American
patent system, the National Patent
Planning Commission today advo-
Gated legislation to provide for the
recording in the United States
Patent Once of all international
cartel arrangements involving pat
ents.
The commissions recommends
ton was embodied in a report sent
to Congress by President Roose-
velt, which seemingly took issue
however, with the repeated conten-
ton of the Antitrust Division oi
the Justice Department that Amer
ican production of vital war ma
terials had been hampered by
cartels to which American and for
eign industry were a party.
Specific inquiries addressed par.
ticularly to the War and Navy De.
partments failed to develop any
serious instances in which the pat.
ent system has interfered with the
posecution of the present war" the
report said. The antitrust division
has charged that the production Of
magnesium. optical glass and othel
equally important materials wa:
stified in this country by cartel ar.
rangements with the vast I. G.. Far.
benindustrie of Germany and some
of the other potent foreign indus.
trial setups.
Kettering Heads Group.
The commission headed by Charles
F.. Kettering, president of the Gen
eral Motors Research Corp, was
created by Mr. Roosevelt in Decem.
Der, 194l. to study the operations
and needs of the American patent
system.
One of the principal recommends
tions Of the report is to put 20-year
limit on a patent monopoly. AT
present, the term of a patent is II
years from the date of its grant, but
the commission would have the 90
year period run from the date OF
filing in the Patent Office. Under
the present system, it was explained
an application may be kept pending
indefinitely in the Patent Once and
for that reason the holder gets more
than II years protection before 1t
passes into the public domain.
The commission refused, however
to recommend legislation providing
for compulsory licensing of patents
generally explaining that it had beer
decided that this would not be ad.
Hantageous. Compulsory licensing IL
in effect in most foreign countries
and requires the holders of patents
which have not been commercially
developed to make them available tc
others.
The commission said, however
that wherever the withholding from
the market of a patent would be in
furious to national defense, public
health or public safety. compulsory
licensing should be possible.
System Is Praised.
The report declared that the
patenting system. now $50 years old
had accomplished all that the
founders of the Government in
tended in the way of promoting
science and the useful arts. and
that the American system is the
best in the world 1t has stimulated
invention, the report said; con-
tributed to the improvement of
public health and public safety. and
operated to protect the individual
and small business firms during the
formative period of a new enter
prise
Despite these benefits to the gen.
eral public, the commission said
1T is nevertheless true that pat
ents may be and have been abused
The abuse arises not from the patent
itself, but by virtue of secret, i'm
proper and even illegal agreements
The exposure OF agreements dealing
with patents should minimize these
abuses and, in any event, make them
readily detachable The commission
accordingly feels that there should
be compulsory requirement for the
recording of agreements so they will
be available to the public. to the
governmental agencies and to con-
gressional committees. The legis-
lation recommended would require
registration of the cartel arrange
ments as follows:
All existing agreements to which
one OF the parties is a citizen OF
a foreign country: all existing
agreements regardless of the cit.
izenship of the parties. which in
clude any restrictions as to price
quantity Of production, geograph-
ical areas or fields of use; all future
agreements regardless of restric-
tions or citizenship of the parties
Associated with DR.. Kettering on
the committee were Chester C
Davis, food administrator: Francis
P. Gaines, president of Washing
ton and Lee University; Edward F.
McGrady, assistant to the Under
secretary of War, and Owen D.
Young, chairman of the board OF
the General Electric Co.