This was a very interesting story. I suggest that you write it as formal
paper and submit it World Patent Information.
Andy Berks
Merck & Co.
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael White [mailto:mwihkiete@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, October 04, 2002 1:26 AM
To: piug-l@derwent.co.uk
Subject: Alien Property Custodian Patents II
I appreciate all the responses to my brief note on the
history of APC patents during WWII. I'm glad other
PIUGers share my interest. I will post the citation to
the article when it's published later this year (or
early in 2003). In the meantime, I'd like to hear from
anyone who finds additional info.
Here are a few more examples of patents assigned to
the APC during WWI (which my summary didn't cover) and
WWII: 1,417,922; 1,417,923; 1403221; and 2,430,008.
Althought the legal questions surrounding the seizure
of enemy patents are fascinating, my principal
interest in researching the topic was the APC's
information dissemination program. We know a lot about
the cryptologists who broke the German and Japanese
codes, the scientists working for the Manhattan
Project and the German rocket program, etc., but very
little about technical information specialists like
librarians, indexers and abstracters who applied their
talents and expertise to the war effort.
Ironically, while the information dissemination
program was a success, the licensing policy was a bit
of a flop. The licensing fee was reduced from $50 to
$15 in order to stimulate interest. And in August
1943, almost ten months after the information
dissemination program began, Custodian Crowley
declared that he was mystified by the small number of
license applications. During the war, the APC issued
licenses for only 12% of its patents and applications.
Perhaps the information dissemination program was too
effective. Maybe people realized after reviewing the
applications that the disclosed technology just wasn't
that useful. At the end of the war the APC could point
to only a handful of licensed patents, e.g. a drug to
treat malaria, an automatic loading device for
anti-aircraft artillery, that had useful application.
Ironically, the APC's Division of Copyright
Administration probably had more impact on the war
effort and post-war American scientific research. It
published and sold thousands of issues of foreign
scientific journals and technical reference works. I'm
sure there are many copies of Beilstein in university
libraries that were purchased from the APC at a deep
discount. (See "The Emancipation of Mathematical
Research Publishing in the United States from German
Dominance (1878-1945) Historia Mathematica", May 1997,
vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 135-166(32) Siegmund-Schultze R.)
That there wasn't much serious opposition to the
confiscation policy didn't surprise me. I guess it's
tough defending the rights of German patent owners
when U-Boats are sinking American ships off Cape Cod
and the Jersey shore.
Mike White
Arlington, Virginia
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