Last week, Michael Engel asked a question about Alien
Property Custodian patents. About a year ago, I began
researching the history of APC patent documents and
have recently submitted an article to the journal
Science and Technology Libraries.
Here's a summary:
During the second world war, the U.S. government
seized tens of thousands of patents and patent
applications belonging to citizens of nations at war
with the U.S., namely Germany, Italy, Japan, Rumania,
Hungary and Bulgaria, and enemy-occupied countries
such as France, Belgium, Norway, etc. The agency
authorized with this task was the Office of the Alien
Property Custodian, commonly known as the "APC". From
1942 to 1944, the APC reported directly to President
Roosevelt under the direction of his friend and
political ally Leo T. Crowley. In mid-1944, James E.
Markham replaced Crowley and served until October 1946
when the APC was reorganized as a bureau of the
Department of Justice.
The APC had the power to seize or "vest" real
property, such as ships, factories, business
enterprises and personal property, and all forms of
intellectual property. Beginning in March 1942, the
APC issued vesting orders on approximately 46,000
patents, 4,800 patent applications, 800 inventions,
400 trademarks and 200,000 copyrights, making it the
largest holder of intellectual property in the U.S. at
that time. One of the more infamous assets seized was
the copyright to Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf".
In the summer and fall of 1942, the APC, with the help
of the U.S. Patent Office, identified and vested all
patents and patent applications owned by enemy
nationals and nationals of enemy-occupied countries.
Roosevelt and Crowley were eager to put the technology
disclosed in these documents to work for the U.S. war
effort. In December 1942, Crowley, with the approval
of Roosevelt, announced that all vested patents and
patent applications would be made available for
non-exclusive licensing to any U.S. company for a flat
fee of $50. The fee was later reduced to $15. The
technology disclosed in these patents ran the gamut
from towel dispensers to color television to synthetic
fuels.
Of course, not everyone was happy with this policy. In
May 1943, the governments of Belgium, Norway and the
Netherlands filed formal protests with the U.S. State
Department. And a few American legal scholars argued
that the policy undermined the institution of private
property and put overseas U.S. property rights at
risk. Understandably, these arguments were not
successful.
The APC promoted its licensing policy by launching a
major information dissemination program in cooperation
with other agencies. In the spring of 1943, the U.S.
Patent Office published classified lists of APC patent
applications in the Official Gazette. Copies of APC
applications were made available to the public at the
price of ten cents. APC staff from the Marketing and
Information Section distributed catalogs and abstracts
of patents at trade shows and scientific meetings.
Professional organizations eagerly volunteered their
expertise. In 1944, the American Chemical Society and
the Special Libraries Association compiled a 34-volume
set of abstracts of 8,000 vested chemical patents
which the APC published. The APC also distributed
copies of catalogs, indexes and abstracts to field
offices of the Small War Plants Corporation (the
predecessor of the Small Business Administration),
public libraries and chambers of commerce.
In addition, the APC established special "patent
libraries" in eight U.S. cities. Each library was
equipped with classification search tools, abstracts,
etc. and was staffed by "competent" librarians who
helped patrons conduct searches and prepare license
applications. Following the end of the war in
September 1945, the APC disbanded its patent libraries
and discarded or transfered their collections to local
public libraries. In at least three cities, portions
of APC library collections (but not published
applications) went to patent depository libraries
(PDLs).
Of the 4,800 applications seized by the APC, about
3,200 eventually issued as patents, many assigned to
the APC or the U.S. Attorney General. The only
complete set of APC published applications that I've
located is in the Patent Search Room of the USPTO in
Arlington, Virginia. It doesn't appear that APC
applications were placed in the regular classified
paper search files. Nor were they microfilmed or
scanned. Yet, APC applications continue to appear as
citations in patents. (See U.S. patent 6,403,230.) And
the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure provides
instructions for citing APC documents. (See MPEP,
Section 901.06(c).)
If you would like to know more about APC patent
documents, please contact me via e-mail.
Michael White
Arlington, Virginia
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