INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING .CHEMISTRY DUBLISHED
BY
THE
AMERICAN
CHEMICAL
SOCIETY
0
WALTER
‘
MURPHY,
EDITOR
EDITORIALS The Patent Report
THE
longawaited report of the National Patent Planning Commission has been sent to Congress by President Roosevelt and it is highly significant that the group has failed to find “any serious instances in wbich the patent system has interfered with the prasecution of the war”. Thus the contention of Thunnan Arnold is former coterie of workers in the Department of and h Justice that international cartels involving patent agreements have hampered the war program to a serious degree is refuted by such men as Charles F. Kettering, Chester C. Davis, Francis P. Gaies, Edward F. McGrady, and Owen D. Young. Few defenders of the American patent system (which the commiSaion termed “the best in the world”) go so far as to insist that no abuses exist and that changes and improvements are undesirable. It is hardly necessary to burn down or tear down a house in order to make structural improvements. Chairman Ketteriug and his co-workers on the commission have taken a very realistic and enlightened viewpoint in the recommendations suggested. To minimize ab- and make them readily dewtable, the commission suggests legislation compelling the recording in the United States Patent Office of:
Nl existing agreements to which one of the partiea is a U t k n of a foreign -try. all agreements regardleas of the citizediip of the parties which ioclude any restrictions as to price. quantity of production. gecgmphid area8 or fields of use, and all future agreements regardleas of resixidiom or UtiEenship of the parties. Three or four other suggestions are noteworthy. The report calls attention to one serious weaknthe Patent Officelacks the power to withdraw or cancel a patent inadvertently granted. It also recommends that any person be given the right to challenge the validity of a patent witbh six months after it has been granted. It is suggested that patenta be held to a life of twenty years based on the date of application for the patent, and the commission approves a single conrt of patent appeals. The Kettering group has performed a signal semce in calling attention to the present chaotic condition which has arisen as a result of a lack of a uniform teat or standard for determining wbat really is a patentable idea and proposes that Congreea lay down a reasonable, understandable test by legislation. Perhaps it is unlikely that the commi8sion’sproposals will meet with unanimous approval even among those who staunchly support the American patent system,
but it is very definitely a constructive step forward. Intelligent leadership and vigorous initiative will provide a satisfactory solution. Let those who understand and appreciate the benefits of the American patent system unite now to modernize it properly.
Let’s Look a t the Record “THE Congress hereb
r e m p i z y that the full development and application of Natlon 8 scient& and teohniesl remucm ar: neoeasary for tbe &ective prosecution of the war and for p c e b m e pand prosperity, and that serious impediments thereto cowlst mThe unassembled and uncoordinated state of information concerning existing 8cientilic and technical mources: the lack of an adequate appraisal. and the unplanned and unprovident training, development. and use of ?cientEc and ,bhnical pwsonnel. resources. and facilities in relabon to the nabonal need: the cons e q p t delay and inetT4veneas m meeting the urgent scientific an technical problems of the national defense and ewntial civilian needa ..(. (From Senate Bill 702 not yet even favorab1 reportea on by the subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Lilltary Maim.)
de
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Anyone fortunately able to learn at 6rst hand of the enormous feats of production achieved in many varied fields sees a totally different picture than the one given in the Declaration of Policy of S. 702. V i t a recently made to widely diverse chemical production centers provide a ready and complete antidote for any peasimism concerning America’s industrial front. Flaws, if indeed they exist in chemical production, can only be detected by those who look down on accomplishment from the dizzy heights of uncontrolled expctations of the wholly impossible. A realistic aummary of the goals achieved reveals that we have not only performed industrially as requested, but that in many instances we have surpassed by a wide margin the production requested. Most exciting and i n s p i i are plants grown huge almost overnight, busy turning out synthetic rubber, aviation gasoline, toluene, aluminum, magnesium, and hundreds of other strategic and critical materials. For the record of the future let us SUmmariEe briefly but a few of these acoomplishmenta. The Japanese felt they were dealing us a mortal blow when they cut us off from 8ources of supply of quinine and MtUral rubber. wbat does the record show? To proteet our men and women assigned to tropical posts we d lp r e dum 2,500,000,000 antimalarial tablets in 1943, yet in 1939 production was leas than 5,000,000 tablets. In the place of natural rubber American chemists and chemical engineers were assigned the intricate problem of providing some 800,000 long tons of syntbetics an-
